SIMON SAYS – Tips for Teachers: Author Visits Part Five – Types of Presentations

Many authors who conduct school visits on a long-term basis have a well thought out set of presentations, workshops and other material. These might be related to their own books, but also to topics such as editing and revision, for example. Authors might talk about where they get their inspiration, character development or just how a book comes together, and whenever possible they leave time for questions from the children.

In addition to the subject matter of my own books, I cover such topics as where ideas come from, story structure, editing and revision, character development, time travel stories, the superhero genre, history and research and more. I will present to up to a hundred students at a time, although the smaller the audience the more participation from children, as a rule. I also consider workshops with smaller groups or individual classes. A list of some of the presentations I offer can be found here, but I am always happy to discuss matters with teachers to design sessions to best serve the needs of their students.

An important thing to consider when deciding to host an author visit is what type of presentation you’re looking for. There are usually numerous types to choose from and all authors are different in this regard. Are you looking for an author who will just read to the children or only be there to answer questions from the students, either about their book or about writing in general? Perhaps there’s part of the school curriculum that you would like to emphasize and the author’s books are related to it in some way? Is there a project the students have been involved in to which the author can contribute, either by assisting them in getting started or in bringing it to a satisfactory conclusion? Are you looking for workshops, in which you want the children to actually do some writing or would you like them just to listen to a presentation? Are there particular general topics on writing, rather than those related to the subject matter of the books, that you want the author to focus on? Do you want small groups in classrooms or the library or a hundred or more children in the school gym? How long do you want the sessions to be, to fit in with the normal schedule of the school day? Do you want the author to actually teach the children something or simple appear almost as a celebrity guest to inspire them? These are all important things to consider when planning an author visit and ensuring that it all goes smoothly.