Pocket Money Writing 4 Pearson ELT

The other day, while eating lunch, I asked a fellow teacher what she would do about all this Pearson trouble... what she'd do if she'd just worked for over 400 hours yet after receiving a series of simply unacceptable clauses in a long awaited, finally received contract... would she fight back after her project had suddenly been aborted post completion of the entire first draft of the actual work...? 

She said,

"It wouldn't ever happen to me because I wouldn't do all that work without being paid."

I was paid.   Or was I?  Does less than minimum wage count as being paid?

I guess so, huh.

After about 4 months into the project, after several phone calls and sending urgent reminders (I had a tax bill to pay) and then sending demanding emails, I did receive a cheque of £1000 as part of the  "advance" - but technically, as they so oft reminded me, not paid - because, for those of you who don't know this, "an advance is not a payment, it is a loan against earnings - you have to pay this back to Pearson through your royalities." 

I was told this several times because I was simply shocked that anyone could imagine anyone writing for such a low fee.  And that was before realizing how much work it would all be.  And that was post negotiations to get the double of the initial offer.

Now, if all had gone according to plan and I had been a good girl who would agree to everything they wanted, then I would have received a further £1000 for finishing the first draft and another £1000 if the book had been published plus 6% in royalties.

But now it won't come to even that mere pittance...* 

And although my question to my colleague centered around the hours I have lost, to the sheer incredible creative effort I have lost - I simply don't know if I am brave enough or have enough strength left to turn this work into an e-book... the fact is that it wasn't 400 hours of work.   Without sounding like a pity-me girl, whining away on her blog to anyone who might care enough to care, the truth is that the energy that I poured into this project while staying away from writing on my blog, breaks down into this:

• 10-15 hours in emails and negotiations for a contract which they wouldn't give me or let me see up front because "their legal department was busy, you do have to understand, don't you..."   Said by a seemingly kindly grandfatherly type editor who'd gotten on the phone to appease my fears "We're Pearson." he said. You can trust us, he implied.  And well, when a company gets to that size and you never hear about any trouble, you think why would there be trouble with me, I can write.

• 80 hours in developing an agreed upon outline based on an agreed upon target group *which as I mentioned in the previous post, changed dramatically to a) IT students who don't have access to computers and b)... the addition of a further target group - more on this in the next posting on this theme.

• 320+ hours in writing

• 50+ hours in research 
• ?+ hours finding photos for the copy (you have to submit suggestions and have a list of cultural things to watch out for. Not easy).

BUT... I guess you're probably wondering, why on god's green earth, did I say 'yes' to such a ridiculous low offer?  After all, as you know I don't even like textbooks... Well, it's not because I like working for nothing - payment is sometimes not only financial...

a) I met the first editor at the BESIG conference and I felt he knew what he was talking about.  He'd been an editor of Business English materials in the past - a series I liked -  so I trusted him and his opinions.   The book was to be an ESP material, which meant they would be a good deal more research into needs.  (Ha* if these were done they weren't shared with me despite asking for this.) 

However, unfortunately, my very nice, very experienced editor was then transferred to another country and replaced by someone who has very little if any Specialized English teaching/ textbook knowledge.   

Someone who despite demanding a unit every 2 weeks took over a month to send me back feedback, thus not telling me until unit 4 that my reading texts were too long...

you'd think by now, as course books vary so much that they'd have a "standard" list or some copy guidelines to follow, pre-written up, wouldn't you?

Did what she asked though.  However the real problem: she had next to zero knowledge of IT, no idea exactly what was wrong with her suggestion to change my realia description to this... 

 an OHP.  Not a Smartboard? Not BlueScreen?  Not on Youtube?

b) The Series Editor assigned to the material was someone whose work I do respect - I felt extremely motivated by his in-depth requests during the process of creating the outline - wanting always much more -  things like specific vocabulary lists, grammar and functions, topics for each sub-section and I  was happy overall with these and felt that his criticisms could only be beneficial to the project. 

I was strongly convinced that I would be able to learn and develop from working with someone of his experience.  I had no idea that he would soon be 'hands off' post this stage and soon I would  left to deal with someone who thinks that:

"people in social media don't talk to people they don't know." 

adverbs of frequency idea (cc)

I had no idea then that items to this agreed-upon-outline could be added magically post termination of the first draft of the work or that elements we had agreed upon could then be decided on as not belonging without any discussion with me directly.  Na ja.

c) Even though Pearson would be taking 94% of the monies made from the book, I calculated that, given the size of the global IT market I could probably break-even within 6 months after publication - especially given that I had received such a ridiculously low advance - and probably within a year make back the money I had lost in giving up classes.  Post that, I would get an income that would help me financially with the 2nd year of studies in my UK Masters.

It seems, what educational book publishers like Pearson seem to forget is that an author's time writing doesn't come from nowhere but is, in fact, a loan from an author to the publisher, that in this "gentlemanly" educational business you don't take a risk like this based on "air and love" -you do anticipate that you will be treated with respect and fairness... that you will earn an income from your work.  And that it's very obvious that if you take this much time off to write then you are not earning the same income, from teaching, during this period.

And okay, let's face it...


I thought I'd be able to add a voice to this market.  Ego, reputation.   It was tempting. Lots of voices, why not add mine in an area I know a lot about: IT?  Alas, that be the dreams of a silly girl who should have known better.

Pride falls.

Anyway, finances, huh...  I guess a company that makes 3,075,000,000 in profit has really got to get this from somewhere... so why not from naive authors - after all, yachts and chauffeurs do really need to paid for.

No point in crying over spilt milk, no point in feeling

Conned.

Anxious.

A little lost.

Embarrassed.

Doubtful of my abilities to write.

Scared.

Hurt.

At the end of the day, I guess, I was the one who agreed to do the work without having a contract to sign prior to work,  something binding them to pay me...

for their failures, for their lack of research or knowledge regarding the target market and for their total and complete project mismanagement...

I thought they'd do me right when I told them as early as possible that my new editor wasn't capable...  and when it came to digital rights...

C'est la vie.

p.s. as I'm aware that many of my readers are global and 1000 pounds might sound like a lot of money...  so you can work out what this means in your own currency- add up your rent, health insurance and bills for one month.  1000 is less than that.