A Request to Followers of SchoolVisitExperts.com

Authors on Stage: Picking Up Performance Tips

Are you working on a new presentation? Or perhaps trying to beef up an old one? One of the best ways to get fresh ideas is to see authors and illustrators in action. And festival showcases are a perfect way to see many all in one spot in a single day.

Case in point: on Saturday, November 14, 2015 from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., over 30 authors and illustrators are appearing at the first-ever Western New York Children’s Book Expo at Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York. (And, full disclosure, I will be among them, doing a presentation from 12:30 – 12:45 p.m. at the Buffalo News Literacy Corner, and signing books all day, so stop by!)

Because a festival crowd is fluid and multi-age, the showcases are only 15 minutes long. By observing authors, you’ll pick up tips on how they open, what they focus on, how they engage the audience, and how they wrap up in such a short amount of time.

This extravaganza is being organized by Kim Krug and Kathleen Skoog and their team at Monkey See, Monkey Do…Children’s Bookstore of Clarence, NY. In 2012, the store received the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) Pannell Award, given out to recognize and publicly applaud the work of booksellers who stimulate, promote and encourage children’s and young people’s interest in books. Then in December 2014, author and philanthropist James Patterson gifted Monkey See, Monkey Do…Children’s Bookstore with seed money that started things rolling, and local businesses are helping to bring this to the public for FREE.

For more information on the WNY Children’s Book Expo (location, schedule, book pre-order discounts) click here.

For a downloadable flier, click here. Pass it along to your friends in Western New York!

A Vibrant Author Visit Partnership: Giffen Memorial Elementary School & First Presbyterian Church of Albany

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For years, various writing projects brought me to the New York State Museum on Madison Avenue in Albany, New York. Not once had I taken a left-hand turn onto Pearl Street on my way up the hill to the library. If I had, I would have bumped smack into Giffen Memorial Elementary School, a Title 1 school that is the largest in the city. Even still, from the outside, I wouldn’t have known Giffen’s juicy surprise: that it hosts a vibrant annual author visit program through a community partnership initiated by the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, New York.

I found out about this program by accident when Debra Fagans, Chairperson of Author/Illustrator Day, contacted me via email, asking if I’d be willing to promote the event scheduled for April 2015. I said I’d not only promote it, but that I’d love to be a part of it. I was delighted to be included with Katherine Paterson, James Earl Ransome and Lesa Cline-Ransome as a visiting author at their third annual event.

Bottom line: I traveled to Albany, had a blast, and was really impressed with this program. Why?
Continue reading →

Example: School Visit Video

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Here’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?

Help! What Do I Do with an Antsy Audience?

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Kids get squirmy. Adults chat. What do you do when their behaviors distract during your presentation?

Head ‘Em Off at the Pass: Understand that squirms and chattiness usually happen when 1) some event in school has them buzzing, or 2) the audience isn’t engaged. Engagement is key. Plan for this in the body of your presentation. About every ten minutes, change direction or involve the audience in an activity, ask a question, invite a volunteer to help on stage, or reveal a cool prop. Also, when you begin, be sure you’ve established a “quiet” down sign. Either use the school’s system (for example, some have a pattern of claps) or one of your own. (I hold my arms at an angle, palms forward.) Then wait. Don’t begin until they’ve settled. Waiting is essential. If you talk over a half-settled audience, the volume will rise and you’ll have a very hard time getting them back.

The Looky-Loo Effect: Whatever you look at, the kids will look at. This is great when you want them to focus on a prop or an important slide in your presentation. It’s not so great when a kid barfs in the middle of your assembly. (It happened to me! And I hope it wasn’t a commentary on the content of my program . . .) If there’s a disturbance in the room that’s out of your control, know that if you focus on it, the kids will too, and it can be challenge to get their attention back. Take the small stuff in stride so that the focus stays on your program.

Silence is Golden: Are two faculty members chatting together? Walk closer to them as you continue your presentation. Make eye contact. If they continue to chat, you might cover the mike and quietly ask, “Did you have a question?”

Are We There Yet? Have you ever been in a presentation and groaned, “When is this ever going to end?” I have. Audiences want to know in advance what your presentation is going to address. And they want to know when it’s going to end. At the opening of my assemblies for kids, I quickly give them an outline of what they’re going to learn and tell them that we’ll be acting out a story at the end. This way, they know the whole presentation arc will be covered and that you’re not just going to ramble then end when the time runs out.

