Category Archives: getting gigs

This refers to setting fees and promoting availability

Author Visit Worries

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School Visit - 2011 SV Stockton - Sunday Sundaes

Even seasoned school visit presenters have moments of doubt, as do authors new to the circuit. Recently, when I did a presentation on author visits at the SCBWI North-Central California Spring Spirit Conference, the participants’ three major worries had to do with the content and pacing of their presentation, what fees to charge, and getting gigs.

Since these might be some of your worries, too, here are some articles to get you started. Search for more on this blog site, and, if you are a member of SCBWI, check out my SCBWI Bulletin column, “The Truth About School Visits” for additional articles.

QUESTION: What should I do in a presentation? How do I pace my time? How do I keep from boring the kids?

ARTICLE: What Do I Do When I Get There?
ARTICLE: Plotting Your Assembly Story

QUESTION: How much should I charge?

ARTICLE: How Much Should I Charge?
ARTICLE: Fee or Free?

QUESTION: How do I get gigs?

ARTICLE: Getting Gigs
ARTICLE: Nine Business Basics for School Visits

Please share any questions you might have. I’m happy to connect you to helpful resources.

Example: School Visit Video

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Hanging Off Jeffersons NoseHere’s a 1:20 minute school visit promotional video by Tina Nichols Coury that promises a star-spangled presentation.

 

Tina Nichols Coury is the author of Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose: Growing Up on Mount Rushmore (Penguin USA). I like that she has produced more than one video, and that one of the videos — the Mount Rushmore Tour – wasn’t just about promoting herself or her book. It offered educational value for students. I can picture teachers and librarians using this to prepare kids in advance of her visit.

Here are my thoughts on her School Visit video:

  • This is a professional-quality video, produced by Tina herself
  • The length is just right — in the sweet spot of 1:20 minutes
  • The video mixes still images with live action
  • Images show Tina interacting with kids in the audience as well as on stage.
  • The kids are engaged – those in the audience are raising hands and those on stage are wearing costumes.
  • She clearly shows the cover of her book
  • The contact information including her phone number and email stays on the screen long enough (11 seconds) to copy down

Here are some tweaks she might consider making:

  • School librarians love to show author videos. Make this section easier to find. Make a button called VIDEOS. List all videos here – the school visit, the tour, the three book trailers.
  • I wouldn’t use the word “promo.” It’s too industry-chat / sales sounding. Instead of “School Visit Promo,” she might call it “A Visit with Tina” or “Star-Spangled Assemblies” or “Spend a Day with Tina”

Thanks, Tina, for the opportunity to take a closer look at your school visit video.

Does anyone else have a school visit video you’d like to share? Send it my way!

Make a Video Calling Card for School Visits

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After my last post, author Carrie Pearson invited me to take a tour of her website to see what I thought about her school visit pages. A brave soul!

The first thing I saw — and clicked on – was a video posted prominently at the top of her school visit page. In the next 2:16 minutes, I enjoyed images backed with pleasant music. From that brief encounter, here’s what I learned about Carrie:

1) She’s fun
2) She’s published science-related children’s books
3) She’s willing to travel
4) She’s presented programs for kids in Pre-K to 7
5) She’s done Family Night events
6) She conducts writing workshops
7) She has great testimonials from adults and kids
8) She is easy to reach (website address is posted at the end)

Carrie created this “video calling card” via Animoto, using a template. I’ve also seen them done through Vimeo as well.

While I think the sweet spot for this kind of promotion (including book trailers) is between 1 minute and 1.5 minutes, I think this works really well to introduce Carrie to potential hosts. Personally, I liked that it wasn’t a hard-sell, but I might have added a tag line that expressed what action I want the viewer to take:  “Invite Carrie to your school! www.CarriePearsonBooks.com”

According to a recent article by Teymour Shahabion Digital Book World, as of August 2014, Facebook has been delivering more video views than YouTube—by about one billion views. A video posted on Facebook is far likelier to be seen than is any other type of post. So, when you do make that school visit video, be sure to post it to Facebook as well as YouTube.

Do you have a link to a school visit promotional video you’d like to share here? Send it to me and I’ll post it for others to enjoy.

 

School Visits – Are You Easy for Hosts to Find?

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Magnifying-Glass-on-KeyboardIt’s one thing to say that you want to do school visits. But are you making it difficult for potential host to find you?

