VERSATILE
Versatile.pub is the address of a small, independent publishing venture which got off the ground in spring 2015. It is just starting to publish a variety of works, mainly written, co-authored, edited or commissioned by James Thomas. These are mostly resources for teachers and students of English as a second or foreign language, but the literature, poetry, music and software of other creative minds are currently in our sights.
It was felt that there was room for language teaching resources that venture into areas that other publishers avoid. One of these areas is contemporary linguistics. Recent insights into discourse, phonology, corpus linguistics, text analysis and semantics can contribute greatly to the teaching of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Another area whose presence is not felt in most contemporary teaching material is the PARSNIP set of topics. This acronym stands for politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics, -isms, pork. Avoiding these topics is a marketing decision that large commercial publishers make to ensure that their products can be sold everywhere. In respecting the intelligence and maturity of teachers and students, Versatile does not shy away from the PARSNIP. |
A peek into our creative nest in Brno, Czechia. This does not necessitate being provocative, gratuitous, subversive, titillating or outrageous. Rather, our publications aim to be innovative, sophisticated, exciting, adaptable and imaginative. Versatile readily accepts that its publications will not satisfy all of the people all of the time. Versatile would not be possible without the innovations in internet technology in the areas of self-publishing, print-on-demand, content-management systems, social media and language corpora. After some investigation and experimentation, Lulu.com was chosen as the printer and distributor. See the Lulu page in this website. |