Do you have any “antsy audience” questions? Or do you have a technique that work well for you? Share!

How Can You Entice Teens to Your Library Programs?

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Here’s the issue. You’ve been invited to do a talk at a local public library. You know that the library will promote through their usual channels. But if you’re not a middle grade or YA star author, attendance can be all over the map, with nothing guaranteed. So what carrot can you have the library offer to motivate an audience to show up? The answer is credit. From teachers. For attending your event.

I’ve seen this in action at my local library. Our Friends of the Library group sponsored a program called, “Shakespeare in Song: Songs & Sonnets Celebrating the Bard” created and performed by William Clark. They knew adults would show up, but they wanted to attract a younger audience, too. To motivate students, the Friends of the Library sent a notice to all English teachers in local middle schools and high schools that announced the program and (here’s the key) suggested that teachers offer a homework pass to any student who showed up. The library created a form to certify attendance that was signed by a volunteer at the event, and the student was given a program as extra proof of having been there.

The result? A Standing-Room-Only crowd filled with students.
Why not suggest this kind of partnership the next time you do a library gig? It’s a winning situation for you, the library and, most importantly, the kids who come to meet you.

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

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Are 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.

Should Teachers Evaluate Authors’ Presentations?

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Not long ago, I received this email from a newly-published writer:

QUESTION: My first book just came out a couple of weeks ago. I’ve done a few presentations and have more lined up. I’d like to provide my hosts with some sort of evaluation form. I can make one myself, but it seemed like something I might find on your website. Any suggestions or resources would be most welcome.

ANSWER: Provide an evaluation form? It depends. A form is most useful to you
1) when you are trying out new material and want constructive feedback or
2) when you primarily want to gather testimonials to post on your website.

Once the kinks in your program are worked out, an evaluation isn’t necessary. And once you gather some juicy testimonials from teachers, librarians, administrators and parent-hosts, you may not need to keep requesting them. (You’ll get them spontaneously anyway from your host or from fan letters.)

What you ask on your form depends on what you want to know. I favor the “simpler is better” route. I have them rate my overall performance and ask two open-ended questions. You can find an example of my evaluation form here. For the best response rate, have your host collect these on the day of your visit.

Here’s what I ask on my rating scale:

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, please rate the author visit listed above.
Poor Excellent
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The author assembly / author workshop (circle one)
a) Met my expectations b) Did not meet my expectations c) Exceeded my expectations.

For open-ended comments, here’s how I phrase my request:

What did you like about this author and/or her presentations? What did you gain that you think you might be able to apply in the classroom?

Other comments:

Notice that I don’t ask, “What didn’t you like?” This can be addressed by respondents in the “other comments” section.

I also request respondent data. Some choose to be anonymous, and that’s okay. I’m most interested in their grade level or teaching assignment and what type of session they observed.

I observed the following programs: ____ Assembly ____ Classroom Q&A ____ Writing Workshop ___ Family Night
I teach grade(s) ________ City/State ______________________
Subject: ____________ Name (Optional) ________________

If you want more specifics on your performance, you might consider using this Performance Feedback Form, based on what teachers value in a presenter and their presentation. In general, it covers your demeanor, presentation specifics and audience engagement.

As to the question I asked in the title of this post, “should teachers evaluate authors’ presentations?” my answer would be, yes. When we’re in the field, authors are educators. The only way to find out if we’re on the right track with our presentations is to get feedback. Then we have to be prepared to make necessary changes to make sure that we are delivering quality services to our audiences.

School Visit Experts

Creating Programs That Kids, Teachers & Librarians Love

A Request to Followers of SchoolVisitExperts.com

Authors on Stage: Picking Up Performance Tips

A Vibrant Author Visit Partnership: Giffen Memorial Elementary School & First Presbyterian Church of Albany

Example: School Visit Video

Make a Video Calling Card for School Visits

School Visits – Are You Easy for Hosts to Find?

Help! What Do I Do with an Antsy Audience?

How Can You Entice Teens to Your Library Programs?

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

Should Teachers Evaluate Authors’ Presentations?