School visits are an amazing way to connect with kids whether you have a brand new book to promote or you want to earn additional income presenting your existing books. Plus, spending time with your audience is a fantastic way to remind yourself who you’re writing for, and why you do this work.
I’ve visited thousands of children in-person, and virtually from NYC to Dubai and from Australia to Arizona, so I have some experience and advice to share if you’re just getting started.
Note: I’m using author visit and school visit interchangeably - schools usually call them Author Visits and that’s the wording you should use on your website.
There are two main types of author visits that I do.
One, is the promotional school visit where I’m launching a new book. I work with a local independent book store and they contact local schools to see if they’d be interested in having me visit. The store arranges my schedule and someone from the store usually accompanies me and brings all the books that have been preordered by students’ families. I do not charge for these types of visits and I usually visit three local schools in one day. I may also do the occasional free visit for a local school I have a relationship with already (like my own kids’ school) outside of a book release period.
The second kind of school visit is a paid school visit where the school invites me to speak at the school either in an assembly or in a series of smaller workshops.
Tip #1 Update your Website
Schools need to know you offer school visits. So, the first step is to make sure you have the information on your website.
You should indicate the ages you can present to, where you’re based, and what your visit includes.
You can include your fees on this page or have people contact you for more information if you’d rather not include the price. When deciding pricing you should include it if includes flights and accommodation for non-local visits or whether that’s an additional cost.
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