Category Archives: promotion

This refers to media used to announce availability and support or follow-up an appearance including author visit packets, postcards, bookmarks, business cards, activity sheets, posters, websites, blogs, television, radio, podcasts, booking agents

Happy Birthday, Kite Book!

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Cover-KITEBook-FINAL_KHToday my new picture book for older readers launches — both literally and figuratively! We’re heading up to Ventura Harbor this afternoon with family and friends for a kite-fest birthday celebration. So Happy Birthday to The Kite That Bridged Two Nations: Homan Wlash and the First Niagara Suspension Bridge.

Later this month, I’ll be traveling to Niagara Falls USA and Canada for a formal launch in the territory where the subject of my book, Homan Walsh, lived in the 1800s and now rests at Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York.  The first is a VIP launch on 9/27 to thank experts who reviewed the book, local dignitaries, family and friends. The next two are Family Day events — one at Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, NY on 9/28 and the other across the bridge in Canada at the Niagara Falls History Museum on 9/29. A grant from the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission is helping to fund kite-making and other activities during the launch. Meg Albers, a kite expert and director of Aeolus Curricula is leading those activities.

In advance of this event, I’ll be doing presentations at the Niagara Falls Public Library, New York on 9/24, Fort Erie Public Library, Ontario on 9/25 and will be a guest of Judie Glaser’s program, Community Conversations, a TV program sponsored by the Niagara Falls City School District.

I am incredibly grateful to Terry Widener for his gorgeous illustrations, my editor Carolyn Yoder for her enthusiasm and thoroughness, and Kerry McManus and the whole team at Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills Press for their solid support in bringing this book into the world and getting the word out about it!

Now — here I go! I’m off to the harbor to fly kites!

Slap Happy Name Tags

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This is the best name tag placement. Others can read it easily when you shake hands.

This is the best name tag placement. Others can read it easily when you shake hands.

You’re probably scratching your head saying, “Really? A whole post on where to slap a name tag? Has she lost her mind?” But while getting ready for the upcoming SCBWI Summer conference this week, I thought about one of my pet peeves – hard-to-read name tags.  The stick-on kind and the hanging kind.

Admit it. You know what I’m talking about. Someone bounds up to say hi.  You know her face but can’t call up her name. You are embarrassed to search her chest for the tag that can help you. It’s there, but out of eye range, over her heart in the fold of her sweater partially covered by her scarf. Or it’s hanging from a lanyard somewhere just north of her belly-button. And when you do find it, you discover that it has flipped over, showing a nice display of all the business cards that your friend (What IS her name???) has collected from other friends. (How long can I wait for someone to come close and call this nameless friend by her true name so that I’m not a total fool for asking?)

Now I have a couple of choices: I can pretend to straighten the name tag, sneak a peek while I’m at it and compliment her on her unique collection of business cards. Or I can restick her adhesive rectangle and take a gander as I do. But wouldn’t it be much, much better if all authors and illustrators were dedicated to being more Name Tag Aware and fix them themselves?

So, if you want to be known, (and isn’t it worth it to be known when you find yourself unexpectedly in a circle of editors and agents?) here are a couple of tips:

For the lanyard type name badges: Tie the rope up a bit higher so that your tag is within eye range. Anchor it so that it doesn’t spin.

For the stick-on type name tags: place the tag on your RIGHT side. This way, others can read your name with an unobtrusive glance as you shake hands. (Most people slap it over their heart on the left. But then others have to do eyeball dances to read them when tags are — way. over. there.

If you’re reading this before you come to the conference – or even while you are there – just humor me and make it easy for me to read who you are!

 Here’s a bonus tip from author Joan Bransfield Graham.

 

“I have a drawer full of nametags from various events, and I recycle them as needed. I use the one pictured on the left if I'm not given a nametag and need one. The one on the right is from an SCBWI conference. I print small pictures of my book covers and add them with a loop of tape on the back; then I can take them off and put them wherever I want. Including that visual helps people connect a face with a book.”

“I have a drawer full of nametags from various events, and I recycle them as needed. I use the one pictured on the left if I’m not given a nametag and need one. The one on the right is from an SCBWI conference. I print small pictures of my book covers and add them with a loop of tape on the back; then I can take them off and put them wherever I want. Including that visual helps people connect a face with a book.”

 

Focus Your Gig-Getting Energies in the New Year

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The number one question authors who want to do more school visits ask me is “How can I get more gigs?”

The simple answer is this: participate in activities where you are most likely to meet the people who are in a position to hire you. These people usually include librarians, teachers and teaching specialists, principals, curriculum coordinators, and parent group leaders. Also, booksellers often recommend authors to schools, so they are important contacts to have.

Look for opportunities to meet them where they gather – at workshops and conferences at the school district, county and state-wide levels. The best kind of involvement is doing presentations – either solo, duo or on a panel – where participants get a feel for your personality, presentation style and your books.

Concentrate on becoming known locally.  Even high-profile authors are feeling the funding pinch as many hosts are looking for local authors to save travel costs.

Schedule time to do an online search for professional associations. Find out when they meet and propose doing a workshop session. For example, I live in California, so here are some of the educational and literary associations, with their national counterparts, that I have been involved with (and most states will have similar groups):

Social gatherings are also great places to build relationships. For example, I attend some luncheons organized by teachers and librarians, especially those at which my friends are keynote speakers or who are receiving awards. These would include:

 Take time to find URLs for organizations, keep a database of conference dates and proposal deadlines, and strategize on where you can best focus your gig-finding opportunities in the coming year.

