Hi KK – 

Doing school visits is definitely a rewarding way to expand your readership and provide income. But there are some things you need to consider before diving in.

Know that no author is required to do school visits. If you’re shy or anxious about public appearances, you can decline invitations and focus on writing your next book. Publishers look at sales of previous books when they consider buying your future books. If you do decide to visit schools, understand that it takes time to organize details with the host, prepare your program, travel to the site, and conduct assemblies, and it then it takes time to get back into the writing “zone.” You’ll have to decide how to balance these two aspects of your writing career.

How to Acquire School Visits

Most school visit invitations come from librarians (over 50%) and teachers (about 25%). There are three main ways they usually find out about you: 1) through book reviews, 2) through word-of-mouth recommendations from colleagues, and 3) from having seen you at bookstores, conferences, and other public events.

Try to be at places where teachers and librarians might gather—for example, at educator nights at local bookstores, which usually happen each fall, and at regional or statewide professional conferences for teachers (conferences on reading, math, science, social studies, etc.) or for school librarians. Submit proposals to do a presentation or be part of a panel at these conferences.

Find out which conferences your publishers attend and arrange book signings at your publishers’ booths. Chat with everyone who stops by, whether or not they buy a book, and get contact information in order to do a follow-up. Any of these casual or formal appearances can end up being an audition for a school visit.

Some authors have had some success by mailing postcards targeted to librarians and administrators in school districts. In a recent SCBWI webinar, Utah picture book authors Shawna J. C. Tenney and Janet Sumner Johnson reported that out of 411 schools contacted, only 11 booked school visits—that’s a 2.67% success rate.

Getting known is not something that happens overnight. It can take years to develop solid connections. So what can you do right now?

Craft a Presentation and Rehearse

Anyone can read your book out loud. But only you are the author. Only you can share personal experiences in researching, writing, and publishing that book.  A mix of reading, sharing, and audience involvement make for a dynamic presentation.

How will you know what works? First, plan what you would do in a presentation for elementary kids: a 30-minute assembly for the primary grades (TK–2) and a 45-minute assembly for the intermediate grades (3–5).

Next, rehearse. Find willing local teachers or librarians and try your presentations out in their classes in exchange for their feedback. This builds your confidence as a presenter while forging a personal relationship with an educator, the first step in getting word-of-mouth buzz going.

Should I Charge for This?

Charge for classroom “rehearsals”? No. Charge for school visits? Yes!

This is part of what you do as a professional author. You charge a fee for services. How much you charge for a day at a school is up to you. Find other authors in your area who have a similar number of traditionally published books (as you do) to determine what fees might work best. According to a study by Michelle Cusolito and Jeanette Bradley, the fee range in 2018 was typically $600–$1,200, with an average fee of $1,000 for doing two to three assemblies. I don’t believe it has changed much since then.

But here’s a bit of advice: if a school offers to sell your books in exchange for not giving you an honorarium, consider that the average size of elementary schools in California is 600 students. To earn the equivalent of a $1,000 honorarium, you would have to sell 1,111 of your traditionally published books in that one school!

Doing school visits is a joy for me, and I hope you can find that joy, too, as you share your books with kids and teachers!

Wishing you much success,

Alexis O’Neill

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

And don’t forget about SCBWI’s online publication, The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children. Once you’re signed into SCBWI.org, click on “Publications,” then the name of this book. The articles covering school visits include “Doing School Visits in the United States,” “Guide to International School Visits,” and “Public Speaking Primer.” There’s also a sample Lecture Contract.

REFERENCED

Michelle Cusolito and Jeanette Bradley. “School Visits Survey Part 2: Pricing.” May 7, 2018.

HAVE QUESTIONS?

To ask a question that may be answered in an upcoming Kite Tales, please follow this link and fill in the form. Answers by Christine Van Zandt, literary editor and writer, and owner of Write for Success Editing Services.

Answered by Alexis O’Neill.

School visit expert Alexis O’Neill is a published author of picture book fiction and non-fiction. As a former elementary school teacher with a Ph.D. in teacher education, Alexis helps authors understand how to design presentations that kids and teachers love, and demystifies the business side of school visits. She was the SCBWI Bulletin columnist of “The Truth About School Visits” and the creator of the blog SchoolVisitExperts.com. Alexis received the California Reading Association’s award for making significant and outstanding contributions to reading throughout California and is an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. 

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Photos courtesy of Alexis O’Neill.