Comments on: ELT Publishing Trendspotter 2010 Part One

By: Teach English in Italy

Teach English in Italy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:12:26 +0000

I’m not sure if I’ve ever taught a Pearson Longman. I teach English in southern Italy, and we usually use Eli (Italianized), Oxford or MacMillan (sp?). What’s their best-selling core text for students? Great info, by the way- makes me feel caught up- though I’m so used to teaching “bookless”.

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:18:53 +0000

When I was last there (in the Express Publishing offices) they had a team of about 20 full time writers in their office plus a few outside freelancers, none of whom get their names mentioned anywhere in the books that they write. Virginia Evans and Jenny Dooley are the totally made up “English names” of the Greek owner and her daughter

By: treblekickeresq

treblekickeresq — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:03:10 +0000

I’m coming a bit late to the comment board on this one but could you elaborate on the bit where you wrote “I wonder if Pearson even know that the only parts “Virginia Evans” and “Jenny Dooley” write of their books is their names on the cover??”

Do they use ghost writers and how do you know?

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:37:43 +0000

I was wrong about publishers selling directly online being new, seems OUP does it as well, e.g. the button on this page (except France and Morocco, for some reason):

http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/isbn/0-19-442594-0?cc=global#sample_pdf

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:11:45 +0000

My thought is what I tried to explain in the post, that the publishers are thinking not so much that we will fill in the gaps for free but if they aren’t going to make much money out of methodology books and the cost of them will make them inaccessible to most teachers, they may as well just offer that stuff for free online to get teachers on their websites to buy their coursebooks. Alternatively, they may be thinking of moving more of that kind of stuff into teachers’ books, e.g. the methodology bits at the back of Natural English.

PS, if I’m the great-granddaddy, what does that make http://eflgeek.com/ ??

By: Lindsay Clandfield

Lindsay Clandfield — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:03:54 +0000

Interesting post and a keen eye for certain trends there Alex. You’re always on the ball. One thing I have also noticed is the alarming drop in Teacher Methodology books. OUP’s series has stopped, they are starting another one but it seems to have less of a profile. Macmillan’s series for teachers is slowing down, and in general I think there are less around.

This is largely because teachers aren’t buying. Delta publishing is still bringing out methodology books, which are pretty good (even if I do say so myself as the series editor ;-) but gone are the days of lots and lots of new methodology books for teachers. Photocopiable books, too. Remember those? Good luck in finding more than a couple new ones on the market now.

Someone has suggested this gap might be filled by the blogosphere, and teachers can get it and give it all free. As you are one of the great-granddaddys of this medium in ELT what are your thoughts Alex?

By: David V.

David V. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:11:16 +0000

It’s a business. They do what they want. Don’t believe the hype.