A person (well-known in English Language Teaching circles -- keep that circular idea in your head for a bit...) I happen to have a great deal of time and respect for caught up with me on Skype yesterday evening. It was Lindsay Clandfield and, as many of you tuned into things like Twitter and Facebook would now be aware, he had some pretty exciting news.
Lindsay and another rather admirable fellow we all know, Luke Meddings, have just officially launched The Round, 'an independent collective of creative individuals in English language teaching' which 'arose from a series of conversations about bridging the gap between blogs and books – and about the difficulty of placing innovative, niche or critical materials with the big ELT publishers.'
However you look at this, for goodness sake don't just walk away with the idea that this is just a publishing start-up. Having been honoured with some initial inside info, I can tell you now that this initiative is going to be far more than that.
I'll let Lindsay and Luke explain it all to you in their own words, over on their new site and by watching things unfold through things like their Twitter handle and Facebook page.
The way I am reading this, what we are looking at is something not only innovative but sorely needed: a sort of 'publisher for thePLN.' We're not really looking at anyone making stacks of cash here, but we ARE looking at riches. In multiple currencies that don't necessarily equate to printed money but do correlate to a fair deal for authors. That and a fair offering to all the innovative and creative teachers out there who have been left starving at the rim of the 'profit at all costs/lowest common denominator' big publishing square shipping containers.
If you want to see new materials produced and shared in new and vastly more appealing ways, get behind The Round.
Because I have a feeling that what goes around in this initiative will come around... for the better!
Hope to see you there. This Raven is definitely IN!
:-)
