I haven’t shared any tips for new writers for a while, not since my post on how to find commissioning editors. So, here it goes.
There’s nothing wrong with building connections at big publishers like Pearson, Macmillan, CUP, OUP, NGL (Cengage, whatever). It’s good to aim high and you might well get lucky. However, there are loads of other companies/organisations you can write for in ELT. If you aren’t getting much luck with the bigger publishers then why not look elsewhere?
Here’s a list of possible avenues for you to explore. Note:
- this is not a list of endorsements
- this is not comprehensive, it’s just some ideas to get you started
If you’d like to add any more ideas for fellow newbie writers then please do so in the comments.
‘Your trusted educational publishing team…’. This lot are easy to find on LinkedIn and active enough. The couple of times they’ve contacted me has been for editing rather than writing so if that’s your bag then maybe drop them a line.
They produce a magazine called Phoenix English. They are often looking for copy – mostly churning out graded texts. The mag looks okay so this could be a good portfolio builder.
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
China market. Co-publish a lot with the bigger publishers so it’s a roundabout way of writing for them too. I just worked on a CLIL resource for them, it looks good.
I’ll let you research this one.
Looks like a cool company. Seen a few job spots advertised over last year and heard good things. No personal experience of this one though.
They post up the occasional opportunity on their Facebook page. Worth following.
*Note: just got bored of adding images to each listing so might miss a few!*
British Council
Writing with the BC (unless it’s an internal opportunity) means you need to be set up as a vendor. Rather than do that, I’d recommend joining ELT Consultants because clever people there know BC like the back of their hand and get lots of contracts with them.
I’m 1/10 with my attempts to connect with people at Express so I’m not the best person to advise you on this! Looks like they have an interesting catalogue though.
John Chrimes, ELT writer has done some resources for them. Maybe ask him some advice. Looks like they are developing quite a good catalogue too.
Reviewed some books for ELi a while back, like Vocab in Pictures and Egghead. I really like this publisher – they have a nice range of readers. Someone’s gotta write them…
A new publisher that focus at the moment on exam resources. Maybe ask Monica Ruda-Peachey for advice on this one. The boss seems friendly and approachable on LinkedIn. They have also commented on this blog before so they must be nice!
Ah man! I was offered work with LearnJam (when they were ELTJam) but couldn’t do it at the time. Gutted. Their projects always sound interesting and it looks like they have a great team. I reckon there would be some great opportunities to upskill if you could pick up work with these lot. Pure speculation of course, but if you get involved in one of their projects then let me know how it goes!
You might not have expected this one…
The BBC Talent Cloud allows you to register as a freelancer. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I expected to hear nothing from them. A few months later, I’m writing a pilot video script. Weird. Cool.
Adding more training videos to their library. You could get in touch and see if anything comes of it.
Digital content solutions. Never worked with them myself. Heard mostly good things.
‘Leading provider of digital content’. Never worked with them myself. Heard almost nothing about them tbh.
*Sorry, flagging a bit at this point*
Resources for UK and international schools. Good avenue for us EALers. If you teach IB, PYP etc then this might be worth a look.
Wide range of resources, perhaps best known for primary/secondary. They list all their past authors on their site, one of whom is the Scriv.
They have a ‘Write for Us’ form on their site and they respond very quickly to confirm you’re kind of being considered. Worth doing, why not.
Helbling
I wish they’d improve their website, it’s clunky.
As I said, no endorsements. But if I were to endorse some of these, Signature Manuscripts would be near the top of my list. I like Malcolm Mann, very easy to work with.
(Update 2023: just tagging some more ideas on!)
A packager with a database you can join for freelance opportunities.
Experts in digital content creation. You can join their database of freelancers to be considered for opportunities (requires completing a short sample).
To be honest, I don’t know much other than they are a publisher of ELT materials and someone there once asked about my availability. So could be worth an explore.
This is a resource site with some pretty cool materials. A while back they did a call for authors, so they might do so again? Worth looking at anyway – some interesting content.
Onestop remain one of the best quality sites for lesson resources and downloads, and it IMO very fairly priced! They had a change of editor last year and were taking on new authors. Super friendly and approachable, and entering the lesson share might lead to work (see my post here for an example!).
Another awesome resource site that is up there with the best (they were formerly called ESL Library). I’ve had great fun writing for them and working with the team. I highly recommend getting in touch with them to ask about opportunities.
Not 100% sure they are looking for contributions but maybe. Another lesson downloads site. Could be worth exploring.
I see this company advertise a bit, but haven’t worked with them. Less on the writing front, more on things like project management I think. Who knows, ask them! Nothing ventured…
Another packager. I haven’t worked through them, but worked on a project which they were involved in. Seemed very professional and the individuals they took on were great (just one project though). If I were freelancing right now I’d probs try and content them as they seem cool.
Educational publisher based in Greece. Don’t know much about them and never contacted myself, but look interesting.
Contacted me via LinkedIn once. Seemed to have some interesting ELT stuff going on. Worth a look maybe.
Was offered some digital work with them once but don’t know much about them. There was a time when every ELT publishing professional on LinkedIn seemed to be raving about them, but haven’t seen that much from them promo wise for last year or so?
A publisher with some interesting ELT series – great shout if you’ve an idea for a methodology book!
This is Dorothy Zemach’s publishing company. Good range of books from here, a good option (I’d imagine) if you’ve an idea for a more niche resource.
Walton Burns’ publishing company – my favourite indie publisher in ELT.
Resource site that I saw advertise for writers once.
Digital resources on a learning platform. My old school had a subscription. I’ve seen them advertise for ELT content writers before.
Seen them advertise for ESL contributors before. Could be worth looking into.
South America-based. I see them but know little about them tbh.
University of Dayton Publishing
They have an ELT catalogue – I’ve never contacted them personally but you never know!
So, there’s a start for ideas. Hope it’s useful!
(Add: Here’s a great list of ELT publishers from TEFLtastic: https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/full-list-of-elt-publishers/)
Categories: General, materials writing
ELT Planning 
Thanks for sharing all the links. This is a great post and I shall check out some of the suggested companies. 👍🏻
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Thanks, really useful in updating my list of ELT publishers. A fair few links in this list broken now, but not nearly as many as there were in my list…
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Cheers – didn’t realise the older links broken – I’ll check them
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Great list! Thanks for doing all the research 🙂
I’d just like to say that about 5 years ago I did some work for QBS, but after the work was done and sent, they refused to pay me saying the publisher had given up the project. After several emails, they paid me 50% of the fee that had been agreed. This was the only time I had issues with payment with a company, and because we were in different countries, it was really impossible to take any legal measures against them. It was a disappointing experience for sure.
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Cheers for sharing – I’ve heard mixed things about QBS but never worked for them myself
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