If you’re interested in books written by other Australian EAL/ESOL teachers, look out for the ESL-SPIN table at your next event, and come and say hello to some members of the ESL Small Publishers Independent Network.
We’re all long-term teachers and writers, creating the resources we’d like to use ourselves… then being challenged by the need to let people know about those resources. Yes, it’s useful to develop new skill sets (Marketing 101?) – but it’s also important to have a supportive network.
The idea is that we will promote each other’s books wherever we go (which isn’t difficult, when you really admire what everyone else is doing). We’ll also get together to present or share ideas with other teachers, whenever we get the chance.
So I went to CamTESOL in Phnom Penh with Carmel and Sharon from Urban Lyrebirds (who’ve just released the new Sing With Me 3), and to the ACTA/ACAL conference in Perth with Karen Barber (Read Me Again Press).
Now Carmel and Sharon have just been to Queensland, meeting up with Hazel Davidson and Dorothy Court from Sugarbag on Damper at QATESOL and QCAL. The only people I haven’t mentioned are Maggie Power (also part of Urban Lyrebirds, with Passages 3 just out) and Susan Boyer from Boyer Education (who has an impressive new website).
We aren’t the only ones around, of course; there are other small EAL/ESOL publishers, some of whom haven’t got a website yet, or who are ‘about to publish’ – and my aim is to blog about them at clareharris.com. Please get in touch if that’s you, and please also get in touch if you’ve discovered some wonderful materials that everyone needs to know about!
