SIMON SAYS – Tips for Teachers: Author Visits Part Ten – Scheduling and Equipment
September 1, 2010 by Writing for Children
Filed under Blog, Simon Says
The author will normally have planned his workshops and presentations before his arrival at the school, but make sure you discuss a schedule for the visit with the author as well. Ask them how long his sessions usually run for, the audience sizes the author prefers, if there will be time for questions, any dietary needs the author may have if you are providing any meals and if he has any audio-visual requirements. The author may be uncomfortable being photographed or filmed, so make sure you ask about that, too.
At a school familiar with author visits, everything is usually well handled. However, it is not unknown for a school to have arranged too many sessions, allowing no time for students to get in and out of the library, gymnasium or wherever the author is presenting. The author may also be unpleasantly surprised at the size of an audience. Let’s say his presentation is very interactive and requires participation from the students. This may be ideal with up to a hundred children or even with a single class, but could be less than perfect if the author is unexpectedly faced with a group of three hundred or more. The author may have specific presentations for different age ranges, or ones for which he uses different props, so make sure you let the author know if your school prefers those particular sessions, so he doesn’t show up without the right materials.
SIMON SAYS -Tips for Teachers: Author Visits Part Nine – Financial Considerations
August 25, 2010 by Writing for Children
Filed under Simon Says
No examination of author visits to schools and libraries would be complete without some mention of fees and honorariums. Fees naturally vary from one author to another and while writing organizations have recommended rates, usually calculated by the hour, it’s still wise to do your own research. While some authors charge by the hour, others may charge by the day, half-day or even per head. Prices also vary greatly from one part of the country to another. What an author may consider a fair rate for his or her time and services in one city may appear expensive elsewhere, or even completely out of the range of a school in a less affluent region. These differences in pricing and affordability apply to Canada, the United States, the UK and other countries where there are always going to be significant regional variations, between both urban and rural areas or simply when comparing different areas of the same country.
Make sure you always ensure that author in agreement about all the school’s financial matters well in advance. This is particularity true of mileage, which may not be possible to calculate until the author arrives at the school. However, you should attempt to get at least a rough estimate, since this will be an additional charge on top of the author’s agreed fee. Should meals and accommodation be required and the author expects the school to foot the bill, make sure this is all discussed beforehand as well. If your school requires invoices before they can release payment for anything, make sure the author is aware of this so that they can send you the appropriate paperwork. Similarly, ensure that you inform the author if your school requires forms to be filled out for the payroll department, if banking information is needed for direct deposit of the fee or if you require the author’s social insurance information. With regards to the financial aspects of an author visit, planning and preparation in advance is always advisable.
SIMON SAYS – Tips for Teachers? Author Visits, Part 8 – School Tours
August 18, 2010 by Writing for Children
Filed under Simon Says
In addition to school visits in their local city or geographic area, authors often travel and usually try to arrange tours of schools in other parts of the country. This can involve a working week in an area, with either full days at five different schools, ten half-day visits or a combination of this. Such tours can be a challenge for an author to organize, considering the bookings themselves and all the arrangements which will vary from school to school, plus travel, accommodation, meals and so on. However, in the best case scenario, one teacher may make all the arrangements for the author, contacting his or her colleagues at other nearby schools, setting up an itinerary, arranging for transportation between venues and even organizing accommodation in someone’s home. The author’s books may have proved very popular in your school, you may have completed novel studies using one or more of their titles or you may simply have loved the author’s work and want to make your students more aware of their books.
Most authors have websites and blogs these days so are usually relatively easy to contact, but they live in a different part of the country, you will be incurring additional costs on top of the author’s fee for a school or library visit. However, although each school will be responsible for covering their own fee, other expenditures can be minimized if the costs of the accommodation and travel, for example, are shared equally between all the schools involved in the tour. It can certainly be a lot of work if you’re the one organizing everything in the local area, perhaps on behalf of up to ten schools, but an author tour can be very worthwhile, raising the profile as an author with children and parents. Plus, very often the local media will take an interest and send photographers and reporters to cover one or more of the author’s appearance, giving valuable publicity to your school and its programs.
SIMON SAYS – Author Visits Part Seven – Study Guides and Classroom Resources
August 13, 2010 by Writing for Children
Filed under Simon Says, for children's writers
Some authors offer study guides for teachers to download from their website or to purchase, for use either before a visit or just as an ongoing teaching resource. These guides often have exercises connected to certain chapters or episodes in the novel, worksheets about specific characters or may describe potential projects related to the subject matter of the author’s books.
Two of my novels, The Sorcerer’s Letterbox and The Heretic’s Tomb, are set in the Middle Ages, so teachers can plan projects about medieval life and society, castles, warfare, research the Black Death and other historical events. The plot of The Alchemist’s Portrait involves an art gallery in a museum and students can be asked to draw inspiration for some creative writing exercises by examining classic paintings and portraits.
Children can create superheroes and comic books using The Emerald Curse as a resource or even invent their own unique board game. I have word search puzzles for children to download at any time, although I also encourage teachers to make use of these before an author visit, to familiarize the children with my work.
Teachers can also access The Super Scavenger Search, where the answers to a series of mind boggling questions are hidden in different pages all over my website. Resources like these enable students to learn about the author and thus have lots of great questions on the day of the visit.
SIMON SAYS – Author Visits Part Six – Author in Residence
August 3, 2010 by Writing for Children
Filed under Simon Says, for children's writers
Last week, we talked about determining what type of presentation you might be looking for during an author visit to your school. These mostly related to one day visits, but for an here on my website. However, this is just an example, and I am always happy to discuss a residency with the school to determine how the time there will work best. I offer a variety of presentations and you can see these on my website here. However, certain sessions remain popular, such as those relating to the superhero genre, the subject matter of The Emerald Curse, or the ones about time travel, since three books feature this theme. You can learn about the subject matter of my books here.
I also offer a variety of workshops on writing topics such as character development and dialogue, creating stories for younger students in K to 2, and on popular subjects such as the fantasy realm and science fiction, but I am very flexible and always happy to discuss matters with the teachers to ensure a good fit with the students.
I have also worked on dramatic productions with children, both in schools and at summer camps, plus I conduct programs very similar to a residency in my work with homeschooled students. Any author who is advertising his services as an author in residence will similarly have a wealth of material to draw on for workshops designed to take place over the course of a week or longer at your school.
