A publishing dictionary defines “crashing” as putting pedal to the metal when it comes to a book manuscript. “Crashed” books are published on an accelerated schedule to meet reader demand and adjust to dynamic market conditions.

In March, the world flipped from physical to virtual to combat the first wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Almost overnight, K to 12 education shifted its setting from homerooms to rooms in homes. And while distance learning wasn’t new, families and teachers both needed to learn fast about making the digital grade.

Editors at Corwin, a SAGE publishing company and leading provider of professional learning books and products, determined to move fast, too. In just weeks, Corwin Press published The Distance Learning Playbook, a project that usually would have taken 18 months. Even more quickly, The Distance Learning Playbook became a K to 12 educational industry bestseller and has generated a series of books and resources for parents, university educators and school leaders.

“Those authors have so much experience. Without Doug, Nancy and John, this project would not have been possible,” says Lisa Luedeke, publisher and director at Corwin Press. “I really don’t know any other authors that could write a book of that quality in two weeks and hand it to their editor.”
As for Nancy Frey, co-author, with Doug Fisher and John Hattie, of The Distance Learning Playbook, the credit goes to experience and collaboration.
“We had a good platform to work from, not only in terms of our previous collective writing experiences together, but also because we were working from the research that John Hattie has done. And that became our foundation,” Frey tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“In addition, we were also lucky enough to collaborate with 74 educators from all over the world as they talked to us, they shared their practices with us, they answered the e-mails, they hopped on calls with us to let us know, in real time, what their experiences were. So that became another great motivator, because we wanted to be able to serve not only these people that we’re working so closely with but also just being able to give back to a profession that has meant so much collectively to the three of us,” she explains.