Individual Perspectives
:: That First Publishing Experience
by Daniel Droukis and Kiyoshi Yukitoki, Kyushu Kyoritsu University
In 2005, we published a textbook, Go Overseas through Shohakusha Publishing Company. While it was the fifth textbook publication for Yukitoki, it was the first experience for me, for whom it represented the realization of a long time goal. The experience led us to look back at questions Mares (2003) posed about having a textbook published and how they are related to our experiences. It is also interesting to look at this from the views of Curtis on publishing your first book. (Folio, Vol. 10.1).
:: 1. Why do I want to write a textbook?
“Your motivations should stem from a desire to produce materials that you feel would be better for you, your students and other teachers working in a similar environment (Mares).” This first point is something few can argue with for it reflects a frustration that many teachers feel when they fail to find a book that suits the particular needs of their students. This was also true in our situation, where we wanted a book that was better suited to our students. Since we have many students who have little experience with the language, we wanted a book that would put them in a more comfortable situation using language that was not entirely overwhelming. Also, from the perspective of professional development publishing, a textbook is very well received by colleagues and by the institution that you are employed. There is also the sense of personal satisfaction that you receive by working hard to produce a book that others will use and benefit from. “If financial rewards are an important part of your motivation, you will be disappointed (Curtis)”. This, fortunately I already understood. Having the experience and adding to my list of accomplishments was (and still remains) the more important goal from my writing.
:: 2. How will my coursebook contribute to the market?
“Your coursebook needs to offer something new and different to the market. This could be from the point of view of syllabus, language presentation, format or activity type (Mares)”. I believe that this is a very sensitive point. What is actually new to the market is a difficult question. Here we have a book about foreign travel, which is hardly something new. Yet as we considered the language abilities of our students, it was clear that they needed to be presented with material that was not culturally threatening and that was suitable for their present language abilities. Many
books of this type tend to contain conversations which are too challenging for the students we were writing for. Thus, in this sense we have tried to contribute to the market by meeting the needs of the student who has less confidence in using the language but wants to study using material that is practical and has the potential to be useful in the future.:: 3. Who will/will not be able to use my coursebook?
“Your coursebook needs to be pitched at a market niche where its projected sales will fall into marketing expectations for a product. To do this there needs to be a clear sense of the target teacher group in terms of their language ability, education, teacher-training experience, willingness to try new things and time available for preparation (Mares)”. On this point, we already had our ideas in place. After many years of teaching university students who were not English majors or had little experience in using the language for speaking, we felt that this type of text would appeal to many other teachers in Japan who either had students who were interested in foreign travel or who needed to have material presented to them on a more basic level.
:: 4. What will teachers and learners get from my coursebook that they cannot get elsewhere?
“If your book provides material that is more authentic, activities that work better, practice that is perceived more useful or some extra feature not available in other coursebooks, this will give your book an edge in the market (Mares)”. Since the book is based on actual experiences that are essential in travel activities, it does give the student non-threatening practice. This allows the student to be more comfortable in working with the material. More authentic materials are always desirable in textbooks, but allowing the students to work more on the four skills may be more appropriate for the students we are focusing on. This question is the hardest for the teacher-writer to answer because so many of the books for this level are indeed quite similar. Often, it will be the case that teachers will choose a new textbook because they have simply become bored with the book they have been using for several years and need to make a change to keep their teaching fresh. Perhaps all we can ask from a book is that it provides a good guide for the teacher and the student. Whether the material is different from other books may depend more on the teacher who uses it, how long the teacher uses it and how well the students are able to navigate the different sections of the book.
:: 5.How will my coursebook be structured?
“Your coursebook will need to be user-friendly in that teachers should be able to use it within the system they work (Mares)”. When we created the book, we hoped that it would be user-friendly. The amount of material, (ten units) we felt, was reasonable for teaching the students we had within one school year and contained four skills exercises along with vocabulary development activities. We believed that one unit could be done in two class periods (180 minutes). While the structure has been easy for the students to work with, it has taken a longer time period for some classes to complete the work. This does not seem to be because of the structure but due to a variety of factors that affected the time available for teaching the classes. During the piloting process we had been satisfied that the book was being covered adequately in the time period we had envisaged.
:: 6. Will my book be part of a series?
“Coursebooks do better if they are part of a series (Mares)”. This is something that we had not considered. It was not proposed by the publisher, and it does not seem to be the type of book or topic that would be appropriate for a series at this time. However, once the school year has been completed and we have seen one cycle of the book, we will be able to assess the appropriateness of other additions to this book. It seems like a very ambitious goal to have a series, and it would be interesting to hear future comments from readers on how books in a series come to be developed. It also makes us question which type of book is more desirable: the one that stands alone, or the ones that are part of a series.
:: 7. Do I envisage my coursebook requiring teacher guides, workbooks, resource packs, a website?
