• ELT project managers
• ELT content editors/developers
• ELT copy-editors

If you’re a highly experienced and reliable freelancer looking to take on new projects later this year, then please contact nick@nickrobinsonELT.com, enclosing a CV and the email address of at least one referee from an ELT publisher.

We’re looking to work with the very best. In return, we’re offering the chance to work on well run, interesting projects in collaboration with one of the UK’s leading ELT design houses.

1. There’s nothing better than spending time with teachers.

In the last 12 months I’ve spoken to what might well be hundreds of teachers who are interested in professional materials development. Only 19 of them have made it into the agency, but there’s not a single Skype call, meeting or informal chat with a teacher which hasn’t been interesting, informative and inspiring (well, there might have been one or two …). I can’t think of better people to spend time with.

2. My authors are awesome.

I know, I’m paid to say that. But I’m constantly surprised at how creative, professional, and hard-working they are. Several have become good friends. One cooked me a fantastic meal. I couldn’t ask for better people to work with. A big thanks to all of you.

3. The publishers have been awesome too.

It’s not easy for a publisher to take a chance on a new author; in fact, it’s very difficult indeed. But there are lots of good people out there working for the big publishers, and several of them didn’t hesitate to take that chance. I can’t say any names, for obvious reasons, but you know who you are, and I’m very grateful for your support.

4. Now is a great time to be involved in professional materials development.

Just look at all the new, exciting things that have come about in the last few years: The Round, ELT Teacher 2 Writer, English360, the IATEFL Materials Writing SIG (which I’m delighted to be Joint Coordinator of, along with Byron Russell), and (coming soon) Small Epic. Any one of these ventures in isolation would be a big deal; together, they feel like something of a movement. It’s an honour to be part of that.

5. I’m absolutely convinced this agency can succeed.

If I’m honest, this whole venture was a bit of a gamble. When there’s a gap in the market for something, it’s often for two reasons: someone tried it and failed, or the idea is essentially flawed. Very occasionally, it’s because no one had thought to do it. I may be speaking too soon, but I think in this case it’s the latter. I’ll let you know in a year’s time.

London

Highly competitive salary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a hard-working, dynamic, online ELT professional to play an essential content role for an ambitious start-up with major publisher backing. This is a rare chance to become part of a fast-growing strategic venture from the early stages and to help deliver real impact.

Our client is developing an innovative, global, online ELT product and is looking for a Head of Learning to drive forward content development.

You will:

• have in-house experience of developing and project-managing digital ELT product for a major publisher or educational technology company.
• have experience of working at Commissioning Editor, Senior Commissioning Editor, Publisher, Managing Editor (or any equivalent) level.
• be used to managing other editors and freelancers.
• be able to learn fast and demonstrate a can-do attitude.

Experience of Agile Product Development and/or working in a start-up environment would be highly advantageous.

The position is offered as a permanent contract, based in London; however, applications from qualified freelancers interested in a long-term commitment will also be considered.

In the first instance, please send a CV along with salary expectations to nick@nickrobinsonELT.com. Informal enquiries are also welcome via the same email address. All enquiries will be dealt with in strictest confidence.

Closing date 8th February 2013.

Do you have innovative, creative ideas for teaching young learners?

One of China’s leading educational publishers is looking for authors to work on a major, multi-level Primary ESL course for 6–9 year-old Chinese children.

Applicants will have:

• experience of writing published material for this age range
• the ability to write in American English
• experience of teaching in or writing for Asian markets, ideally China
• a strong knowledge of the theory and practice of teaching young learners.

To find out more, please send a CV/resume or link to your LinkedIn profile to nick@nickrobinsonELT.com. Please also include a short paragraph detailing how you think your approach to teaching – or writing for – young learners is particularly innovative and fun.

The publisher is keen to move quickly on this project, so a swift response is recommended.

The ideal candidates will fit either one or both of these profiles:

Profile 1

You have

• extensive experience of course delivery (face-to-face and/or online) to adult and young adult L1 Arabic speakers, ideally but not necessarily in the Gulf region or wider Arabic-speaking Middle East
• an interest in the cultures of the Middle East
• a willingness to undertake research into the culture of the target market
• a willingness to undertake research into learner needs and pedagogical issues relating to the target market
• knowledge of the CEFR and its application as a framework for designing a syllabus with clear and measurable outcomes.

Profile 2

You have experience of writing multi-level general English materials for delivery online via LMSs and/or in multimedia platforms such as IWBs. These materials do not necessarily need to have been aimed at L1 Arabic speakers.

All candidates should be unafraid of tight deadlines and happy working both independently and as part of a team.

If you feel you match Profile 1, Profile 2, or even both profiles, and have availability to take on a writing project between now and August, please send a CV to nick@nickrobinsonELT.com.

As many of us know, websites and services such as Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress come under the broad heading of social media, while the use of these applications is termed social networking. Social media and social networking are elements themselves of a wider phenomenon (for want of a better word) – that of Web 2.0. If Web 1.0 was about the Web as a ‘pipe’, where information was poured into one end and consumed at the other, then Web 2.0 is a ‘platform’, where users collaborate to create content and meaning amongst themselves (thanks to Cleve Miller at English360 for the analogy). Put simply: Web 1.0 was top-down, while Web 2.0 is bottom-up. Put even more simply, think about what YouTube is without the videos that its users upload: an empty shell.

