The School Author Visit Marketing Kit
An Aid to Supplementary Income For Children's Book Authors
Sep 22, 2009
Writing for children is a very enjoyable way to make a living, but income can be erratic for the author who relies on royalties alone. Children's book authors can easily use their publishing success as a springboard to other ways of making money. One popular avenue is to specialise in school author visits.
Writers who actively promote themselves to schools will be rewarded with many more paid gigs than those who sit back and hope that schools will come to them. (Mostly, they won't. It's very rare for a school to take the initiative to contact new authors and ask them to visit - unless it's as a result of a 'local author makes good' article in a regional paper.)
The Contents of a School Author Visit Marketing Kit
- Author Photos: Choose several flattering (or quirky - we are talking kids!) author photos. Make one a head-and-shoulders shot; others can show the author holding up books or working with groups of children.
- Scanned covers of the author's books and/or short stories for children. The resulting photos can be stand-alone or included on a flyer.
- The author's CV: a brief summary of the author's career and background (make this relevant to writing for children); include any awards for writing, plus any experience with children and teaching qualifications. Teaching qualifications are not necessary for school author visits, of course - but they can swing things in your favour when you are starting out.
- A list of published books/short stories. Include publisher and ISBN - this is useful info for school librarians.
- A page of testimonials from previous schools, teachers, or children who have participated in the author's workshops. (An author who is just starting out with school visits will probably find it worthwhile to phone a local school and offer to give a one-hour author talk free of charge, in return for teachers completing a feedback sheet. This sheet can include things like "Do you have any suggestions for content for future talks?"; "What can a visiting author offer your students that would be really useful?" and "What did you most like about today's visit?" Include a box for teachers to tick saying "I give permission for my comments to be quoted to other schools" and voila! The author has a testimonial to help secure other bookings.)
- An information sheet describing the range of author talks and workshops offered, and the duration of the talks (half an hour, one hour, a two-hour workshop etc)
- A list of any extra teacher resources that are provided to the school as a 'value-added extra' - writing exercises that can be done in class after the author visit; workbooks; short PowerPoint presentations about the book and author that can be left with the school, etc.
- Details of any PowerPoint presentations that can be given as part of the author talk. This can be a point of difference for authors. Many schools have facilities for PowerPoint presentations, but authors who plan to do regular school visits might prefer to provide their own laptop, projector and portable screen. The advantage to this is, of course, that the author can test it all at home and know that it works!
- Specify any 'guest speaker' requirements - for example, it's wise to specify that a teacher must be in attendance. Authors should not have to spend half of their time settling restless children: this is the teacher's job. In addition, authors who might like to politely request that children who present behavioural problems either be excluded or be placed next to a teacher for the duration of the talk.
- An outline of the author's fees for school visits (this can vary according to length of talk; full day or half-day visits; the amount of preparation involved for workshops, and travel time/costs). If the author is basing fees on rates recommended by a professional organisation, then say so. Specify breaks between sessions; the author at least needs time to eat lunch without rushing!
These are basic suggestions for the contents of a marketing kit. Authors will find that as their school visits increase and the word gets out, they will want to include other things, or fine-tune what is in their kit.
Getting the Word Out About the Author's Availability for School Visits
Once the marketing kit has been created, the author needs to be active in getting the word out. It's all very well to have a professional, impressive marketing package for school author visits - but it won't be much use sitting in a cupboard at home!
Authors can interest schools in visits by posting details on their website (such as this example on author Margriet Ruurs' site) then following up with a full marketing kit; by creating a book trailer on YouTube with a link back to the site; by mentioning their availability in an article in the local paper, by doing a mailout to local schools, and by contacting a professional placement organisation for school author visits.(it's likely that a speaker's bureau will require authors to have some experience in schools before taking them on.)
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