Frankly, I just spent a full day clicking on over 75 author websites for a Friends of the Library project. Schools don’t have the time or tenacity to go through this volume of names just to find one person for a day of assemblies.  Here are some tips for making it easy to be discovered.

Your Number One calling card is your website. If you don’t have a real author-dedicated website – preferably in your own name – you’re not serious about being an author who does presentations. Have a friend check your links to make sure they work.

What do you need on your website? I visited many “pretty” websites. “Pretty” on its own doesn’t sell a school visit. Information in an easily accessible form does. You must have at least these two buttons: one for “Books” and another for “School Visits” or “Presentations.”

Under “Books” include story summaries, reviews, awards.
Reviews that carry weight will be from any of these sources:
School Library Journal
Publishers’ Weekly
Kirkus
The Horn Book
Booklist
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Library Media Connection

Some of the types of awards that are prestigious are:
State Awards
Best Books lists (i.e. Bank Street College)
Junior Library Guild selection
Children’s Books Notable Lists (Social Studies,  Science)
American Library Association Awards (i.e. “Oscar” status) Batchelder, Belpré, Caldecott, Carnegie, Geisel, Newbery, Odyssey, Sibert, Wilder
Young Adult Library Services Awards (YALSA) including the Alex, Morris, Edwards, Printz, and YALSA Excellence in nonfiction.
National Book Award
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award

About books. If you plan to work with a bookseller at your appearance, then know that the bookseller needs you to have at least one book in print and available for students to access. If your book is digital-only, understand that many schools will not be able to provide it to share with or assign to students in preparation for your visit.

Under the “School Visits” or “Presentations” button
Describe your presentation(s) and number of sessions you can do per visit.

Tell what grades your presentations are best for: Primary (K-2); Intermediate (grades 3-5); Middle School (Grades 6-8) or High School (Grades 9-12)

Post testimonials from people who have seen you perform along with their positions (If you can’t write a specific name, put their role and school, i.e. Librarian, Buckley Elementary; 6th grader, Easton Middle School, etc.)

Outline your fees (optional). Many authors like wiggle room to negotiate, so they choose not to post set fees. Others want potential hosts to know up front what all costs will be (honorarium, travel, lodging, meals). In this area, you can breakdown options (full-day/half-day/hourly; assemblies, workshops, small group sessions; in-person/SKYPE).

For a good example of an author who includes it all, check out Lee Wardlaw’s detailed descriptions of her presentations.

Discoverability is challenging. After you spruce up your website, get on professional lists and keep them updated. If you are a member of SCBWI (and why wouldn’t you be?), be sure to update your information on the Speakers’ Bureau site. Network with authors about school visit leads. Here are some other posts I’ve done related to this topic.

SKYPE: A Great Tool for MG and YA Authors

Brochure Overhaul for School Visit Promotion

How Much Should I Charge? Three Rules of Thumb

Make it easy for hosts to find you. Your website is your first most important calling card. The next is the quality of the books you write and the presentations that you deliver. So get going!

 

 

Tense About School Visits? You Don’t Have to Do Them

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Get out of Jail Free3Are you the kind of author or illustrator who finds doing school visits to be excruciatingly painful? You don’t enjoy being on-stage during assemblies. You’re exhausted thinking of the energy it takes to be social off-stage with school personnel. You need lots of quiet time. But when you published your first book, someone told you that to be a children’s book author, you have to do school visits.

Well, I’m about to give you your “Get out of Jail Free” card:

• It is perfectly okay to never, ever do a public appearance.
• It is perfectly okay to take a break from doing appearances.
• And it is perfectly okay to focus all your energies on creating your next book.

It’s true that there are lots of benefits of doing school visits – connecting with readers, selling books, earning extra income. But if this causes more pain than pleasure, don’t do them.

So let’s back up a bit. Why are you a reluctant presenter? It’s possible that you are a true introvert. However, it could be that other circumstances are making you hesitant to do appearances. Here are five major challenges and solutions to think about:

Challenge: Family Obligations
Situation: Your kids may still in school, or your aging parents need attention. Schedules are crazy, and it’s difficult to justify time away from home. You want to squeeze out every moment of togetherness with you family while you can, and still write more books.
Solution: Limit appearances to within driving distance of your home. Do half-days (mornings only) so you can still pick up your kids at school. For appearances further away, consider doing virtual school visits via Skype, teleconferences or e-mail interviews. Map out days within a month that you will be available to do schools, and schedule all within that time frame

Challenge: Job Juggle
Situation: You are employed at another job to pay the bills consistently. Your time-off is limited.
Solution: Give your new books a big push at launch time, then ease off.  If your family doesn’t mind, use vacation days for big events. Check with your employer about flex-time and trade evening or weekend hours for a day when schools are in session.