Aside from book sales, an author’s influence in the world of ELT used to be judged relatively crudely by their success on the conference circuit: how many plenaries they’re doing, that kind of thing. Social media has given us new ways of gauging that influence, and, when combined, they’re appropriately referred to as the author’s platform.

Some examples. How many Twitter followers does she have? How many people retweet her? How many people visit her blog each month? How does that number compare to people with similar blogs? Do her blog posts get linked to by other blogs? How influential are those other blogs? Does she have fans on Facebook? How many? When she writes something on her Facebook wall, how many people click ‘Like’ or write a comment? What kinds of things do they say?

Publishers are interested in an author’s platform for the obvious reason that it represents a variety of marketing opportunities. The platform is the author’s fan base, and it’s not difficult to convince your fans to buy your book; they already like you, after all. But what if you’re not an author and have no desire to be one? Should teachers and trainers be worried about their platform? Absolutely.

Your platform is a marketing tool, and marketing is all about creating opportunities for you to get your message out there. That message could be ‘Buy my book’. But it could also be ‘I’m a highly effective teacher’ or ‘I can help you achieve your language learning goals’. Curating a successful platform for yourself can reap benefits in a variety of ways: a new job offer, a new client, an invite to speak at a conference, a tap on the shoulder from a publisher or publishing agent.

Image by Flickr user 'gagilas' reproduced under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)

So how do you go about it, and what are the potential pitfalls? The bare minimum, I’d argue, is a Twitter account, a Facebook profile, a presence on Linked In and a regularly updated blog. If you’re worried about some cross-contamination between personal life and work life, then simply create multiple accounts and use them selectively. Bear in mind, though, that the more accounts you have, the more complicated they get to manage.

Once you’re set up with those basic four – and you’ve begun following people, adding people, connecting with people and blogging – you’re on your way to becoming part of the online ELT community. And that word community is an important one to remember. Membership of a community is reciprocal: you can’t be part of it if you don’t take part in it. So read and comment on other people’s blogs; you’ll find that they’ll start commenting on yours. Retweet some interesting posts from someone’s Twitter account; they’ll often thank you, follow you back and retweet you themselves in the future (and if you’re worried about building your Twitter following, it’s amazing what a retweet from someone with 5,000+ followers can do for your follower numbers).

To finish, two warnings. First, authenticity is paramount, and people can sense a lack of it; always be yourself. Second, remember that promoting yourself through these channels is a delicate art. If you put enough in, there’s a tacit understanding that you can once in a while take something out. So if you’ve spent the week posting links to interesting content on the Web, sharing resources, and supporting fellow members of the community, no-one begrudges you promoting a new blog post, an upcoming talk or even your new book. But if all you do is talk about yourself or promote yourself, you might as well be speaking into a black hole.

(A version of this blog post appears in TESOL France Teaching Times Issue 64.)

It was fascinating to hear authors, publishers, marketers and bloggers talking about the state of cookbook publishing and to realise that they’re facing the exact same issues as ELT publishing. In fact, the similarities were  startling. I won’t go into detail here, but you can read a full round up of the conference over at The Editor’s Kitchen.

But there was one area that I noticed a big difference in how cookbook publishing and ELT publishing operate: there aren’t really any agents in ELT. Now this is something of an aberration. The role of literary (or publishing) agent exists in nearly every field of publishing. In fact, if you’re interested in publishing a novel (or a cookbook for that matter), you don’t go looking for a publisher, you go looking for an agent. It was fascinating to hear that the majority of cookbook publishers won’t in fact deal with authors directly. They won’t accept proposals from them and they won’t negotiate terms with them. Everything goes through the agent.

Now of course ELT publishing is very different from fiction or cookbook publishing. For one thing, it’s much more publisher-driven – that is, publishers tend to have a good idea about what they want to publish, and they go searching for authors who might be suitable to write it; few are sitting and waiting for unsolicited proposals to land on their desks. But it got me thinking …

Agents are like talent scouts. They’re always on the look-out for that spark, that clue that this person will make a great author. And think about how much undiscovered talent is out there. How many great teachers are giving amazing lessons every day? How many are blogging about it? How many are sharing their ideas with peers from around the world via Twitter and Facebook? How many are paying out of their own pockets to travel to conferences around the world? The explosion of ELT into the Twitter- and blogosphere in the last few years is nothing short of phenomenal, and it’s proved that there’s a massive community of dedicated, creative, inspiring teachers out there.

And yet how many of them are breaking through into ELT authoring?

I’ve set this agency up because I honestly feel that the barriers to getting published are still too high, and that as a result many great authors are going undiscovered. I want to see the next generation of ELT greats start to come through in full force, and I want to see if I can help. The publishing industry is in flux, and no one’s quite sure how the landscape is going to look in five or ten years’ time. But there is one constant: whether the content is being delivered in a paper book, on a Kindle, through an iPad, or via your mobile phone, we’re always going to need great authors.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to be one of them, get in touch.