Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CoolBoss]

This past week, a hagwon owner I know asked me if I could write a set of textbooks for him. They would involve basic reading comprehension passages and listening comprehension scripts, and he'd like them to be geared towards students interested in entering Foreign Language High Schools.

These books would only be used in his academy-- not a franchised school, but one that does brisk business with the middle school students in our area.

He hasn't told me what he wants to pay me, but he is hoping I can work for an hourly rate as opposed to a lump sum. For those of you who have written books before, what do you think is fair to ask for? Is the standard 40-50,000 won that most people look for in private jobs too high, too low, or about right?

[megandadam]

if you are writing textbooks for him and especially if you are good at it, you can ask for as much as you want.

remind him that what you are writing can be applied across hagwons and if hgwons are all aboot making a "buck or two" (for my compatriots) it stands to reason that he might also make a few KRW or so.
sell the potential, unless of course you aren;t that good - in which case, i'd still say the overtime price should suffice.

from what i have read you should probably turn in a chapter a week or so (depending on the scope of his demands).

[Easter Clark]

I would charge an hourly rate because if you charge a flat rate they will stick it to you if everything isn't "just right," meaning you'll be doing a lot of re-editing for free.

AND I would also agree upon a percentage of income from the sales of the book. If the hagwon is acting as your publisher, then they should pay you a portion of what they make. If that's too much, sit down together, do some math, figure out about how much he plans to earn from selling the book to students over the course of the next few years, and get a lump sum based on that.

Just my 2 won's worth.

[sarbonn]

I've been working on a textbook for my school owner, and it's a book on debate. I'm not getting anything in addition to my normal rate, but I only work on it during my free time at work. I figure it will probably make him some money in the long run, and to be honest, I really don't care. It's going to be very well written and worthy of lots of continuous use. I'm a prolific writer who really doesn't care that I might be "used" in this particular situation. I write so much other stuff that this project is really inconsequential to me.

What I have discovered (and this is actually I'm posting this response) is that the boss tends to have a belief that it's easy to write and that all you have to do is just sit down and write it. A LOT of people have this belief about writing, and if you're going to be working on a text book and have to figure out how much you're going to charge for doing it, even though it goes against what I just said, ask the best price you can for your abilities, because writing is not an easy task; otherwise, they'd write it themselves or just hire some Korean hack teacher to write it instead.

On this project, he keeps hiring other Korean teachers to "help" me and I keep telling him to stop doing it because they don't know how to write just because they have an understanding of the language. They actually slow down progress.

Don't get stuck into the situation where your boss thinks that anyone can write if given enough time because it's shocking how many of them believe just that. And then you start to see the drivel that comes out from so many "writers" that really should never have sat down at a keyboard to begin with.

[kaosjin]

For editing papers the standard rate is about 15,000 won per page. I would charge double to triple that for writing a text.