Challenge: Fear
Situation: You hate to ____ (fill in the blank with your own travel nightmare i.e. fly, drive, pack, etc.) and will do anything to avoid it.
Solution: If you fear flying but want to travel, either plan enough time for taking a train or bus, hire a driver, or enroll in a program such as www.gogetterjetsetter.com. For fear of packing (the thing I not so much fear as hate to do), check out www.onebag.com.

Challenge: Lack of Skill or Experience
Situation: You like the idea of doing school visits, but don’t know what to do for a program. Or you’re worried that the kids will get out of control
Solution: You’re in luck. Go to past blog posts on SchoolVisitExperts.com for advice. (You’re reading one now!) Read my columns, “The Truth About School Visits” (past and present) in the SCBWI Bulletin. Also, observe authors and illustrators in action at schools, libraries and bookstores. Join in supportive discussions about appearances on your local SCBWI listservs. Start with small events and work up to bigger ones.

Challenge: Shyness
Situation: Okay — so some of you would rather chew rats than stand in front of an audience.
Solution: There’s really no “solution” for being shy.  It’s just who you are. But you’ve managed to cope all these years in social situations.  And what you’re calling “shyness” may be just a lack of confidence.  Introverts will find comfort in the posts at http://shrinkingvioletpromotions.blogspot.com/ . But if you would like to bolster your confidence, consider joining a local chapter of Toastmasters, the organization of choice for many shy authors, and you will amaze yourself with the strategies you’ll learn to become an engaging speaker.

Remember — if you’re invited to speak, it’s because a school admires your books as well as you, the creator. While you can politely decline invitations, you might give some thought about what’s standing in the way of your accepting their offer. And if you can find a way to meet your fans, it will extend the life of the books you’re creating.

Getting Invitations to Speak at Local, State and National Conferences

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ALA Collage - Cropped

There are four basic ways to get gigs and be visible at local, state and national conferences such as ALA, ILA, NCTE and those that are subject specific.

• Keynote speaker: Authors who keynote at state or national library or reading conferences are either invited directly by the organizers or promoted to organizers by publishers. A publisher may choose to promote a debut author, a front-list author or a popular backlist author. Expenses are picked up either by the publisher or the organizer, and the author may or may not receive an honorarium for this appearance.

• Book signing: Authors who sign books at a publisher’s booth at national trade shows are invited by the publisher to appear. These signings are generally reserved for front-list authors from that calendar year or who are on the publisher’s current bestseller list. A publisher may offer full or partial reimbursements for travel and/or lodging to the author along with free entry to the trade show, but all other expenses are up to the author.

• Session or workshop presenter by invitation from the organizer: This gives you a special designation in the conference program and offers an opportunity to be scheduled for a book signing.

• Session or workshop presenter by proposal sent in by you: You can submit proposals to do a session or workshop at a conference by following the organization’s submission policy and deadlines. Conference registration fees are usually waived for the session organizer, but other expenses are your responsibility. This does not guarantee you will have a special designation in the conference program or an opportunity to be scheduled for a book signing.

• Conference participant: For those who keep their ear to the ground, merely being a participant can offer information about issues that the author can address in upcoming proposal submissions. It’s also a way for you to meet potential hosts and generate contacts for future events.

TIPS
• Let your publishers know you are eager to speak or sign at conferences. If you have specific conferences in mind, tell them. Suggest they promote a panel of their authors to speak on a topic to the organizers.

• Make a grid of proposal deadlines and themes for upcoming conferences. (You might combine efforts with your writers group to generate this.)

• Propose a session.  You will end up expending money for this if accepted, but it gives you a great platform for meeting potential hosts. For best results, focus on state and local branches of the national organizations.

• Join relevant organizations. When you join a professional organization, you will have access to benefits such as listserv discussions, early announcements of upcoming events and reduced rates for events.

• Look for the state and local affiliates of national organizations for speaking opportunities.  For example, the ALA (American Library Association) has a list of state and regional chapters. They also have a spreadsheet showing which state library associations also have school library associations.

