Are you an established and reputable publisher looking to acquire a series of GMAT titles for your publishing portfolio? Then perhaps Standard Testing Company may be your ideal choice. Read on.
Author's Expertise
STC's GMAT books are authored by Cezary Swieton, a University of Waterloo Mathematics graduate who has scored a 98th percentile and has over 2,000 hours of GMAT teaching experience, virtually unparalleled by any author of a commercial GMAT publication. Over the past 2 years, he has taught hundreds of clients, all of whom have studied off the existing GMAT publications currently on the market. Cezary's unique expertise has allowed him to design a series of GMAT books which address the most frequent complaints from GMAT aspirants.Market Demand
Besides Veritas and ManhattanGMAT, whose distribution channels are mainly limited to direct-to-order and local clients, the vast majority of GMAT preparation books currently distributed in book stores are written by authors who have never written the GMAT, or if they have, who haven't scored well, quite evident by their failure to advertise their GMAT score. Some publishers employ authors who have never written the GMAT, but who have an advanced graduate degree, or who have an MBA. Most GMAT aspirants are intelligent enough to realize that an advanced graduate degree or an MBA has no correlation to GMAT ability and teaching ability. In fact, a lot of University professors are frequently fantastic researchers, but very poor teachers. Furthermore, a lot of these books originated many years ago and have been revised by multiple authors, leading to inconsistency throughout the book. As a result of this, the general reputation of these books is substandard, and many GMAT aspirants avoid these books after easily finding negative reviews of such books online.
One notable example of the desire for high quality, challenging and in-depth books is the recent acquisition of one of the market leaders in GMAT preparation literature by the largest standardized test book publisher. The publisher in question was not able to compete with the reputation of the market leader and had to resort to acquisition in order to save it's market share.
There is tremendous market demand for a series of GMAT books written by someone who has actually scored high, and that in detail dissect each possible area the GMAT can test. Furthermore, these books should be written in a plain and simple manner, so as to be easily comprehended by the reader. Too many GMAT books seem to resort to a fancy lexicon so as to make the author seem more intelligent than the reader, which is frustrating to GMAT aspirants.
Again, STC has addressed all of these factors from Day 1 and is confident that it's books will be among the highest quality, if not the highest, on the market.
Market Potential
GMAT publications are highly profitable and in constant demand. In 2009 over 310,000 individuals wrote the GMAT. Despite it's apparent market saturation, GMAT preparation is still a wide open market because cost is virtually no object for GMAT aspirants— GMAT aspirants frequently purchase multiple preparation books for their studies. In fact, it is not unusual for GMAT aspirants to study off of 3 or more books, and some aspirants literally purchase every book on the market. Hence STC can penetrate the market quite easily despite it being saturated. The average price costs approximately $40 per book; however many test writers purchase series of books which cost anywhere from $150 - $400+. STC aims to penetrate this market both from a quality and a cost-competitive point with it's series of 12 GMAT books.
Typesetting Advantage
STC's books are written in a highly customized version of LaTeX utilizing the XeTeX rendering engine, allowing for rapid typesetting modifications throughout each book from a single configuration file. Unlike other GMAT books written in Quark or Adobe InDesign/Distiller, which would require tens or hundreds of hours to make a uniform typesetting adjustment throughout the document, STC's typesetting design allows for simplicity and saves on your typesetting costs.
Proofreading Advantage
STC's books are constantly reviewed by several Mathematics graduates, who have each scored in the top percentiles of the GMAT. This expertise allows for minimal typographical and mathematical errors in STC's publications, which book purchasers frequently cite as among their major frustrations.
Math Heroes
A complaint frequently cited that GMAT aspirants is that the GMAT books are incredibly boring and unmotivating. STC has incorporated Math Heroes into it's publications, cartoon characters who point out various mistakes and preempt common mistakes made in questions. Many reviewers of STC's publications give rave reviews to the Math Heroes— that they help with information retention and provide entertainment.
Comprehension Focused
Too many books on the market teach "tricks" and generally the completely wrong way of approaching a GMAT question in a strictly timed setting where your mental endurance is utilized to it's capacity. STC emphasizes comprehension, not tricks. Furthermore, we emphasize general approaches to questions that emphasize comprehension (and thus obtaining the correct solution), while minimizing the probability of making a careless error and minimizing mental fatigue— critical factors on a standardized exam.
