Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nolegirl]

So this is what my contract says:

The teacher will be paid a salary of 2,500,000 Korean Won per month for working up to 120 teaching hours a month while the teacher who participates in publishing or making books for Entop will be paid a salary of 3,000,000 Korean Won per month. Salary and overtime is to be paid to the Teacher on a monthly basis to be determined by the Employer. Pay will be given on the 8th of the month for the previous month.

If the teacher teaches for more than 120 hours during a month, the Teacher will be paid for overtime. The overtime pay will be 30,000 Korean Won per hour. Attendance at the scheduled staff meetings is not considered overtime.

ummm. has anyone done this publishing book thing. I guess this is what I am going to be doing from now until September when my classe start.

Whats up with this??

[fustiancorduroy]

I wrote books at my last hagwon. While it really capitalized on the skills I learned as an English major in college, the work was difficult and stressful. If you do it, make sure you either: have very little writing responsibilities and/or teach no more than 2 classes per day (ideally 1 or less per day). Frankly, having to deal with teaching AND writing isn't worth the extra 500,000 won, I'd say.

[i]

Many years ago my hakwon didn't have enough students, so asked the teachers to write. We were given xerox copies of multiple choice textbooks on the market and asked to change the sentences so our dictator boss (who could barely speak English, but had a reputation as one of the best in the market) could publish them. Ex: Johnny went to the zoo to see _____. We'd write, Phil went to the gynecologist to see the _____.
We then had to have all our pictures taken to put on the back of the book. Believe it or not, those who were legal went as is. The illegal teachers wore sunglasses. I still have a copy of 2 of the books back in the states. To boot, we had one of the only homosexual Koreans I've ever seen take the pic. He wanted us to pose, but our poses were completely unacceptable. Finally we started goofing around, then he took the pic and that was the pic on the back of the books. Those were the days.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[WoBW]

You want to get a royalties deal, not flat salary for the books. I get 6% and it's working out fine.

[TOMODACHI-KID]

[i]

I must add, I worked a lot in book deals and never made a cent. In addition to the books I mentioned above, I edited a traditional Korean book on Korean roofs, and was promised a copy of the book (a personal favor). Only got a copy of the book published before I edited it, full of Konglish. Nothing I could brag about on a resume. Deals in Korean publishing sucked for me.

[PRagic]

If you were writing a book for the market, and if you could find a publisher, you'd be getting 10% of cover per printing. That would be a decent deal. First printings by most small-medium sized publishers are usually 3000 books. Most books at the level that inexperienced educators can put together usually run about 8-12 thousand won. Most publishing companies won't touch anything written by inexperienced educators with only a BA in an unrelated field. Most foreign writers, therefore, either ghostwrite or co-publish with a named author.

Do the math. ESL publishing here is a gimick game. You need the name and you need the job platform to justify whey people should buy your book.

Don't bother.

[nolegirl]

ok, thanks. I'll tell them I am not intersted but I will be doing this til September when my classes start.