Job Discussion Forums

[Hatcher]

I posted this before but am hoping someone has some new ideas.

Does anyone have any experience in publishing ESL material on ALIBABA, We chat or Amazon China?

[jimpellow]

First I have seen you write of this personally.

Is the material geared for Chinese learners of English?

My first impression is probably exactly what your opinion is already. It's a big market, and pretty much all of the material produced for the market by Chinese sources is downright terrible. This would give you a large competitive edge and allow more pricing power. The downside is namely that your material will be quickly stolen and reproduced and even resold at will. Potential Chinese buyers will know this and look for the free or bootleg versions.

Beyond that, I find it hard to give my two cents without knowing more about your product and aims.

[Non Sequitur]

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

As cited by Jim Pellow, the most compelling reason not to publish in PRC is plagiarizing and copying. Aside from the Cambridge instructional books, I have seen very few western-published textbooks.

I think that NS's digital publishing may be the safest. At least he knows how many paying customers he has. Should he use a distributor, he might never know what his actual sales were.

Though I have amassed a fair amount of original material, I'd never consider publishing a word of it in the PRC.

Does anyone know how big the Chinese publishing industry is? There's a market out there for sure. Every book store I've been in has a lot of people in it. Come to think of it, though, there are lots of kids sitting on the floor reading the books.

[Non Sequitur]

The cost of freighting hard copies was what led me to the digital download route.
The website hosts Big Commerce which also provides the CC and Paypal services, talked me out of the physical delivery model and I'm pleased they did.

[Hatcher]

so the obvious question - are you making money on your site? Is it worth your time?

[Non Sequitur]

Mmmm
If I costed in everything it wouldn't be a better bet than putting the money in the bank.
But as the resources were developed and classroom tested over many semesters, it's not really fair as I've had my money's worth already.
I have a fairly big email correspondence with people interested in Oral English. We talk about resources in a hobby sense which is very satisfying.
For example a current issue is using songs as warm ups: Whether to use Youtube clips of original artists and hook into the glam OR more of a karaoke approach which needs extra effort from the students.

[jimpellow]

Another idea for you perhaps, if once again your material is aimed at the Asian student, would be to market it towards Asians living overseas. That seems to be one of the secrets of online ESL marketing, that being there is a good number of willing students who have the ability to pay and will go through sites like Udemy, which do attempt to keep course from being pirated.

[Non Sequitur]

Thanks Jim.
These are class sets for use by teachers and the standard class size for each activity is 60 students.
I'll PM you the link and you can take a look.
Thanks for your interest.
NS