Top tips for getting an EFL book published

By Alex Case

1. Do not bother sending book proposals. The traditional “send a book proposal, wait for review, proposal accepted if you are lucky, negotiate and then start writing” process to work anymore. It is dead. If you send a book proposal in, you might be very lucky if there is a new member of staff looking for writers and it makes them think you can work on their latest book idea. More likely, it will sit under another pile of proposals until it turns into mulch. Publishers now work under 5 year plans with the titles of almost all books in those 5 years decided. The next step is they send those details to people they think might be able to write it, and then you send a proposal showing you can write precisely the book they want.
2. Specialize. If you only teach TOEIC and there is a TOEIC project coming up, you will fit together in naturally with no time wasted in the publishing office of whether you are the right person, and time is the essence. It also means that your details will go to the right person in the right department of the publishers. Don’t worry that being too limited might stop you writing more books, once you are proven to be a reliable, low maintainance writer who meets deadlines you will be allowed to drift outside your speciality. I have it on good information that one well known exam book author who went on to write an IELTS book had actually never taught IELTS!

Read the complete article is at http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/articles/elt-publishing/publishing-tips/

Alex Case has been a teacher, teacher trainer, Director of Studies, ELT writer and editor in Turkey, Thailand, Spain, Greece, Italy, Japan, UK and now Korea, and writes TEFLtastic blog (www.tefl.net/alexcase)

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