Here are a few parent organizations to check out:
ILA –   International Literacy Association
ALA –   American Library Association
NCTE – National Council of Teachers of English
NAEYC – National Association for the Education of Young Children
Also, look for subject-specific conferences (math, science, social studies, etc)

Understand that this is a “long-tail” investment: the longer you’re in the organization and the better you know the people in it, the more visibility you’ll receive over the long term.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you.

Podcast: Evergreen School Visit Advice

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Brain Burps About Books - LogoGrab your earbuds and turn up your speakers for some “evergreen” school visit advice. This is an interview that the one-and-only Katie Davis did with me on her podcast, Brain Burps About Books.  Katie is a writer, an illustrator, and a video marketing maven (her description — and it’s true!) Her podcasts include interviews with publishing industry leaders on the creation, promotion and writing of children’s books.

This interview is an hour long. In case your time is short and you want to jump to the bits that are of greatest interest to you, I’ve provided a list of topics we discussed and approximate times in the podcast they appear (minutes & seconds).
Episode #31: School Visit Questions with Expert Alexis O’Neill

00:00  General announcements
05:54 Introduction of Alexis O’Neill, SchoolVisitExperts.com
08:00 Importance of authors being compensated for work
09:01 Surprising world of school visits following publication
09:30 Selling vs giving. Expertise & intent
13:54 AUDIENCE QUESTION: What’s the best way to get school visits?
17:48 Fees & discounts
28:53 AUDIENCE QUESTION: Crowd control. How do you deal with loud, noisy assemblies? How do you get their attention and respect in a humorous way?
35:45 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How can I connect with schools? Mailings fall flat. Other suggestions?
42:18 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How can I develop a program to create an on-going relationship with a school?
46:26 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How do you get in front of the decision-makers – teachers & librarians?
52.10 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How can we promote to schools and keep “green”? Who’s the first contact at a school?
57.22 AUDIENCE QUESTION: I donated a school visit. Media will be coming. What I should I be prepared for?
01:02:05 AUDIENCE QUESTION: How do you know what to charge for the different events? Do you think it’s important to include kids in the presentation or is it okay just to do a PowerPoint to the kids?
01:09:21 END of Podcast

5 Things to Do While Schools Are Sleeping

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20150509_191953Here’s what you can do now while kids out of school and teachers are recharging their creative batteries this summer:

1. Business cards & bookmarks: Is it time for a redesign? A reorder? You can get some great deals through online printers such as GotPrint.com, Overnightprint.com and Vistaprint.com, to name a few.

2. Brochures & Websites: Is the information updated? Complete? Ask your critique group members to review your school visit page or print brochure. Better still, find a principal, teacher or parent give you feedback on it to see if you’ve made it clear how your presentation will benefit their students and tie into the curriculum.

3. Rates: Review your school visit rates. Do you need to change them for the coming year? If you’re unsure or you’re just starting out, compare with other published authors in your geographic region. A good place to start is with local PAL members of SCBWI.

4. Email updates: Enter your contacts from the past year into a database. This may include hosts of schools you visited or conference and workshop attendees. Be sure to note where you met them so that when you send them an announcement,  they know you’ve already established a relationship with them.

5. Reminders: Compose a note now to send in August reminding contacts of your availability to do school visits in 2015-2016. For schools you’ve just visited, ask them to refer you to another school. For contacts you made at events, plant the seed that you’re available in the coming year to inspire their students.

BONUS TIP
If you haven’t visited a school in 5 years, it’s time reestablish a relationship with them. Tell them what’s new. Suggest you return to meet their new batch of students.

If you do these five simple tasks (six, if you count the Bonus task!), you’ll be in great shape when the school year revs up again in August!

Pricing Lessons

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Dollar sign - goldThe new year is approaching fast. School visit invitations are ramping up – but so is your blood pressure. Do you feel as if you are constantly justifying your school visit fees to yourself and others? Do you second guess whether your services are priced to best reflect the content — and motivation — you deliver?

If you’re struggling with the fees you charge for your school visits, read this blog post by Melissa Dinwiddie, “5 Art Pricing Lessons I Learned the Hard Way.”  Replace the word “art” with “school visit presentation” and you will have some of the best advice ever about pricing.  Be sure to read the comments from readers as they share great advice, too. And when you’re done, leave a comment here to let us know what you think of this.

This guest post appeared “The Abundant Artist” blog by Cory Huff.  My thanks to Elizabeth Dulemba for bringing this to my attention.

