How ELT Publishing Works

How ELT Publishing Works

How ELT Publishing Works is an ebook from the ELT Teacher 2 Writer series. This training course is a comprehensive introductory ebook for teachers and other ELT professionals who want to start a new career as an ELT writer.

This training course for ELT teachers starts with an introduction from the author, who is an experienced editor and has known many ELT writers. She can thus provide beginners in the field with sufficient and adequate information on how to write ELT materials. At the end of the introduction, a task is provided to challenge the reader’s knowledge of ELT writing and the process of producing it, then by reading the whole ebook you can get answers to each of the questions section by section.

The first section, “Making contact with a Publisher”, explains how publishing companies work and their policies on selecting writers. This part explains briefly for a naïve beginner how to start getting her/himself noticed by publishers. It brought up some valid points about getting connections with publishers and provides really practical suggestions to how to get started.

In the second section you will be familiarized with the writing project such as how to start it, how to write a template, revising the manuscript, writing to deadlines, and working with editors. As the author asserts, the most important thing in the process of writing is to keep in regular touch with your editor.

Section three consists of some thought-provoking questions about the first part of the ELT writing process – making sure you are ready to start writing. In section four you can find a comprehensive explanation on how to get paid for your writing work and different methods of payment. The most interesting thing here is two hyperlinks that lead you to other webpages, one in US and one in UK, from which you can get lots of good ideas regarding contracts and consulting professional lawyers to advise you in this regard. This section also focuses on fees and royalties and the blended model, and the advantages and disadvantages of each mode of payment.

Section five, “Pitfalls to Avoid When Writing”, provides you with some taboo topics in ELT course books. It emphasizes avoiding plagiarism and conditions of third-party payment. The sixth section “Next Step” ask you to question whether you want to be an ELT writer or not and the things that may help you in this process. A positive point is that you can get suggested answers via the link provided.

At the end there are “Glossary” and “Editorial Job Titles and Their Responsibilities”, from which I got useful information myself as a newcomer to this field. In general, the positive aspect of the ebook is that in each section the keywords are hyperlinked so that you can click and this sends you directly to the glossary. Then, you can click on BACK which leads you to the exact spot or page you were reading. Unfortunately, in this ebook at pages 14, 19, and 21 there were no “back” to click, so I was just lost on these three pages.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for everyone interested in launching into a career as an ELT writer. Good luck in your new career!