“A coursebook seldom exists alone. A teacher’s guide is a standard requirement. These guides can come in many forms but they need to provide tape scripts, if not in the coursebook, answers, a description of the unit template and a rationale (Mares)”. These are all provided by a simple teacher’s manual, which is very similar to those found with other books of this type. It is essential for the teacher who uses the book in order to make usage smooth and error-free. Books of this type often will not require extensive teacher’s guides. Those who are unfamiliar with their use may be concerned at first with the lack of direction often found in other books. Teachers may soon come to realize that they are not as essential in producing a good lesson as they first thought.
:: 8. What parts of the writing am I prepared to delegate to others?
“In instances where assistance is required in the writing of the book care should be taken to find someone who understands the nature of your coursebook and is sympathetic to your pedagogical approach (Mares)”. This would seem to be quite true but was of little concern to us as we worked on each section of the book together thus making it easier for all the parts to fit together as a whole. Some writers delegate sections to be written which we feel can sometimes lead to an unevenness in the structure of the book. This is can be avoided by working together on each section and coming to agreement on the use or omission of words, phrases or other aspects of the book. An important part of this is also the aspect of time involved. Since we were doing this as a team with a goal of finishing it by the end of the summer we spent a great deal of time together (probably tough on both of us, not to mention family).Once the original was done then came the rewriting of the sections that the publisher either didn’t like or wanted in a different format which turned out to be just as challenging as the original writing. Curtis’ advice, “allow for considerable amounts of time needed to read through and give feedback on a number of full versions of the manuscript after the first round of writing is finished” (Curtis 2005:19) proves to be good advice I could have used when we were first going through the process. Yukitoki, having been through this several times before handled all in stride but I must admit that as a first-timer I found the process frustrating. I cannot imagine having gone through the process as the lone writer. Having a co-author to work with definitely helped in getting through the process.
:: 9. What look do I envisage my coursebook having?
“The presence of photos or illustrations only or a combination of both will also influence the look (Mares)”.When the book was first sent to the publisher, we had seen what they had done with the books Yukitoki had published with this particular publisher and had a good idea of what to expect. Therefore, the finished product was not a surprise (negatively or positively) in this respect. This aspect of the publication should perhaps be left to the publisher as they have the image of what type of book is selling well at the moment. Of course, how those books are presented will actually come down to how their art department designs it. Again, in this regard I was quite surprised to see how little input the writers had in this area. We were presented with versions of the text which I immediately approved of but were met more critically by Yukitoki as having gone through the process before knew very well what would work and what would not.
:: 10. What unique features will my coursebook have?
“Marketers need a selling point, something to point at or show to potential users that will immediately be identified as something they need (Mares)”. The book that we wrote was unique in that it applied a situation normally challenging to new learners and allowed them to do activities that could be applied to real situations that they would probably be involved in doing in the near future. Rather than portraying the situation as being overwhelming, it depicts the travel experience as something that anyone can do. Rather than being a confidence deflator, it is a confidence builder, which, it is hoped, makes it an excellent selling point.
:: 11. What type of promotional activity am I prepared to be engaged in?
“Being willing to appear at conferences, workshops and seminars is a plus. Authors need good visibility (Mares)”. This sounds very intriguing, but also challenging, and would be an interesting activity if the opportunity were ever to present itself.
:: Conclusion
Publishers are constantly looking for new material. If you are thinking of writing a coursebook, you will need to keep all of these factors in mind as work on your book progresses. It seems that books need to be unique yet similar to what is currently being published. It also appears that you will have to go beyond thinking about the current book project you are working on and relate it to what you may be producing in the future. In our case, we did not look beyond this book, but perhaps future endeavors will require us to think about what we have written as part of future publications or a series. Curtis advises, “if it is your first book you are likely to be very keen to get it done. But, in addition to all the time needed for detail work, there will be delays” (Curtis 2005:19). Probably, if I had better known about the delays I would have been able to got through the entire process in a calmer manner.
:: Book Information
Type of book: This is a conversation book
Target user: The book is intended for those students at universities, colleges and language schools who are interested in studying the language for foreign travel.
User environment: Japanese colleges, universities and language schools.
What the book intends to teach: The book is designed to teach students how to successfully deal with travel situations.:: References
Curtis, A. (2005) Publishing Your First Book: Easier than you think? Folio 10: August 2005. Pp18-22.
Mares, C. (2003) Writing a Coursebook. In Tomlinson, B. (Ed.) Developing Materials for Language Teaching. London: Continuum.
Yukitoki, K. and Droukis, D. (2005) Go Overseas. Tokyo: Shohakusha.
Kiyoshi Yukitoki is a Professor at Kyushu Kyoritsu University. He’s very much interested in English education in Southeast Asian countries and has written a number of papers on it. He has also published several English textbooks and the latest one will be out later this year.
Daniel Droukis is an Associate Professor at Kyushu Kyoritsu University in Kitakyushu City, Japan where he teaches general English courses. He is interested in materials development has written papers and articles on language teaching and will have a second textbook published this year.
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