What is an author on Tes?
A resource author on Tes is someone who shares or sells their teaching materials with an audience of millions of educators worldwide.
What do I need to know before I start sharing my resources?
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Resources can be shared by anyone who is 18 years of age or older and has an account registered on Tes.
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Please ensure that you own or have permission to use everything that appears in your resource. You can read more about copyright here.
How do I upload my resources?
It’s easy to become an author on Tes, all you have to do is upload your resources in five simple steps using our uploader tool.
To give a brief overview of the uploader before you use it, below you’ll find six points which explain the steps:
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Firstly, you’ll need to give your resource a title and description
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Secondly, you’ll need to upload your file/s and select what type of resource it is
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Next, you’ll get the opportunity to tag and categorise your resources to ensure they appear when your potential customers are adding filters to their search results
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Then it’s time to choose whether you want to sell your resource, and if so choose the price to sell it for
Or if you’d like to share your resource for free, the license under which you will share it -
Finally, you’ll get the chance to preview your resource, verifying that you have read and agree to the Tes Author Code as well as to the general and additional terms
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Once you’ve published your resource, it will be live on the site within the next three working days
Our walking you through the uploader blog goes into much more detail about using the resource uploader and gives extra guidance if you really want to optimise all the tools provided.
Now I’ve uploaded my resources, what are the next steps?
Once you’ve uploaded your resources, your author dashboard will look a little different. This is your go-to hub to track your resource performance and is effectively your author homepage. If you’d like to get to grips with how to use your author dashboard, our blog post here walks you through it, however please note - the video walkthrough was accurate as of December 2018. A few small adjustments have been made to the author dashboard since this time.
You’ll also see your resources displayed in your Tes author shop. This is essentially your author profile and is where all your resources will be showcased in one place to users. There are a few things you can do to amend the way your resources and your shop front are presented to users, from adding your own branding, to choosing three resources to feature at the top of your shop. You can read about setting up your Tes shop here.
There are some further steps to ensure you’re fully equipped to be a resource author. Each month we send out communications to our authors with relevant guidance that we think will help support you with your resource sharing. If you haven’t already, opt in to ‘Tes updates’ in your preference centre here to make sure you receive these. We also have an author Facebook community group which you can join here, where you can network with other Tes authors!
How can I get my Tes resources found?
Once you’ve got to grips with using the resource uploader, you may also want to familiarise yourself with our guidance on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) which will help you get your teaching materials found by users in external search engines, like Google. To quickly summarise the key points in this blog, ensure that you:
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Keep your titles short and concise
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Add as much information as you can in your description
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Use the first two sentences of your resource description as your resource-selling point, this is what will be displayed on the search results
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Include your keywords in your title, description and your file names
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Include relevant definitions
If you’re seeking some real-life guidance on how to thrive as a resource author, our author stories section of the author academy includes over 100 blogs with tips and guidance from various resource authors who’ve found success sharing their teaching materials on our platform.
Why should I become an author?
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You can share your expertise and teaching ideas to support millions of educators worldwide
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You’ll help make teachers’ lives easier
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You can get feedback on your teaching materials from the wider teaching community
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You can network with fellow teachers in our author Facebook group
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You’ll have the opportunity to make some money
Common author FAQs
Can I sell a resource that I currently share for free?
No. If you wish to do this, you’ll need to delete and re-upload the resource.
What are the key things to remember before sharing resources on Tes?
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Resources should be downloadable directly from the Tes website and should not direct users to an external hosting site
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You can include website URLs for third-party sites within uploaded resource files if the link does not require a login, is directly relevant to the context of the resource and does not promote commercial/personal gain, except when a requirement of any licensed content, such as a Creative Commons licensed image
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Please give your resource a meaningful title and description (including, where necessary, details such as learning objective and how to use the resource), in addition to accurately choosing the relevant categories
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Please do not split your resources into multiple documents and upload them as individual resources if they do not make sense in isolation
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Make sure that the content you upload is appropriate for the intended target audience and learning objectives
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Resources should not include images or videos of individuals under the age of 18 years taken with personal cameras, videoing equipment or mobile phones
How do I track my sales and downloads?
The best place to keep track of your sales and downloads is within the Sales section of your Author Dashboard. A breakdown for each sale is displayed if you click on any of the sales entries and an approximate Net Earnings figure is also shown on the right-hand side beneath your Tes royalties balance.
Why is it important to know about Copyright and Licensing?
It’s important to get to grips with the rules around copyright to make sure your resources are staying on the right side of the law. Go to our Copyright section of the author academy here. Disregarding these rules could lead to you having restrictions on sharing your content on Tes.
Find our full list of author FAQs here.
Once you’re up and running, our author academy covers a wide range of topics as well as our become an author page, which also highlights lots more relevant guidance if you’re looking for a place to start. Our Customer Services team are also always happy to answer queries on authors@tes.com.
Find our Tes Author Code here.