What's the deal with those authors visiting schools and stuff?

When I wrote my first book, The Goose Girl, I didn't know I was writing a children's book. I thought I was writing a fantasy novel with a young protagonist, completely ignorant of the whole young adult category of books that had spread while I was in my 20s. I remember the first time I visited The King's English, my local indie bookstore, as a newly minted author and talked to bookseller Margaret about doing a possible event.

"Do you do school visits?" she asked.

"Sure, I do anything," I said, eager to be accommodating and to promote my baby any way I could.

But I was thinking, School visit? What does that even mean?

There were no author school visits when I was growing up. I had no idea that children's authors were expected to go around doing assemblies and no idea what on earth I was supposed to talk about. But I was determined to figure it out before Margaret and everybody else discovered I was a fraud who didn't deserve to be a children's author.

Jump ahead ten years. I've done at least 100 school assemblies and classroom presentations, perhaps double that. I've seen other authors do presentations and talked to a lot of teachers, librarians, booksellers, and authors. I've learned a lot. Let me impart here my wisdom, grasshopper. Please ask any school visit related questions in the comments, and I'll answer what I can next post. (Note: I'm not writing this to solicit school visits. With four small children at home, I'm not looking for anything extra for at least a couple more years.)

AUTHORS ARE PAID FOR DOING SCHOOL VISITS

I got an MFA in Creative Writing. Here's how MFA programs are staffed: excellent writers with MFAs of their own and professionally published (and usually award-winning) books teach in order to keep writing, because the royalties from their excellent literary and poetic works aren't enough to support them. In order to keep their jobs teaching, they must keep writing and publishing. In order to have enough money to support their writing, they must keep teaching. And students benefit by getting real working writers as their instructors.

This is basically the system with children's book authors. There isn't as much money in children's books as books for adults: smaller advances and smaller percentages of lower cover prices. In order to pay the bills, children's writers often do school visits. It's good for them to supplement their income, allowing them to keep writing, and it's good for the kids who get to hear from real working writers who sincerely care about kids and books.

FREE SCHOOL VISITS ARE THE EXCEPTION NOT THE NORM

Authors often do family's and neighborhood's schools for free. School visits for touring authors are usually free. When I'm on book tour, my publisher contacts the local bookstore where we'll be visiting. The bookstore arranges a couple of school visits with schools with whom they have a relationship, sending home fliers with the students so they can preorder any of my books. When I get to the school, I sign and personalize any preorders, then I do the assembly. Which is counter-intuitive, because after the assembly, after they know who I am and what my books are, they all want one, but unfortunately it's a tour so I won't be here tomorrow to sign any post-orders.

I like doing school visits on tour. I like getting to meet the kids and getting them excited about reading. And I have every intention of continuing to do them. I'm in their town, I'd rather talk with kids than just sit in my hotel. But those visits are often not perfect, partly because they're unpaid.

PAID VISITS ALWAYS GO BETTER

This is my observation: 95% of paid school visits go topnotchfantastic, 30% of unpaid school visits go topnotchfantastic. There are problems with the free school visit. There's less motivation for educators to prepare the kids for the visit. It's free, after all.

And sometimes they just don't go down at all. I cannot count how many times I've showed up for a free school visit arranged through a bookstore for my tour or through a book festival to discover that no one at the school remembered I was coming. Either they apologize and turn me away or else hastily gather a dozen kids from some class to meet me in the library. Often, I've had 4-5 hours of sleep, gotten up at dawn to catch a flight to that town in order to get there in time for the morning school visit that no one remembered or cared about. Why didn't they? Because they weren't paying for it. Truth I've learned: we value what we pay for.

PAID OR UNPAID, A SCHOOL'S PREPARATION IS WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL VISIT ROCK

Imagine you're a kid. Your teacher says, "Put away your notebooks, we're going to an assembly." You shuffle into the gym, not knowing what to expect. The librarian takes the microphone and says, "We have a special event today! Mrs. Blah-blah-blah (who you've never heard of) is here to talk to you about writing books!" And then Mrs. Blah-blah-blah, yet another adult who wants to talk at you, does just that for an excruciating 45 minutes while your bum gets sore sitting on the gym floor.

