Gillian Porter Ladousse is a teacher trainer and a materials writer. She has broad experience of publishing with major and minor publishers. Her books include Speaking Personally (CUP), Role Play (OUP), Language Issues (Longman) and Going Places (Heinemann Macmillan).

TEFL writers love a good whinge, and indeed they have a fair amount to carp about. First, ideas which most people want to publish are imaginative and original. However, publishers are not easily convinced of the match between creativity and profitability. It has never been easy to persuade a major publisher with a dollar glint in their eye to publish such material, although it was once possible. Now, if you are not prepared to clone a work scheme which is already bulldozing its way to pick up its massive market share of the 'universal' classroom business, you should probably put your innovative project back in a drawer. In fact you were probably unwise to get it out in the first place. Too bad for the teachers we know are out there, the multitudes who want our stuff.

The personal experiences of many TEFL writers in their dealings with publishers are often less than satisfactory and discontent is widespread. Not just with the little guys who are starting out. It is rumoured that certain publishers are killing the geese that laid the golden eggs in the glorious age of TEFL publishing – if ever such an age really did exist. Just another horror story reached me this week. I won't go into details. More of the same. Unclear publishers' briefs, lack of guidance and feedback, inexplicable delays, a polite 'not today thank you' at the end of it all, with a pittance of a peace offering for the sample material. This can be as little as L100 for researching a 120-page teacher's photocopiable resource book and writing a sample chapter, a paltry sum indeed in today's world and one which probably doesn't cover the cost of printing cartridges and paper. Insult to injury. The baffled writer, licking wounds, is still trying to work out why the publisher gave no hints along the way, or why they asked him/her to provide the sample in the first place.

The explanation is often that publishers are testing the waters. They are using you, the writer, to see if there is any mileage in a project. In other words you are providing free consultancies. It is certainly time that publishers learnt to pay the going rate for this service. But a more interesting and urgent question is: why do writers go on touting their wares in this naive way? Very few people set out to write TEFL for serious money. This is a pity, because if their livelihood depended on their publishing income, they would probably address the issues in a more business-like way. One source of motivation is undeniably a certain delight in the prospect of seeing your name in print, at least for a first book. Other would-be-teacher-writers have a compulsive need to share their ideas with more than their immediate entourage. Some writers are driven. In other words, they cannot not write. Unless you are in the third category, you should probably refrain. But if you persist, you may find the following principles might just help to prevent the worst possible scenario in any future encounter with a publisher.

Make sure the project pays. That is, unless you can afford to give away your time and your energy, and one might indeed wonder why you would want to do this to any money-grabbing, global TEFL publisher. We do not have agents to look after us in our walk of the profession, so we have to look after ourselves. My rule of thumb for a project is a calculation of the hourly rate of the poorest paid labour in our society, and a dash of hope that there will be more. If there is no other kind of reward, such as academic glory or promotion, this seems to me to be a basic minimum. It means that you ask a publisher for proper money up front, non returnable in the case of the project not going ahead. This will be set against the advance you request as your next move. A common practice is the first year's royalties, which you can calculate from the estimated print run. You can ask the publisher for this figure. They will have done their sums, however much they may pretend that they haven't.
Make sure you have a clear brief from your publisher and that it is written down. Proper guidelines for the project and a schedule for feedback should be built in. And time limits for the publishers should be included, not just deadlines for you.
Make sure you can exit at any point with your project intact. This means you will retain copyright of any material (if it was yours in the first place), ideas, sanity and your belief in your project. Before you start, check the project has a hard core that would be of interest to another publisher, another series or at the very least to colleagues or any other takers as a home published document. This can even pay, and pay well. We are seeing more and more small independent publishers, individuals publishing their own works, seminar-givers selling their own books, and distributors lending a sympathetic ear to someone who can place useful and sellable goods in their hands even if the rewards are not in the six-figure bracket. With the Internet, the instant and flexible aspect of publishing is going to develop and make things even easier. It is bringing with it another set of problems which are already being addressed, but which will need careful attention along the way.
Use the resources available. Ask colleagues and other writers. The Society of Authors are right behind us. One of the services they provide for their members is a vetting of your contract. They will identify any clause that it is not in your interest to sign, which gives you a firm basis and more self-confidence in negotiations with your publisher. Some publishers accept that you cross out or modify clauses, initialling in the margin as you go. Others have a think and then issue a new contract. Occasionally, the full implications of certain clauses and the comments of the Society of Authors may not be apparent, but please take note all the same. Constant pressure has brought change over the years' royalties being paid twice a year, the inclusions of promises to publish before a certain date, the possibility of an author retaining copyright and various other copyright issues. Other things will change if we band together and stick up for what is often just our common sense rights.
Make sure you can write. Most TEFL writers, like other writers, are made, not born. Writing is a skill, a job which has to be learnt, sometimes the hard way. I still remember the editor of one of my early books who sent me back the introduction with the comment: 'This is fine. Now rewrite it so I want to read it.' It was useful advice, once I got over the initial sting. A common misconception on the part of publishers and would-be writers alike is that teachers or trainers with good ideas will be good writers. This is not necessarily so, and can lead to a lot of grief. But how do you find out if you can write? By doing it, obviously. However, even if you are potentially an excellent writer, your publisher may not help you. They may just let you go on writing and then say they don't like what you've done. You may in fact be a lousy writer, and in this case nobody would contest their right to not publish you. But they never said really what they wanted, and they never helped you on the way. You feel quite justifiably resentful. So get independent advice, get people to read you right from the start.

Even these procedures may not be failsafe. Once, when I had followed my own advice to the letter, my project was still dumped in an unpleasant, long-drawn out and agonising way. Fortunately I had the reflex to ask for more money in compensation, but the improved bank balance in no way made up the painful experience and the loss of future earnings. But at the very least, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had done what I could.

Good publishers do exist. I have, on the whole, been extremely lucky and had the opportunity of doing interesting projects with wonderful people who have pushed me to places and depths and in directions I wouldn't have gone by myself. Most of my relationships have been constructive, based on honesty, transparency and mutual respect. But I have had my fair share of publishers' jilts. Some of these, at least the first ones, appear with hindsight to have been my own fault. I didn't know anything. I wasn't informed. I trusted people I shouldn't have trusted, and I didn't realise TEFL writing was a business and not an art form. A lot of what happens to us as writers is our own fault. But to be fair, the information I needed at the beginning was not easy to come by. It is not always easy now. We need to make sure that it flows freely so that we get a better deal in the future.

If you are a writer with good ideas you can't get published; if you are a teacher who cannot find the innovative and original, if occasionally raw, materials you need for your classroom; if you are a writer with miserable experiences; if you are one of the publishers who do want to continue to produce new and creative work, and who do believe in giving writers a proper deal; then surely it is time to join forces to protect and develop our patch. The more of us involved, the greater our influence will be. People are interested in fighting our corner. The question is how. We may need a writer's charter, a newsletter, an association of some kind through which we can network. If you have ideas, get in touch and contribute your suggestions for the way ahead.