It takes lots of hours and creative
effort to produce these things and the second you give them up for nothing in exchange, you lose just about
every bit of advantage that you had over your “competitors”
as a professional English teacher.
You might instead drop by with some of your best materials
to any of the ESL publishers with offices in Madrid and have
a little chat about being either a writer or editor for them.
You never know, you might get lucky.
The publishing industry here in Madrid is just like any other:
a meat-market paying “competitive” rates. “Competitive” around
here means lower than average (especially for you the tourist-teacher
or “immigrant”) and don’t expect publishers to be any different.
That’s just the way it is. Back home in England, publishers
like CUP (Cambridge University Press) and Richmond might be
a pretty formal bunch, but my general impression is that they
just go with the mainstream work-ethic and culture here, which
isn’t quite so formal and probably a bit more opportunistic.
Company
Requires English Teachers
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In any case, though it’s not without problems, I think working
for a publisher is probably better economically-speaking than
working for 95% of academies in the short and mid-term, but
I think you can do a lot better in the long-term if you’re
already working for yourself as a freelance like I am. However,
if you’re ambitious and you’re after some sort of big-league
professional advancement (i.e. University professor, big-shot
author, etc.), working for a publisher would be the thing
to do.
So, how to get in? I think the best way people have of getting
their foot in the door is through good-old-fashioned networking.
The only editors I know tell me that’s how they got in (i.e.
via acquaintances), but you could be different. However, I
think there’s probably a very good reason why knowing someone
might be so important in order to get your foot in the door:
“trust.”
Because, in my experience, they’ll push that “trust” for
all it’s worth. For example, in order to consider you as a
candidate for “editor” or “writer,” they might ask you to
hand in a complete sample unit. (Now, go off and work on it
for a couple of weeks or a month and take it back and hand
it over just like that – for free.) That’s a bit too much
for folks like me. But if you can stomach it, go for it! You
might just get lucky.
Or, for example, you might get your foot in the door, but
without a firm commitment. In my case, I was in a sort of
endless process of “negotiations” or whatever with one publisher
to be one of three or four editors on an ESL web-page they
are currently working on for a foreign government. At first,
I had an offer for 40 hours per week. Then, after a month
or two, the offer fell to 30 hours or so, which, given my
current circumstances as a freelance, was a much better offer
as it would have complemented my other work better, I thought.
(The head editor found an editor from a competing publisher
for me to share the load with.) Finally, in my last meeting
a month or so later the offer fell to 22 hours per week. (The
head editor’s ex-boss went freelance and asked for a few hours
on the project.)
Now, I actually started work on the project and edited half
of the first unit and the head editor said it was excellent
editing work, but given the nature of the fluctuating and
deteriorating “phantom-offer” (i.e. there, but not really
there – and deteriorating every time somebody “better” – for
him - showed up), I insisted on getting some sort of contract
or agreement in writing committing to a certain number of
hours and pay, etc. before I would continue. I’m still waiting
a month later.
Now, perhaps in your case you would have shut up and stayed
on the job. This company is a good multi-national and I probably
would have been able to maneuver my way into better work conditions
and pay in future projects, etc. However, in this case the
editor offered me less (I recall somewhere around 2,000 for
40 hours work per week) than what I’m earning now without
a firm commitment as to a certain number of hours and, given
his behavioral history regarding his standing “network” (i.e.
his old pals), I just couldn’t start cancelling any of my
current clients. It really is a question of “trust.” (And
the more work that you put into getting a major client, the
more trust that you need.)
On the other hand, I’m sure I can’t get rich like just a
very few of these big-time EFL authors are doing. I recall
one author at a TEFL convention in Madrid just letting it
drop that his last text-book had sold 15 million copies just
in its first test-run in China. I wonder what his royalties
were.
However, I got the distinct impression that the man really
knew what he was talking about in his session. He was both
knowledgeable and persuasive as many of the lead-authors on
these text-book series are: a real show-man. That’s what you
have to be if you want do this kind of work. And, judging
from my own short-lived experience as an editor for just one
publisher, I think you also have to dedicate a fair-share
of your time to networking and schmoozing (not necessarily
in that order).
In my own case, I like creating, consider myself a writer
and I have a few strong points, but I don’t think I'm anywhere
as strong all-around as some of the hotshots in EFL writing.
(i.e. Doctorate, DELTA, years of experience writing course-book
materials, super-self-confident public speakers, etc. etc.)
Also, I don't think I’d want to be a course-book writer for
a publisher because if the team work I experienced in my publisher
is the type of "team-work" that I'd have to put
up with (remember: I was already having big problems getting
the agreement even though I said it just about every way I
could), I can see that I'd have had a lot more problems in
the future.
And, by the way, I've been running my own show for some time and I
have developed my own ideas on team work, which don't include
my not noticing or reacting to what my team workers say, important
or not.
Also, I just wouldn’t want to be on a commission-basis with
any of these guys. No offense intended, but what’s to stop
them from losing a zero when they declare what they’ve sold
in order to pay you. (i.e. they sold 1,000 books instead of
10,000) Frankly, I’d rather either get the money up front
working as an editor, etc. or control the whole distribution
chain by producing, marketing and selling the book myself
– as is possible nowadays through the internet. Even if it
means I end up really selling just the 1,000 books.
In the end, what I really want to say is to not sell yourself
cheap. Your price will depend on just how much you want and
need the job, but in my experience desperation won't get you
as high a salary as competence. (Competence in all things
including your ability to negotiate a good one.)
The reason I always call English teaching in Madrid a meat
market is because we're all lined up like so many slabs of
meat and shoppers just walk through and take their pick depending
on what they want, which might not coincide with what you
want. It might not include your being the best or the freshest
either, because you might be too expensive for them. (There
are fish markets here, for example, that sell really cheap
fish. You'll notice, however, that they often come minus the
heads and fins as that's how you'd be able to tell that it's
all just about to start really stinking.) That's just the
way of it in teaching and it looks to me like it's just the
way it is in editing and writing for publishers here. It's
not always either rational or pretty, but none of us have
much choice in the matter.
By the way, don't stop producing your materials.
You might just get together with some other old pros like
me at some point in the future for a materials swap and double
your stuff in one go. You might already be using "Neville's"
old materials, for example, as I've seen from at least two
agencies. (They're legendary. His Sherlock Holmes information
gap readings are simply excellent.) There are teachers out here who make all of their own stuff up themselves and couldn't care less about publishers. They don't need them one bit and maybe you won't either.
