I commented on this post a while back and then forgot all about it until @selfpubreview flagged it up for me on Twitter. The comments thread is an interesting snapshot of both sides of the self-publishing argument.

[In case you can't be bothered to read the whole thing, be assured that [...]]]>
Self-publishing: just a case of vanity?

I commented on this post a while back and then forgot all about it until @selfpubreview flagged it up for me on Twitter. The comments thread is an interesting snapshot of both sides of the self-publishing argument.

[In case you can't be bothered to read the whole thing, be assured that I am rabidly in favour of self-publishing, and consider those who dislike it to be backward-looking snobs (though I put it a little more politely in my initial comment).]

Addendum: @selfpubreview’s site looks to be an excellent resource for self-publishing.

PornographyStudent: Teacher, what is ‘pornography’?Teacher: Er, it’s pictures of naked people.Student: Do you mean like paintings?Teacher: Er, not really.Student (smelling blood now): So, what is the difference?Teacher: … Why don’t you ask Michel? He was looking at some on one of the [...]]]> My explanatory guide on subjects to be avoided at all costs in ELT materials.

Pornography
Student: Teacher, what is ‘pornography’?
Teacher: Er, it’s pictures of naked people.
Student: Do you mean like paintings?
Teacher: Er, not really.
Student (smelling blood now): So, what is the difference?
Teacher: … Why don’t you ask Michel? He was looking at some on one of the student lounge computers just this morning.

Alcohol
Qatari education minister: So, you want to supply my country with your English books?
Publisher: That’s right. We have some top-quality authors and our books have won awards from the British Council.
Qatari education minister: What is this picture on page 55?
Publisher: Oh, that… That’s just … some young people, at a party, sipping … non-alcoholic cocktails?
Qatari education minister: Next!

Racism
Teacher: Today we’re going to discuss racism. Anyone have any stories they’d like to share?
Student: My sister was beaten to death by white supremacists.
Teacher: On second thoughts, let’s turn to the grammar section on page 11.

Sex
Teacher: Today we’re going to talk about sex. Perhaps those of you I’ve already slept with could get into pairs and give me a score out of five. The rest of you should line up in the corridor outside the storeroom.

Narcotics
Teacher: Class, let’s talk about drugs, and the evil they do to our society.
Student: Carlos sells the best weed. Honestly, you should try some.
Carlos: Yeah, anyone not have my number?

Islam
Teacher: So what do we know about the ancient religion of Islam?
Chinese student: Muslims are all terrorists and women-haters.
Muslim student: Chinese people eat dogs and babies!
Italian student: Who wants to hear a joke about 9/11?

Pork
Qatari education minister: Ah, I see you have chosen some more appropriate pictures for your textbooks this year.
Publisher: Yes, we spent a lot of money checking and then reprinting the series to remove all possible connotations of sexual behaviour or alcohol consumption. I think you’ll be delighted with the results.
Qatari education minister: What is this picture here, on page 121?
Publisher: It … appears to be a young man … enjoying a … bacon sandwich… I’ll get my coat.

I used to hate teaching business English and writing business English materials, but then I went freelance and started running my own business and suddenly the subject came alive for me. Working with Americans and Chinese people also invigorated my [...]]]> I just had to write a chapter on Project Management for a business studies textbook.

I used to hate teaching business English and writing business English materials, but then I went freelance and started running my own business and suddenly the subject came alive for me. Working with Americans and Chinese people also invigorated my interest in the subject: they don’t tend to look askance at the business of making money in the way that many Brits do. In recent years my interest in business has verged on the geeky. I’ve become the kind of person who enjoys taking training courses at the Inland Revenue (sorry, HMRC) and researching the minutiae of contract law. My accountant says I am his star client, because my spreadsheets are so efficient he can do my tax return in half the time it normally takes (and yes, he does charge me half as much). I knew his business was going to go bust three months before my last boss did.