To get you started, here’s a link to reading associations in North America:

Latest Buzz Phrase for “Educational Standards”

Author and teacher Darcy Pattison has an interesting post on her “Fiction Notes” blog: “What Do New Education Standards Mean for Writers?”  The new buzz phrase and acronym for curriculum or educational standards is Common Core Standards (CCSS).  While Darcy’s post focuses on how to use CCSS to inspire story ideas, you can use them in two very powerful ways as a school visit presenter:

  1.  To help you write a promotional school visit brochure or web page copy that uses “EducationSpeak” to connect better with teachers and librarians (see my blog post o July 14, 2011)
  2. To help you create program objectives that connect your books and activities directly with core content standards at various grade levels.

 Here are links to each grade level’s curriculum maps that will give you an idea of expectations at grade levels k-12 in English/Language Arts

Brochure Overhaul for School Visit Promotion

This summer, suggest to your writers’ group that you devote one session to critiquing each others’ school visit brochures. If you’re like me, you keep cranking them out (or, if you’ve had them done at a printer, using them up) without giving them a second glance.  But is your brochure really doing the trick?  Is it outdated?  Is it convincing a potential host that the benefits of bringing you in will justify the cost?

Here are some elements that you should consider when you do brochure revisions.

Purpose: Your brochure is a school visit sales tool.  It should give potential hosts a taste of your personality, your program format and your presentation objectives as they relate to the curriculum. It should also clearly identify you as the author of your most recent or most popular books.

Bio:  Make the text fun. Use a family photo.

Program: Describe your program including what you will do, how you will do it, and how your content links with the curriculum.  Tell how much time you need for school assemblies. Mention if they can select any add-ons such as workshops, and send them to your website for details. 

Fees: I don’t suggest putting your fees in the brochure as this will date it quickly.  Have readers contact you or go to your website for details. 

Books: Include images of one or more of your most recent – or most popular – books.

Testimonials: Won any awards? Have a terrific quotable quote about a dynamite school visit? Include them. (Warning: be selective!)

Layout. Brochures are usually on 8.5” x 11” paper, printed on both sides and folded in thirds. This makes them easy to display or mail. White space is inviting to the eye. When designing the layout, leave lots of white space. I do all my layouts using Microsoft Publisher, a very simple and flexible program to learn.

Current headshot: People want to know what you look like today.

Contact information: Be sure to include your website and/or email address

 Remember – whatever you can’t fit in your brochure can be described at your website.

Do you have a school visit brochure that really works for you?  Send me a pdf at info2@schoolvisitexperts.com so I can see it, too!

School Visit Tips for 2011: Part 2

Here are a few more helpful school visit tips for you from expert presenters. After this, watch for one more post on this topic! 

Google - Actor on StageGet there early to give yourself time to relax.  Because you are ON STAGE, performing, the minute you get out of your car.  Giving yourself 15 to 20 minutes to simply sit there in your car “Vegging out” helps you to relax, refresh, and recover from the drive.  I sometimes even close my eyes and doze for a few minutes.  If you are afraid you’ll sleep the morning away in your car, set the alarm on your iPhone (or equivalent), or take along a kitchen timer. — Wendie Old 

I always say [to the audience] that I’ll bet they don’t believe that I used to be very shy, afraid to speak up, and never in front of a crowd.  That you can always learn to be less shy, and everyone has felt shy about expressing themselves at some point.  This establishes a really nice rapport, I’ve found, and is really an important gift you are giving to a lot of them.  — Joanne Rocklin

Create coloring pages, activity sheets, and other “hands on” projects that can bProject - ZEBRA - Caroline Arnold09-sme downloaded from your website and used in the classroom to build up knowledge and interest in your books before or after your visit. Include this information in a packet sent to the librarian before your visit. I love going to schools and see walls of cut paper zebras created from the template on the web page for my book A Zebra’s World.  No two zebra’s are ever alike!  — Caroline Arnold

 Find out ahead of time if there are any parking issues at the school, and also find out which door visitors are to enter by.  If you are leaving the house extremely early, make sure you have an emergency phone number for your contact – i.e. home phone number or personal cell number.  – Marsha Skrypuch

Flexibility is key. Although your program is the central event in your mind, many other situations are happening all day long in the school which you are visiting.  I have had a fire drill in the middle of my presentations, an electrical failure throughout the school, a principal in a gorilla suit climbing a 3 story ladder fulfilling his promise to stay on the roof for the day if the students had read 5000 books, a child throwing up all over the front row of children, and once, just as the children streamed through the door, the lamp on my power point projector blew.  I learned early on to laugh, take what happens and make it work. And who knows… there might be a book in it someday.  — Kay Winters

If you have school visit tip, be sure to add it in our comment section!

Author Visit Packets

AuthorVisitPacket_Interior_smWhen a school books me for a visit, I send them an Author Visit Packet.  While some of authors have hosts download PDFs posted on their websites, I send a 2-pocket folder filled with materials.  So why bother?  Schools invest money to have me visit.  An advance packet is part of the package.  And I can’t tell you how many hosts have mentioned how helpful this packet has been to them as they prepare kids and staff for my visit.

I include three types of materials: 1) items to post on bulletin boards, 2) background information on my published works and 3) business information, including an invoice and information on scheduling and room set-up.

Items for Bulletin Boards: headshot, brochure, postcards, book covers, and news clips.

Background Information: For each book, I send a pamphlet called “Because You Asked,” which answers kids’ questions on the book; a Teacher Idea Sheet filled with activities in major curriculum areas; a list of related books; a master for an autographed bookmark, and a hands-on art activity. I also include a complete list of all my published works – books, magazines, and newspapers.

Business Information:  Sample book order form; scheduling suggestions; a diagram of how the room should be set up; a list of equipment needed (including a parking space and lunch!); the invoice; and a signed W-9 Form for taxes.

As a former teacher and a conference organizer, I appreciate the convenience of having materials I can hold in my hand and use right away.

How about you? How do you feel about Author Visit Packets?