This post was originally sent through my author newsletter on February 17th, 2023. To subscribe to my newsletter and receive up-to-date news, musings, and more, click HERE.
As you may have noticed, I've had school visits on the brain this month. Not only did February kick off with World Read Aloud Day, and not only did I welcome a picture book author to my daughter's school, but I've also been in planning mode for tons of future author presentations myself.
I've got a trip down to Tennessee coming up in March, and potentially another one in August (for two schools that want me to come, but aren't free in March). I've also just scheduled a visit with a school in Manhattan for April. For each presentation successfully scheduled, there are half a dozen emails to try to book with other schools and librarians. Since I'm doing this all myself, it's a bit of a hustle. I have to accept that not every feeler I put out will garner a response.
Lately, I've started tracking my school visit booking process and success rate, because I have another fun announcement to share: I'll be joining fellow author (and friend) Janae Marks to present a workshop on school visits at the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators regional conference at the end of April! (More on this soon; I think registration for the conference goes live in March.)
Janae asked me back in the fall if I'd be interested in pitching a workshop together, after she read my newsletter recapping my first in-person school visit since 2016. Janae has also been finding her way back into in-person visits, though for her it's been more of a post-Covid phenomenon, as her first book came out in January 2020. We compared notes, and the two of us have a lot to say on the topic. We wrote up a proposal, and were thrilled earlier this month to learn that it had been accepted.
Since finding out this workshop was definitely going to happen, I've had it at the back of my mind whenever I do anything school visit–related. This includes while I'm actually on a school visit.
For example, one of my virtual visits recently went wrong in just about every way that a virtual visit can go wrong. It was almost funny! And when I hung up, all I could think was, well, that's a story for the workshop.
This visit:
Had to be rescheduled from its original date due to bad weather shutting down the school.
Started late (which always leaves me wondering if I've messed up the date/time).
Had tech issues from the moment I logged on. Now, I'm not complaining about the tech issues. Whenever you involve technology, there's a chance something won't work quite right! But in this case...
One teacher didn't (or didn't know how to) mute herself. So, as I started my presentation, I could hear her talking to her students, telling them to be quiet and listen. (For the record, I didn't hear her students chattering. I only heard her.) Also, at one point she had two separate devices signed onto the call, which caused a distracting echo effect.
That teacher ended up leaving abruptly halfway through my presentation.
The other teacher on the Zoom couldn't figure out how to UNMUTE herself! She also didn't know how to use the chat feature. So, at the point in my virtual visit when I ask for student questions...I simply couldn't. I was talking to a silent screen.
I had to pivot. I read another chapter. I asked them questions that they could answer with raised hands and thumbs up/down. I told them facts about myself and my books—the things kids usually want to know. I gave them my email in case they wanted to ask me questions that way.
It was a learning experience.
I'd had one or two of these issues on virtual visits in the past. Like I said, stuff happens. You have to be able to pivot and adapt. But I'd never had this many things go wrong in a single half hour. I left kind of shaking my head—and hoping that the kids had gotten something out of it. Because yes, school presentations are about spreading the word about my books, but they'realsovery much about giving the students a meaningful experience. I'm the presenter, the guest, but it's not about me.
(Later that same afternoon, by the way, I had what I'd consider a gold-standard virtual visit! The tech worked perfectly! The kids asked amazing questions! The librarian was a delight! But that experience wasn't any more valid than the School Visit That Went Wrong.)
So yeah—this is what I'm thinking about as Janae and I start to plan our workshop for April. And now I want to throw it to you:
- If you're a newer author or on the cusp of publication, what do you want to know about planning, booking, and actually doing school presentations?
- If you're an experienced author who's done tons of visits, do you have any tips and best practices you'd like to share with me and Janae, to pass along to our workshop participants?
- If you're a teacher or librarian, what do you want authors to know about what you want from an author visit? What makes you more likely to book an author as a guest speaker at your school?
Thanks in advance for chiming in!
~Kathryn
What I'm:
Reading: I read Tae Keller's Newbery-winning book When You Trap a Tiger at the start of the week. It was so wonderful. (As I'd expected! It won the Newbery!) Now I'm reading The Change by Kirsten Miller, which is about three middle-aged women in a coastal Long Island town who develop magical abilities during menopause—and use those abilities to right wrongs being done to other women. This book is FASCINATING. One of the blurbs I saw described it as a "gutteral rage scream (and somehow a soft, tearful hug) of a book," and that is so spot-on.
Writing: This week, I've been hammering away at the first draft of my write-for-hire project. I've passed 8,000 new words since Monday, and if I meet my goal today, I'll break the 10K mark. That's a lot of words to write in a single week! I'm honestly feeling pretty pleased.
Celebrating: Speaking of my friend Janae Marks, it was a joy to get to go to her book launch party last night at Books of Wonder! On Air With Zoe Washington is her third book, and she hasn't been able to have an in-person book launch since her debut in January 2020, so this was such a lovely moment.
Loving: We are going on a family vacation to Disney World TOMORROW! We've had a countdown calendar on the door for our daughter, and now it's officially "one more sleep until Disney."