Now imagine instead that a week before the assembly, the librarian visits your classroom and does a 5 minute talk about the visiting author. And your teacher reads one of the author's books to your class. And the PTA gets involved helping students do projects to prepare for the author's visit. And by the time the assembly comes, you are so excited. You are more excited to meet this author than that uber-famous scantily clad singer or youtube star. You read her book! And visited her website! And she's actually coming to talk to you IN YOUR SCHOOL! Imagine how thrilling when the author comes on stage, shows you photos, talks about storytelling, calls on you to answer a question, chooses you to come up and help with a storytelling activity. How you can't wait to go home and tell your parents the most amazing things that happened in school today! And hey, can we go to the library and check out a book, because I know you usually have to pull my teeth to read but that one book the author talked about looks SO GOOD.

PREPARATION. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH. PREPARATION.

Some schools have so much fun with the preparation, the creativity blows my mind. Awesome, awesome educators. Schools where the educators prepared the students for my visit, the assemblies went 1000x better, and students were still buzzing about the assembly and reading my books and other books I recommended for months after.

YES, ULTIMATELY SCHOOL VISITS ARE ABOUT SELLING BOOKS

Many educators and parents are rightly wary of bringing in an author to essentially tout their wares for a captive young audience. I've seen school visits that were no more than a long advertisement for the author's books. I don't approve of that, but it happens. But other visits are hands-down the best assemblies I've ever seen and everyone leaves so jazzed about reading and writing, feeling great about themselves and excited about stories and learning. And you know what books those kids most want to read next? That author's books of course. And that's great! As long as that author's books are great and worth of those kids' time.

BEFORE BOOKING AN AUTHOR, READ THAT AUTHOR'S BOOK(S)

A school visit is a combination of two things: how good that author is as a presenter, and how worthy that author's books are of being read. Just the fact that someone wrote a book is not enough to qualify him/her of doing a school visit (paid or unpaid) just as the fact of someone publishing any book is enough to qualify him/her of teaching in an MFA program. So first, read one of the books. You know quality. What about the presentation itself?

GET RECOMMENDATIONS FROM EDUCATORS

Educators who have had that author in the school can tell you if it was worth the students' time. I wouldn't trust anyone else's recommendation.

SCHOOL VISITS AREN'T ONLY ABOUT SELLING BOOKS

For authors, they're also about giving back, and reaching the kids, and spreading the love of reading and learning. It's an awesome part of this profession.

I was shy about talking about my books for a long time. That's kind of an understatement. I'd say for the first 4-5 years I did school visits, I never mentioned any of my books unless someone happened to ask me a direct question during the Q&A portion. I didn't want to seem like I was hawking my wares, I didn't want to be petty and self-interested. But I realize now (after much feedback from others) that that was silly. Kids sometimes need a hook to get interested enough to ready any book. Sometimes that hook is meeting the author. I don't only talk about my books, of course, but I've learned that people actually do want to hear something about them.

When kids are prepared for an assembly, and the author presentation is a good one, those kids never forget. They remember that author, that assembly, those books years later. And for so many of them, that moment is the one that made them want to be a reader after all.

Comments

[Ken Baker]

Shannon, great post! Everything you've said is spot on and appreciated.

[Ilima]

I had no idea authors were paid for school visits or that you could do SO MANY. That's incredible. Great post!

[Tyler Whitesides]

To a T, Shannon! This was an awesome post. Love what you had to say.

[hwalk]

I have a question: what do you say when you go and do school visits, and how do you prepare for it?

[hvfrederick]

Awesome, Shannon! Great information -- you totally nailed it.

[Julia]

That makes a lot of sense.

[beth]

I'm with hwalk--I'd love to know more about what you talk about. Do you have a presentation? Is it more focused on Q&A, or is there a set plot of things you talk about?

And also: THANK YOU! Love this post!

[Ashley R.]

So, just to clarify, the schools pay for it right?
This was so interesting to hear the inside story of school visits. Thank you!

[K.M.B]

This was really cool, I was kind of wondering how it all worked. I didn't know you could get paid? What exactly do you do when you go to these schools? I mean, I know you talk about your book and reading and maybe even Writting, but the schools I've been too never really had one if these meetings, except one really small one, but it was such a long time ago, I can't even remember it. Also, what age group do you teach?

[Pamela Klinger-Horn]

I have had over 20 authors visit the school book club program that I facilitate. As a small parochial school, there is no additional money to pay an author for their time. We do, however, always do a pre-sale of the authors current title and their entire back list. The book club students have read the novel and prepared some questions for the author's 1 hour visit. We also give the author a "thank you" gift, and I try to promote their work on social media. If you are ever in the Twin Cities area, I would love to host you at our book club. I have thoroughly enjoyed both your children's and adult novels. I think there is a lot of merit to doing school visits even if it is without pay. It is an incredible memory for these young readers.

