SIMON SAYS – Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children’s Writers – In Conclusion
February 3, 2010 by Adrian
Filed under Simon Says
While its very important to do your own homework in terms of discussing schedules with the teachers, organizing your presentations, planning your topics to fill a week or more as an author in residence, selecting subject matter appropriate to each audience, ensuring that all financial matters are in order and so on, before embarking on a school visit, the experience is usually very rewarding for children’s authors. School visits allow you to talk about your own work, your inspiration, your future projects, answer questions, sell some autographed copies of your books, and present yourself to a entirely new audience or geographic area. Writing in any discipline can be a solitary, even lonely profession, but children’s authors do have the opportunity to visit to schools and libraries, allowing you to connect with your readers on a personal level. Children are also thrilled to meet an author, especially if they are familiar with your work, and if they are not, you will most likely gain a whole new set of readers as a result of your visit to the school.
An author visit can also be very beneficial to the school, inspiring the students and encouraging them in their own writing or just getting them excited about books and reading. You may also help them to explore their own artistic creativity, whether this involves writing, illustration, painting, poetry, sculpture, photography, film or another discipline altogether and ultimately, you may even make a real difference in the lives of some of your readers.
SIMON SAYS – Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children’s Writers – School Tours
December 1, 2009 by Adrian
Filed under Simon Says
In addition to school vists in your own city or geographic area, it is also possible to arrange tours to 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 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 you, 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. At the other end of the scale, you have to set up everything yourself and if hotels and car rental are involved, in addition to air fare, it will be your decision to determine if the trip will be financially viable.
Although the experience is usually exhausting, it can be very worthwhile, with high volumes of book sales at the schools, an increase in your visibility with the children and parents, and very often the local media will take an interest, further raising your profile as an author.
SIMON SAYS – Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children’s Writers – Marketing
November 25, 2009 by Adrian
Filed under Simon Says
I always carry business cards since you never know who you might meet on your travels. Even when running errands at the bank or grocery store, at a sporting event with your children, or even at the beach in summer, you may meet someone who is influential on the parent teacher association at their school and may get you the attention of the teacher or librarian.
Word of mouth advertising is always said to be the best, but there are, of course, many ways to promote and market yourself to the school community. It can be tough sometimes to know who to send your material to, since the librarian has sometimes been eliminated at a school and perhaps a teacher is looking after the library, in addition to their other roles at the school. In other schools, you may find a librarian who only works for three days, then is at a different location for the rest of the week.
However, all schools have a principal and that is often the best initial point of contact, although, there is still no guarantee that your material will reach the decision maker.
I do have a flyer outlining all my services, such as editing, manuscript evaluation, online workshops for adults and children, parties and summer camps, corporate writing and so on, as well as school visits, which I have mailed to all the schools in my area and always have on hand at my events.
There is no sure thing in marketing and advertising and you really have to try out a lot of different methods, to determine what works best for you.
SIMON SAYS – Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children’s Writers – Promotion
November 11, 2009 by Adrian
Filed under Simon Says
If you plan on doing school and library vists, you do, of course, have to let people know that. A website is a must these days and without one, you might as well not exist professionally. The section of your website by which you intend to to secure school visits needs to be enticing and filled with details if you are hoping to get teachers and librarians interested enough to contact you. Details of my school visits are HERE and I also have pages including comments on my appeances at schools from children and teachers, as mentioned last week.
My website has a LIST of all the schools I have ever visted, as well as some libraries, festivals and young writer’s conferences, since many of these also have websites, where a visit that took place several years ago will be archived, which all increases your visibility on the web.
I have information on the books on my website, including the background and influences behind the stories. This can be a good selling point when you are trying get the teachers interested in a visit. The Emerald Curse, for example, is all about the comic book genre and teachers are often very fond of this topic, considered a good way to reach reluctant boy readers. I also have pages devoted to the historical background of The Sorcerer’s Letterbox and The Heretic’s Tomb, since the medieval period is also often of interest to teachers. The Doomsday Mask background page deals with the end of the Second World War, the city of Atlantis, ancient mysteries, crystal skulls and so on. The more interesting you can make your material, the better your chances of attracting someone’s attention. My website has study guides to all my books, as well as puzzles about each novel and an online scavenger search.
I do post articles about my school vists on my own blog periodically to draw people to my website and also regularly post on Facebook, Twitter and other places online about my school and library programs. I also have flyers about all my services, as well as business cards, on my table at any book signing events I do in the run up to Christmas. You never know who might be listening.
SIMON SAYS – Author Visits, Presentations and Workshops by Children’s Writers – Inspiration, Imagination and Invention
November 4, 2009 by Adrian
Filed under Simon Says
Unlike those writing for an adult audience, children’s authors have far more opportunities to secure speaking engagements. Many teachers and librarians at elementary, junior high and, depending on the age range of your books, senior high schools, like to host artists every school year. They know that an author visit can be inspirational, boosting student creativity and encouraging them in their own writing. And from your own point of view, meeting your readers can be one of the most enjoyable elements of a school visit. Younger students especially are almost always thrilled to meet a published author, especially if they have read your books.
I am always pleased to receive e mails from children who enjoyed my visit to their school and here are just a few examples.
“Thank you for coming to our school. I really enjoyed your presentation and your books are FANTASTIC! You’re the greatest author ever!”
“Thank you for coming to our school to share your ideas for your books. I learned that being an author is really hard work. I think you are a great author and hope you finish all your books”
“It was an honour to see you at our school. You are very nice and funny. I think I might try to become an author like you because it sounds challenging and very much fun”
“I really enjoyed your presentation. I learned a lot about how fun it can be to write a story”
“Thank you for coming to visit our school. Most authors just come in and talk about their book, but you told us how many drafts you had and we made characters together.”
“I thought it was really neat to meet a real author because someday I want to be an author as well. Thank you for coming to my school. I will never forget it.”
“I enjoyed your performance very much. You have a very interesting imagination. You are the best author that has come to our school.”
You can view more comments from children about my school visitshere and teacher and librarian comments can be found here. School and library visits offer a invaluable opportunity to connect with your readers on a personal level and in some cases you can make a real difference in children’s lives, stimulating their imagination or simply getting them more interested in books and reading.