This last part made the writing of this chapter a rather bittersweet process. One of the tasks I set was to read quotes from dissatisfied clients and identify the mistake made by the project manager, another was to identify the most vulnerable points along a project’s lifecycle, another how to incorporate risk management. A couple of years ago this would mostly have just been common sense, but I’ve seen so many projects botched through bad project management in recent times that I have a rather uncomfortably large store of real life experiences to draw from.

Thinking hard, I can’t call to mind a single really good project manager, and I’m starting to wonder if it’s even possible to find one. The skills required are so varied that anyone at the helm of a complex project is bound to fail on at least some grounds. If you’re good at managing people, chances are you dislike detail. Perhaps you’re hardcore at keeping suppliers within a budget but useless at communicating with your team. Almost invariably you’ll have an overinflated sense of your abilities in one area and deep insecurities about your abilities in others.

Most of this comes down to personality and ego, in the end. I’ve seen an entire series of books literally ruined because the project manager was out of her depth and desperately trying to salvage her reputation by ruining those of everyone in her team. Judging by the stories I hear at publishing network events, this type of thing is depressingly common.

So it’s nice that I have so much material on which to base my chapter, but I heartily wish that more of it were positive. Why don’t they teach management in schools?

I’ve been wondering just why it is that people who write software are more likely to embrace the open source mentality than people who write ‘text’ books. When you [...]]]> Excellent post about intellectual property and why certain leviathans of the publishing industry are light years behind others in terms of the way they think about copyright.

I’ve been wondering just why it is that people who write software are more likely to embrace the open source mentality than people who write ‘text’ books. When you get a marriage of the two, things seem to work beautifully. Witness a lovely publishing model, in which books are provided via a multitude of different channels – open source, subscription-based searchable databases, print-on-demand. It reminds me of the way the music industry is fragmenting into a variety of different business models (to its benefit). David Byrne breaks it down into six potential routes to market in a fascinating analysis here.

Perhaps its simply a cultural difference. The music and software industries are younger and therefore less ’set’ than traditional print publishing with its established models and centuries-long history. In other words publishers still cling to the long lunch, rather than embracing The Long Tail.

For my part, I’ve been pondering the failings of the publishing industry for several years now, without really achieving a clear view of the problem; never mind a solution. In order to be a successful publisher today you need to understand not only the print publishing industry but also online distribution channels, new technology such as the dreaded Kindle, whole tranches of complex IP law across a variety of jurisdictions, social networking as a marketing tool, print on demand, digital piracy and a whole host of other things I’ve probably never even heard of. It’s an awful lot to get your head around when all you want to do is publish decent books for a reasonable profit.

This morning 15 people were made redundant in the London office of [...]]]> Despite having recently lost my job (technically I resigned, but that was really a case of rat abandoning sinking ship) and been made effectively homeless by the credit crunch, I have more reasons to be cheerful than most of my colleagues in educational publishing.

This morning 15 people were made redundant in the London office of the company I do most of my freelancing for. As the day passes more and more round robin emails with short ‘goodbye, stay in touch’ messages keep dropping into my inbox. They don’t say much but from phonecalls with various folk I gather the atmosphere is awful. Lots of managers meeting behind closed doors, lots of desks being hurriedly cleared.

For me, however, things are looking up. In fact, I’m currently working on three separate projects for three different departments of the same company. Because I don’t take up desk space, because I’m happy to work on short-term contracts with no guarantee of future work, because I don’t require holiday or sick pay, PAYE or benefits, but I’m perfectly plugged in to the company culture and know the products inside out, I’m the perfect choice in a situation like this. I know some of my freelance colleagues are suffering as publishers stop outsourcing but I wonder if this will start to reverse as more and more in-house staff are made redundant. Someone has to take projects forward and freelancers are the cheaper, safer option in this type of climate. (Of course, there’ll be a complete freeze on hourly rates, if not a drop. SfEP minimum rates? Nice idea, but not a chance.)

Image taken from here.

However, the main benefit of having been credit crunched is that I now have a perfectly legitimate excuse to look people in the eye and say grimly: ‘You know nothing of the crunch’.

