Authors and Teachers Coming Together

Recently I was helping to organize a family reading festival. Children’s authors who had participated in the past had an unusual (I

thought) comment. Throughout the whole day not one teacher had approached them about a school visit. Many teachers attend the festival, some schools even have their own table with literary-themed activities for students.

As many children’s authors will tell you, live events such as school visits are one of the best ways to connect with readers. So why aren’t young readers and authors connecting in this way? With the help of comments from both teachers and authors I’ve come up with a few tips.

1. Information – It turns out only 25% of the authors involved in our festival had information about school visits on their websites – even though almost all of them were open to school visits of some type (some had restrictions on distance traveled, etc.). So get that information into cyber-space! And if you’re participating in something like a reading festival it doesn’t hurt to have a flyer with the information that teachers and other interested people (homeschoolers, librarians, etc) can pick up off your table or you can hand out to teachers so you can book that next event.

2. Money – Teachers’ budgets have been slashed from next to nothing to nothing. But if a school is in your area why not consider an abbreviated form of your visit that focuses on the school with a goal of pre-selling a certain number of your book as opposed to collecting a speaker’s fee? Point out that they don’t have to sell just to their school community but can also sell to the community at large. Other things such as visiting two nearby schools in one day or scheduling a visit when you’ll already be in the area can allow you to take a portion off your fee and still make the day worth your while.

3. Plan an Event – Yes, it seem overwhelming but with the help of a few other authors it can be manageable. Because after all, children (and parents) are more likely to come out for an event where they can meet 10 authors as opposed to just one. So befriend the other authors in your area and find a spot – a library, shopping mall, school, Y and find out if they’re willing to host an event or allow you to “piggyback” off an event they’re already planning.