#2 Professional ELT materials writing: the good, the bad and the ugly.

In the latest Earn Learn Thrive LinkedIn Live with Rhona Snelling , we talked about the world of the professional ELT materials writer or author. Rhona and I have both worked in ELT publishing for many years, and we’re often asked about how to get into professional writing.

In fact, there are already some great sources of information on this:

https://ihworld.com/ih-journal/ih-journal-blog/how-to-become-an-elt-materials-writer/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23UObWrdI6o (John Hughes on How do I get into materials writing)

https://learnjam.com/ten-tips-for-getting-into-digital-materials-writing/

https://www.modernenglishteacher.com/thinking-about-being-a-writer

There’s even a free webinar that I gave for IATEFL. You have to be a member of IATEFL, but I’d recommend that anyway for many different reasons. https://www.iatefl.org/events/321

But, what is far less often discussed is what it’s actually like to work as a professional ELT materials writer. So, let’s draw back the curtain and have a little peek inside. ??

Like any freelance career, there’s a lot of freedom and flexibility, and, depending on your skills and interests, also quite a lot of variety. It’s not unusual to be working on more than one project at a time, not least because inevitably deadlines slip. If you want to be employed more than once, it ideally shouldn’t be you who lets deadlines slip, but it definitely happens a lot, and then the three projects that were going to dovetail together nicely end up all happening at the same time.

So, some weeks you can have a nice relaxed pace and pop out for a walk in the sunshine or to have a coffee with a friend, and another week you’re juggling like mad.

However, if you’re constantly over-working, it’s probably down to two things:

1. People talk about ‘feast and famine’ and it’s easy to constantly take on too much because you’re worried there might not be any more work coming in later on. It’s understandable, but I think, rather than taking on anything and everything and never having time to step back and see the bigger picture, it’s worth investing time in marketing yourself and getting better known, as that can minimise the chances of a ‘famine’ (more about this later)

2. You’re taking on jobs which simply don’t pay enough and so you need to work loads of hours in order to make a decent living.

In the live, Rhona and I talked quite a bit about this, because, unfortunately, it’s pretty clear that the money you can earn as a materials writer is on a downwards slide. The days where you could expect a fat royalty and buy a house or two have been gone for a while, but we’re both now hearing more and more horror stories of writers being offered fees that equate to less than minimum wage.

If you’re a new writer and you are offered a project it’s extremely tempting to jump at the chance, and not worry about the money, but, be warned, badly paid work usually leads to….more badly paid work.

When you’re being offered a fee for a writing project, you might wonder how you can know if it’s a good rate or not. That’s an excellent question, and the truth is, it’s not always easy to work out, even with experience.

Rhona and I both track the hours we spend on writing projects, which makes it possible to assess how well they are paying in terms of an hourly or day rate. That may not help for a current project- though you should definitely go back to the publisher if you’re?experiencing scope creep (where the job keeps getting bigger), but it will certainly help you next time you’re offered something similar.

And, the million dollar question.... what IS a good hourly or day rate?

Obviously this is going to vary from country to country, but in the UK there are some helpful sources of information:

https://www.andrewbibby.com/reckoner.html (to help you work out the difference between what you might get paid as a salary and the freelance equivalent

https://www.publishingprofessionals.co.uk/about/survey-freelance-elt-editorial-rates-and-fees (this is for editors, but it’s roughly equivalent- editors are often paid more than writers in practice though)

You may also be offered a royalty, though usually only by smaller publishers these days. Don’t assume that a royalty means you’re rich now. A royalty will be based on what the book was actually sold for, not the cover price, which may well be a lot less, especially in countries where the cost of living is lower. And, of course, it depends on how many copies are actually sold. So, you’re taking a risk with a royalty. It might pay off, it might not.

Also look very carefully at your contract. Rhona and I are both members of the Society of Authors, and recommend joining, not least for their free contract vetting service. They’ll take a look and check that you aren’t signing something to say you’ll never write anything again for anyone else- you may think I’m exaggerating, but not necessarily.

https://www2.societyofauthors.org/

The Society of Authors is also a great place to get support from other writers, and I’d also like to give a shout-out to MAWSIG, the Materials writing special interest group from IATEFL. Even if you’re not a member, check out their blog and resources page:

https://mawsig.iatefl.org/

If you’d like to watch the live I’ve been referring to in this newsletter, with more and different nuggets of information, here’s the link: https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6982653937988288512/

And here's the link to Rhona Snelling's website: https://rhonasnelling.com/

?The next Earn Learn Thrive LinkedIn Live will be on 14th October at 16.30pm UK time, with Fatime Losonci , an ELT teacher trainer specializing in teaching skills, especially for teachers who want to become better at teaching IELTS.

We’re going to be talking about ‘How getting visible on LinkedIn changed everything.’ Fatime will be sharing how she went from a LinkedIn hater to it being a cornerstone of her marketing.