ELT writing contracts have - up until recently and based on the limited amount I have gleaned from fellow ELT writers - been relatively simple.
Here's how it (generally) works:
You write your books and earn either a flat fee or - most commonly - a percentage of royalties from the sale of each book (minus any discounting the publisher engaged in). This royalty rate varies a lot of course, and it isn't the sort of thing most ELT writers are comfortable chatting about openly. To give you a ball park figure, however, depending on the publisher and the experience (or relative naïvety) of the writer, a writer's cut of the royalties may come in from anywhere 2% to 12% (and remember that figure may then need to be divided out amongst multiple writers working in a team).
The other 88-98% is kept by the publisher. Of course, various portions of this go towards paying editorial staff, production costs and - this is the one I most want to draw your attention to in this post - marketing (as well as whole marketing and 'product management' departments). Once those costs are factored in, the publisher hopes to be making a good profit with whatever is left over.
I doubt anyone outside certain hallowed halls of publishing knows what sort of royalty percentage publishers end up with or aim to end up with, but you can bet your bottom dollar it is significantly more than the royalty earned by the actual writer(s)...
But I (begin to) digress. Back to that key consideration of marketing.
Authors have been expected to do some sort of overt marketing in support of their publications. The most common is the well-known "author tour," usually coinciding with some key appearances at major ELT conferences. They're not (usually) paid to do this - it is expected of them to a major degree, and the publisher covers the associated costs of travel, accommodation, wining and dining, etc (but not, mind you, the more difficult to estimate costs of taking leave from other work commitments and spending extended periods of time away from one's family). Publishers factor those basic costs back into their (lion's share) of the royalties split, and tell the writer(s) pleasantly that touring and promoting their books is in their best interests to generate more sales (and hence: more of that 2-12% royalty figure).
In any case, this basic agreement appears to have been an effective one. I certainly don't see many (if any) ELT writers complaining about it. Most of them appear to accept and be relatively content with the idea that their books need to be marketed, that these costs are significant, and their own role in that marketing is limited. Without the tremendous marketing muscle of their publisher, including (but not limited to) all of the associated advertising and sales and marketing staff, there just wouldn't be awareness and demand for their books to start with.
The problem is, this sort of agreement (and general perception) is rapidly becoming outdated.
In short, the Internet - and Web 2.0 in particular - has changed the dynamic significantly.
ELT writers are no longer people living in obscure parts of the world that pop out in front of audiences at conferences as if from a wave of a publisher's magical marketing wand. Many of them have their own websites and blogs. Many of them are now becoming very active with social networking platforms.
In other words, there are some ELT writers out there drawing attention to their books and actually facilitating major adoptions in far parts of the world, based almost purely on their own (pro)activities and initiatives. For those who have developed some serious "web 2.0 currency", this really should not be underestimated.
As a web resource developer and blogger, as well as being an ELT writer with a major publisher, I can say that I fit this mold to a certain extent. Let me give you some examples.
Leading up to and then right after my Boost! series was published, I put a very prominent banner for it on my own website (www.englishraven.com). That website was (at that time) attracting more than a million visits per year (something in the vicinity of 100,000 per month) from every corner of the globe, with the vast majority of the visits coming from EFL and ESL teachers responsible for the same age groups targeted in Boost!. The website itself also represented more than 3,000 pages of "proof" and a track record going back almost a decade that might be interpreted as being "somewhat convincing" in terms of showing teachers that the writer might have some sort of inkling about what he was doing (and writing).
I don't think it would be putting things into the realm of exaggeration to state that that sort of coverage and targeting - for a single newly released series of coursebooks - is something most ELT marketing departments can only dream of.
Within a year, enquiries had come directly to me from teachers in France, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. In most of those cases, the initial enquiry through my website led to adoptions in those countries. In fact, given Boost! was never really foreseen as being something the European block would be interested in (from the limited amount of information passed on to me by the publisher), I don't think it would be a stretch to say that it was my own website and Internet presence that was the driving force behind Boost! getting any sort of major and positive attention in Europe.
More recently, activities through my blog and across my Twitter-based PLN led to a school in Brazil specifically asking to see the series. And not just any school - we're talking a major example of principled and good teaching practice in that part of the world! Brazil is, by the way, one of those 'markets' that has ELT publishers licking their lips in anticipation of big adoption numbers.
Now admittedly, adoptions in those countries may not have been very large (yet!), but it is interesting to consider what more in the way of worldwide adoption does for a coursebook series' overall reputation and marketability in specific markets. And while it is true that there is still follow-up and legwork to be done by the publisher's regular sales and marketing personnel to make an adoption happen, publishers need to remember that you can't follow up and "close" an adoption if the awareness and enquiry wasn't there to start with.
Now, these simple examples only cover my own activities. I see most other ELT authors out there doing some pretty amazing things with blogs and social networking. Some of them are developing a genuine presence that now reaches to many parts of the globe on a regular basis. If that presence hasn't already begun to translate into direct awareness about the publications the author is associated with, then it very soon will.
Generally speaking, I don't think it is unfair to state that the role of authors in an increasingly web 2.0-flavoured world is changing and increasing when it comes to drawing attention to ELT products and services. And it is only going to get bigger.
Unfortunately, I daresay most of those ELT authors are still subject to the 'old style' of agreement ("write the books please, and then turn up at a few conferences a year and let us know when you can do an author tour, too!"). The agreement that sees the publisher allocating all of the marketing expenses as being their sole cost to bear, and hence a mitigating consideration in the division of overall royalties.
Will it be appropriate for publishers to tell their authors that this Internet-based activity is basically the same as turning up to conferences and doing author tours? A "natural" sort of activity it is not unreasonable to expect them to do without income being a factor?
I hardly think so.
Personally, I think something needs to give in that overall (and now outdated) arrangement. And that give really ought to be coming out of the massive chunk of royalties the publishers withhold from the writers based on "sales and marketing" costs.
Admittedly, it would be a complex thing to try and calculate and allocate accurately. But essentially, I think if an author has a very strong web presence, s/he ought to be demonstrating that during writing contract negotiations and working for a more attractive share of royalties.
ELT writers with the capacity to draw considerable attention to materials in their own right also begs the very real question: if the publisher is not willing to recognise this and reward them for it financially, why go with a major publisher at all?
A question and issue for another day and another post, perhaps!
:-)
