How to Make the Most of School Visits
For KidLit Authors
As a member of the PTO, I recently had the pleasure of organizing our school’s first annual read-a-thon. As you might imagine, this event was right up my alley. And believe me when I say, I don’t think anyone was as excited as I was when the day to kickoff this amazing fundraiser finally came!
For day 1 read-a-thon celebration, we invited local-ish author Izzy B to host an assembly for our students. I had already met Izzy B when he spoke at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Literarure Festival last year, which I attended with my daughter on a class field trip. I knew he was the perfect choice to inspire and entertain even the most hesitant of readers in our student body. As an added bonus, the illustrator of his latest release The Mighty McCracken came along with him. Ben Askew’s own reading journey was the perfect complement to Izzy B’s lifelong love of writing.
Now, as someone who works directly with authors like Izzy, I understood the significance of a successful school visit—and I wanted to make the most of this visit, not only for our school, but for the author as well. But not every school or parent teacher organization you work with will have the benefit of a publishing professional being part of the planning committee! Fortunately, I was working with a total pro. Izzy B couldn’t have made it easier for us to prepare and plan a fantastic school visit along with our read-a-thon launch day.
Keep reading to find out what tools and resources you can provide for schools to ensure a successful visit—and most importantly, to get parents and students excited to buy your books!
Be entertaining—honestly, not all children’s authors are gifted read aloud performers. This is okay! There are ways around this. Find someone who is, and convince them to be a part of this business with you—but don’t expect them to do it for free! At the very least, they should receive a portion of the school fee.
Invite the kids to be part of it—now admittedly, this takes a different kind of talent. You’ll need to be confident in your skills of discerning and choosing qualified volunteers from the audience to help you perform your story in a short period of time (read: in a matter of seconds). You might start watching the audience members as they file in to get an early jump on your choices, or you might start the assembly with an opportunity for engagement that will help you narrow down some of the more eager and outgoing individuals. In either case, having a simple to follow script that tracks with the story will help ensure the success your performers, so be sure to prepare that ahead of time.
Don’t head in there blind! You want the students to know who you are *before* you ever walk through the doors. Send free books to teachers or librarians, send a video message to share your excitement with the student body, and send order forms home to let parents know where to find you and how to buy your books. At our school, the librarian read Izzy B’s books in the month leading up to his visit and played some of his YouTube videos during library time. Having some kind of fun material like this is a great way to get some additional engagement with students prior to your arrival.
Izzy B has a straightforward order form template available on his website. Click here to access it.
Finally, make sure that you communicate all of your needs to the school. While they may be the ones to reach out to you, many schools don’t necessarily know what the right questions are—this is why you should be prepared with your own information sheet.
Make sure the school is aware of how long your program is and how long you will need to set up and tear down—this will help schools determine when to schedule the assembly or visit. Confirm with them whether they will allot some time for book signing and pictures, and if you plan to fulfill book orders on the day of the assembly, give the school plenty of time to send home order forms. Be sure to include the date of your visit, deadline to order and the details of delivery on your order forms.
I tell my clients all the time that, while children are the primary audience of their books, parents, teachers, and librarians are the gatekeepers. If you can get your book into the schools or featured at the library, it will give your book a major boost in visibility. School visits are a great way to do that, and although it can feel daunting, it doesn’t need to be!
I hope with these tips you’ll feel equipped to have the most successful school visit of your author career and get those books into little hands!
If you are interested in how we can help you with your picture book, easy reader, chapter book or middle grade novel, email admin@newlifeediting.com