The empty plate - Behind the scenes of face2face Part. 2

The empty plate Where were we, Dave? Ah yes, it was 2002 and Chris and I had just been signed up to write a four book series, which later became a six book series. Now, I know you don’t spend time worrying about where your next meal’s coming from, Dave, (’cos that’ll be me) but we humans do. So, giving up a teaching job and committing to full time writing truly is a leap of faith. For starters, what do you live on while you’re writing? In our case we were given advances every month, which would be paid back from any future royalties we earned. But what if there weren’t any! When you start these projects you and the publishers are sharing the risk. If it fails, you both lose out! Yes, Dave, I know that didn’t happen to face2face and happily it went to a second edition. I’m just saying, success isn’t guaranteed just because you’ve got a publisher. So, trying to get the ingredients right from the beginning is crucial.

Before writing began in earnest, Chris and I had a lot of planning meetings with the editorial team. Some things were already set in stone before we got on board, things like publishing dates, budgets, management of the project etc.

However, we were fortunate in having editors who really were interested in listening to our ideas about methodology and content. Then, using their

knowledge of publishing (and often their own teaching experience), they helped inform, shape and guide those ideas until finally a book structure began to emerge with its methodological principles firmly in place. I know that may sound simple, Dave, but if I break that last sentence down a bit more for you, you’ll begin to appreciate exactly how much was involved.

The underlying methodology -

how we present the language

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how we practice and test the language

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the balance of skills work

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the language syllabus - grammar, functions, lexical sets, lexical chunks,

collocations etc.

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the skills syllabus – e.g. developing sub-skills and general strategies for

coping with listening, speaking, reading and writing -

recycling and revising language

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the students’ DVD

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what makes this book different to its competition etc.

The structure of the book -

number of units

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number of pages per unit

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how the unit is divided (e.g. sections or lessons)

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the progression of activities within each section or lesson

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what goes in the endmatter [audio scripts, language summaries, extra

communicative activities etc.]

Yes, Dave, all that and the rest! And remember we hadn’t actually started writing yet. This was just getting the building blocks in place.

What’s that, Dave? You are starting to worry about where your next meal’s coming from. I don’t know. That internal dinner alarm of yours! OK, we’ll stop there for the moment.

Watch the video to find out more about face2face 2nd edition here cambridge.org/face2face2