I’m really not sure why I dislike e-book readers. I’ve happily junked all my tapes [...]]]> I’ve been avoiding the Kindle for a while. Not sure why – I really should try and get to grips with such technology, seeing as it’s been about to revolutionise my industry for, oh, about six or seven years now.

I’m really not sure why I dislike e-book readers. I’ve happily junked all my tapes and CDs in favour of digital alternatives. I don’t mind being locked in to itunes since their prices are reasonable, the selection is good, and I’m (mostly) happy with the iPod. I’ve just gotten rid of most of my books (except the ones I need for studying) because I loathe carrying them around every time I move house. I do most of the study for my law degree online, using a web-based platform, downloadable pdfs, PowerPoint slides and MP3s. In theory I should be desperate for something like the Kindle, since it would allow me to get rid of my numerous heavy textbooks and completely de-clutter my life.

But just look at the darn thing. To me it looks like something from Tomorrow’s World circa 1982. And as for the celebrity endorsement …

“This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere.” Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar’s Poker.

Hmmm. Not sure I want to be taking advice on how to spend my hard-earned cash from a self-professed money-grabbing swindler, but let’s just gloss over that.

Scroll down the page for more celebrity endorsements. Toni Morrison seems to like it, but then she keeps drifting off mid-sentence in the manner of one who has been kidnapped and heavily sedated. Has anyone seen her lately?

Neil Gaiman, now. I can trust him, surely? He writes comics and stuff. He looks like someone I might try to chat up at a party. But, lo, he has the same slow speech and confused air as Toni. At points I wonder if he is purposely trying to be ridiculous:

“It really is … ummm … it’s intuitive … you know … like a book.”

Thanks Neil. It’s like a book. Like a book that Spock would read on his way up to the Starship Enterprise. Like a book that costs $359 dollars and requires you to pay again for all the books you already paid for. No thanks. Not today.

(Some slightly less reactionary analysis here.)

Now I have both.

Thanks to the lovely J for pointing me in the direction of Squarespace. Quite honestly, after using this site, I fail to understand why anyone would pay someone else to build their website. For all small businesses and sole traders this is an [...]]]> This morning I didn’t have a logo or a website.

Now I have both.

Thanks to the lovely J for pointing me in the direction of Squarespace. Quite honestly, after using this site, I fail to understand why anyone would pay someone else to build their website. For all small businesses and sole traders this is an absolutely awesome tool, and it’s great fun to muck about with as well.

Now I just have to sit around and wait for domain mapping to catch up with me. Ho hum.

‘Once again, websites will provide most information, but if there is access to a library that would contain books then a visit would be good.’

Most of the writers on this series have been excellent; they are practising professionals who somehow manage to [...]]]> This gem, from a writer commissioned by one of the big UK awarding bodies:

‘Once again, websites will provide most information, but if there is access to a library that would contain books then a visit would be good.’

Most of the writers on this series have been excellent; they are practising professionals who somehow manage to combine a full-time teaching schedule with a pretty hardcore writing gig, and 90% of the work they produce is excellent: stimulating and well-written. I’ve had to do more proofreading than copy-editing, which is always a pleasant surprise when I’ve been commissioned to do the latter.

But for the 10% that is utter dross I do wonder (a) how it came to be commissioned in the first place (this is a BIG awarding body with a tonne of experienced commissioning editors), and (b) to what extent good writing is just common sense.

For example, you don’t write a textbook in the first person. I know this, you know this, experienced textbook authors certainly know this. And yet I’ve consistently had to edit out the word ‘I’ from a particular writer’s work on this job. On the one hand, it adds a friendly, personal touch to some rather dry subject matter, and I’m guessing this was the author’s aim; perhaps a nod to their dynamic teaching style. But it sticks out a mile in comparison with the detached third person style of all the other authors in the series, and indeed 99% of academic materials pitched at this level. Put simply, it just isn’t done. And now I have to go and undo it. All 300 pages of it.