What does it take to become an ELT author these days? Why would you even want to? What’s it actually like to write a book? What types of product are publishers looking for? How do you choose a publisher and sell your idea to them? How do you write a proposal? How do you know who to send it to? Will they even read it? Do you need an agent – someone to help you get published? What does an agent actually do? What can you do to improve your chances? How should you promote yourself? Can your blog or Twitter account help? Or is it better to just forget all of this and self-publish? These are just some of the questions I’ll attempt to answer in this session, which is aimed at anyone who’s interested in how this whole publishing thing works.

1. Thursday, 21 June 12

2. What’s the next step in my career
as a Business English teacher?
Get published!
Nick Robinson
Paris, 16 June 2012
Thursday, 21 June 12

3. So you want to be a
writer?
Thursday, 21 June 12

4. “Coleridge was a drug addict.
Poe was an alcoholic.
Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously
trying to stab.
Pope took money to keep a woman's name out of a satire, then
wrote a piece so that she could still be recognized anyhow.
Chatterton killed himself.
Do you still want to a writer - and, if so, why?”
Bennett Cerf
Thursday, 21 June 12

5. On publishers,
proposals and rejection
"Writing is not a
genteel profession. It's
quite nasty and tough
and kind of dirty."
Rosemary Mahoney
Thursday, 21 June 12

6. “If you're a freelance writer and aren't
used to being ignored, neglected, and
generally given short shrift, you must not
have been in the business very long.”
Poppy Z. Brite
Thursday, 21 June 12

7. On building your
'platform'
"oh this is going to be
addictive"
Dom Sagolla, Twitter
co-creator
Thursday, 21 June 12

8. On the future of
publishing
"Content is king."
Bill Gates
Thursday, 21 June 12

9. The Great Publishing Power Grab
Thursday, 21 June 12

10. On the act of writing
“Being a good writer is
3% talent, 97% not
being distracted by
the Internet.”
Anonymous
Thursday, 21 June 12

11. Thursday, 21 June 12

12. “I get up in the morning,
torture a typewriter until it
screams, then stop.”
Clarence Budington Kelland
Thursday, 21 June 12

13. “I learned that you should feel when
writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain
top, but like a child stringing beads in
kindergarten - happy, absorbed and
quietly putting one bead on after another.”
Brenda Ueland
Thursday, 21 June 12

14. “I believe more in the scissors
than I do in the pencil.”
Truman Capote
Thursday, 21 June 12

15. On creativity and ideas
“I think I did pretty
well, considering I
started out with
nothing but a bunch of
blank paper.”
Steve Martin
Thursday, 21 June 12

16. “The best way to have a good idea
is to have lots of ideas.”
Linus Pauling
Thursday, 21 June 12

17. “Everybody walks past a thousand story
ideas every day. The good writers are
the ones who see five or six of them.
Most people don't see any.”
Orson Scott Card
Thursday, 21 June 12

18. “Most beginning writers - and I was
the same - are like chefs trying to cook
great dishes that they've never tasted
themselves. How can you make a
great - or even an adequate -
bouillabaisse if you've never had any?”
Daniel Quinn
Thursday, 21 June 12

19. On editing and
criticism
“Honest criticism is
hard to take,
particularly from a
relative, a friend, an
acquaintance, or a
stranger.”
Franklin Jones
Thursday, 21 June 12

20. On making money
“Almost anyone can
be an author; the
business is to collect
money and fame from
this state of being.”
A. A. Milne
Thursday, 21 June 12

21. On literary agents
"SHOW ME THE
MONEY!"
Jerry Maguire
Thursday, 21 June 12

22. How can I get
represented?
http://nickrobinsonelt.com/authors/get-represented/
Thursday, 21 June 12

23. Stay in touch
• nickrobinsonELT.com
• nick@nickrobinsonELT.com
• @nmkrobinson
Thursday, 21 June 12