Question-Focused
STC's philosophy is to focus on questions— hence STC's series of books will feature several thousand questions, carefully crafted by a GMAT expert, taking into consideration his unique experience of the common mistakes that GMAT aspirants make. Where as other books simply dedicate a half page to a certain topic and give perhaps 2 to 3 questions, STC describes the concept over several pages in unmatched depth, and provides dozens upon dozens of questions that test that specific concept. Cezary's expertise allows him to come up with ingenious and challenging questions quickly and efficiently, questions that other authors would not be capable of producing.
References to Official Questions
Each book categories each question type to relevant questions from Official Guides, published by GMAC, the official test writers, including both Official Guide 11th edition and 12th edition.
Grammatical Similarity
STC strives to mimic the grammatical syntax of official questions— a frequent complaint among book purchasers is that the wording in certain books is vastly different from the wording of the test writers, making interpreting such questions more difficult.
Relevant Difficulty
One of the most frequent complaints from GMAT aspirants is that the book in question has questions which have a difficulty level far below or far above the GMAT. It is important to accurately reproduce the difficulty of various question types, and STC always strives to produce questions which have a relevant difficulty level.
Quality
STC will release the books when they are complete, and is under no deadlines to finish it's publications— unlike commercial book authors who are contracted to work on tight deadlines, resulting in a haste that frequently litters such books with grammatical and mathematical errors. STC is absolutely confident in the quality of it's work.
Constant Revision
STC's books are currently in use with local clients, and are constantly revised depending on feedback from various clients, who are currently studying for the GMAT and will be the target demographic for such a release.
Customizability
STC's books are highly customizable. If need be, several books can be condensed into one, or an entire section into one book— although the level of depth covered in the books is unparalleled elsewhere, and shortening the books would decrease such depth which are a selling point of STC's publications.
Rave Reviews
As stated before, STC's books are currently in use by private clients, and the feedback received is fantastic— even relevant in comparison to the top 2 GMAT book publishers. Reviews frequently cite depth and relevant, subtly-difficult questions that represent GMAT questions and reinforce specific concepts that the GMAT tests. In the Verbal, reviews frequently cite clear and sensical explanations to solving various Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension questions. In the Sentence Correction guide, users flat out rate STC's SC book as the best SC book they have purchased— and virtually all have purchased the leading SC book on the market. In particular, they mention STC's highly visual way of abstracting SC questions— STC is able to do this due to it's utilization of the XeTeX rendering engine for it's publications.
Simple Portability to eBook Readers
In addition to the possibility of print publishing, STC's books can also easily be converted to a variety of eBook formats, allowing for distribution on eBook readers such as the Apple iPad.
Minimal use of Colour
STC's book mainly utilize black and white and average approximately 5% page cover. Colour is used in the cover pages and for subtle grays, and each book features a blend of predominant two colours. Converting to a Black and White format is possible, however STC would highly prefer to find a colour publisher— especially for it's SC book, which uses a multitude of colours in SC pattern recognition (and one of the reasons as to why it's rated so highly among reviewers).
Software Add-on
In addition to it's high quality publications, STC can also quickly and easily modify its current GMAT software platform to complement each book, providing additional immersion and a more challenging learning environment for GMAT aspirants. Although not desired by the majority of consumers, a software add-on can be leveraged as an additional selling point of STC's publications for virtually no cost. STC has highly skilled programmers at its disposal, including programmers who have worked at top software firms such as Microsoft, Google and various Silicon Valley/Alley startups. Furthermore, a majority are graduates of the Computer Science school at the University of Waterloo, and Bill Gates personally hires graduates from the University of Waterloo. With this expertise, STC is able to quickly and effortlessly produce quality software that will run on all relevant consumer operating systems, including Windows and MacOS X, along with the possibility of various smartphones. Furthermore, STC is able to leverage it's XeTeX platform to provide integration into such software.
Summary
STC is completely confident in the quality and unique flavour of it's STC books, and that they will be among the most highly rated GMAT preparation books. In fact, STC constantly receives requests from friends of clients requesting our publications— this is a testament as to the potential market demand.
Contact
If you would like to contact STC to discuss this opportunity and to see proofs, please call STC at 888 489 4628 or 519 729 4628, and ask for Cezary. He would be more than happy to discuss this opportunity with you and the potential of partnering with STC to achieve your GMAT book market entry.
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