 

Connecting Author Visits with Picture Book Month: Advice from Dianne de Las Casas

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PBMLOGO-COLOR_WEBRES If you haven’t ridden the wave of Picture Book Month activities this year, it’s never too early to start planning for next year.  My friend and founder of this celebration, Dianne de Las Casas, author, storyteller, and children’s book advocate extraordinaire, gives terrific advice on just how to do this!

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Picture Book Month is an international literacy initiative that celebrates the print picture book during the month of November every year. Now in its third year, through the power of the Internet and social media, Picture Book Month has grown exponentially each year with partners such as SCBWI, the Children’s Book Council, the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and many more. Every day in November, the website features an essay about the importance of picture books written by a prominent author, illustrator, or mover and shaker in the children’s book industry. All over the world, schools, libraries, and bookstores are celebrating Picture Book Month with author visits, Skype author visits, Google hangouts, YouTube and Vimeo videos, blog posts, Twitter chats, and big picture book displays. In addition, students are reading thousands upon thousands of picture books. A school in Hungary last year read over 6,000 picture books during Picture Book Month! Here’s how you can tap into the movement and connect with Picture Book Month.

  • 1.     Become a Picture Book Month Ambassador. Become a Picture Book Month Ambassador and place the Ambassador badge on your website, with a link HOUSE-NewPictureBookMonth.com. There is no cost and it shows your support. Educators, librarians, the home school community, booksellers, bloggers, literacy organizations, and parents are celebrating Picture Book Month in November. Becoming a Picture Book Month Ambassador demonstrates that you believe in the power of print picture books and support picture books as a building block of literacy. You can register to celebrate Picture Book Month (it’s never too late) and even get listed as an author on the website.

2.     Offer School and Library Visits During Picture Book Month. Many schools and libraries celebrate Picture Book Month with author visits. If you are an author of picture books, November is a great time for you! Send out postcards, advertise in your email newsletter, and post to your social media sites that you are available for author visits during Picture Book Month. Check with your local libraries and schools to find out what they are doing to celebrate. Perhaps you could be part of their kick-off or finale.

  • LittleReadHen3.     Offer Skype Author Visits During Picture Book Month. Librarians like John Schumacher from Brook Forest Elementary School in Illinois and Teachers like Colby Sharp, who is a Nerdy Book Club Blogger, love doing Skype visits with authors during Picture Book Month. When schools and libraries don’t have the funds for an in-person author visit, they often turn to Skype author visits as a viable solution. They love nothing more than to connect their readers with the writers of their favorite books. A Skype Author Visit is a great way to link your picture books with schools and libraries during Picture Book Month.

4.     Check Out the New Picture Book Month Teacher’s Guide. Marcie Colleen, Picture Book Month’s Educational Consultant, has created an incredible 16 page Picture Book Month Teachers Guide. The guide correlates picture books to the U.S. Common Core and learning standards. Educators have less time to spend on content that falls outside of their assigned curriculum. Our Teacher’s Guide demonstrates, with research and data, that picture books are a valuable part of a student’s education. You can use our study guide as a springboard to create your own and illustrate how your picture books tie in to the curriculum and the Common Core.

  • 5.     Connect with the Picture Book Month Community. One of the great ways Dianne - Storyteller - Rita Crayonto receive invitations to schools, libraries, and conferences is to become involved in social media. Picture Book Month has a thriving Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest community. Our Twitter handle is @PictureBkMonth and our hashtag is #PictureBookMonth. Join the conversation, post your favorite picture books in response to our daily theme, and even connect with other authors and illustrators. Many of our Picture Book Month champions are on Facebook and Twitter. Read the daily essays on the Picture Book Month website and be sure to comment. Each comment is entered into our drawing for a chance to win autographed books from our Picture Book Month Champions.

Picture Book Month is all about promoting literacy by celebrating print picture books, the authors and illustrators who create them, and the readers who love them. Join us! November is Picture Book Month. Read * Share * Celebrate!

DiannedeLasCasasinherlibrary1920X1920Dianne de Las Casas is an award-winning author, storyteller, and founder of Picture Book Month. Her performances, dubbed “revved-up storytelling” are full of energetic audience participation. The author of 22 books and the 2013 recipient of the Ann Martin Book Mark award, her picture book titles include The Cajun Cornbread Boy, There’s a Dragon in the Library, The House That Witchy Built, The Little “Read” Hen, and The House That Santa Built. Visit her website at diannedelascasas.com. Visit Picture Book Month at PictureBookMonth.com.