Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jizza]

Hello, I'd like to discuss Writing English textbooks for the Korean market.

First of all, how does your Visa type impact your ability to write and market / sell the textbooks? Lets say you're on an E2 and you write the textbook entirely on your own money and time. If a company agrees to buy it and publish it, how does receiving royalties work? Because doing that kind of business is outside the boundaries of your E2 visa.

If you're on F2/F4 visa, I assume there should be no complications. But what happens if you lose your F2 visa? Can you continue to receive the royalties somehow.

Thanks.

[koreatimes]

If you wrote an English book, why would you rely on only Korea to sell the book? That's like only shipping the iPad to one country.

[Hotpants]

You generally don't write a whole text book and then plan to sell it to a publishing company. First, you prepare some samples which you can then pitch to publishing companies. Publishing companies can be quite picky/fickle as to what they are looking for. How do you know that your idea is marketable?

Anybody can prepare samples on any type of visa and approach publishers. IF (and it's a really big IF) your idea gets taken up, you can decide where advance fees/royalties go - ie, they can get paid to an overseas bank account which means you don't have to worry about your visa status. You also might wanna be warned that the scale of payment made to new writers is at the pretty low end - could be just a 1 million won advance with a 10% royalty on net sales over a certain figure. Be prepared that this fee might include being requested to produce all manner of workbooks and supplementary materials as well. Hardly a big money spinner - but it does often give your name a bit more credibility and can certainly help you get into uni gigs more easily.

[DaHu]

There are hundreds of books already available.