[Christine M.]

Great post, Shannon.

I'm with beth and hwalk, How do you prepare? What do you say? What do you bring with you? What was your first school assembly like?

[WriterChick]

I went to a school assembly of yours when I was in Junior High. And I absolutely loved it. I don't know if it was paid or not, but no one in my school knew about it, unless they were in "special" English classes. My friend was going and when I heard about it, I begged my English teacher to give me permission to go. It completely changed my life and ever since, I've known exactly what I wanted my career to be. :) And I already loved your books, so I was thrilled when you talked about your writing process.

[Debra]

How can homeschoolers get involved in stuff like this? It's AWESOME!

[Cassie]

This is excellent advice, and I think most of it could be applied to any speaker or presentation visiting a school. I work as a teaching assistant at a school that seems to have frequent assemblies. However, I rarely see any kind of preparation for the students beforehand. The teachers often complain that the assemblies interrupt their plans for the day. I'm always wishing we could have built lessons around the assembly. grrr.

I'm in a teaching licensure program and I'm going to share this post with my classmates.

As a few others have asked, I'd like to know what you do at your assemblies/classroom visits. I think it would be great to have an author come and share how the writing process works for them...and how many drafts/revisions/edits they go through.

[Amber Argyle]

I've been building my resume by doing free visits (as long as they sell the books), but I'm to the point where I feel I can start charging. Problem is, how much?

Also, I struggled with mentioning my books as well, but I'm getting better!

[Chris]

Have you ever asked to do a visit, or has it always started with the school or the publisher?

[Caitlin]

This post was amazing, as always! I didn't know that authors were paid to do school visits either. It just makes it even sadder when teachers forget that you or any one else is coming, especially when it's free! I hope you've had better experiences since then. Thanks again for the post!

[Caitlin]

Hi again! It turns out that my website address for the above post was copied wrong. I have fixed it on this comment. Great post again, Mrs. Hale! I just can't get enough of your books or your blog! Your advice is amazing!

[mbn@tke]

Shannon is right on; the best events are when everyone (school, bookstore, and author) is well prepared. Schools do not always understand how fortunate they are when a bookstore (or in this case an author) offers to bring an author to their school. Our community is lucky to have such an eloquent and talented author as Shannon Hale!

[Pierce Minor]

This was extremely insightful. I have my first school visit (as an author) next week in Los Angeles, and I'm both nervous and excited. But hearing your experience has put me at ease. Thanks Shannon!

Pierce Minor

[Bonnie]

Shannon, I have heard you speak many times and I have never laughed so hard! I would never miss one of your author visits. You are intelligent, witty, hilarious, and kind. Thanks!

[Hannah B]

This is so true. I loved the assemblies we had when I was in elementary school. They were exciting, you were meeting someone famous! The best assembly, in truth, was the one we had with Mike Knudsen, where all the teachers had read to their classes Raymond and Graham books. My fifth grade class just laughed and laughed at those books and I was so excited that I bought his books and got them signed so my siblings and friends could read them too. If I could have one wish, it would be to have authors come to high schools too. Not sure how many of my PEERS would enjoy that, but honestly, if you came to my high school I would be counting down the days!!

[Julie Sondra Decker]

This is pretty great! I've heard some authors do "visits" through Skype and whatnot too, which is incredibly special to the kids AND doesn't require the author to leave her cozy home. :)

[Vanessa M.]

Nine years ago a certain author that I had never heard of - I think her name was Shannon Hale - came to my school to talk about her book, The Goose Girl. She was funny and incouraging, had a huge chain of rejection letters that convinced a little second grader that if you keep trying, you can succeed. That day I decided I wanted to be an author, and that day I never looked back. Thank you so much for being the inspiration that I needed for nine years.

[Imperial County Law Directory]

Was looking for educational submit about this issue uhfqbyj some of the items you get known I used to be never ever mindful of before. Imperial County Law Directory http://www.bulkping.com/rss-feed-generator-creator/feed/c6f5b87b4febb16827b90a6565d9e51b.xml

[Cindy Hale]

Fantastic post! I knew pretty much NOTHING about author school visits before reading this, and now I'm excited to learn more!