#school visits

I've never been involved on the author side of school visits (though as a bookseller, I have sold books at them!), so I asked my client Kate Messner, who does a lot of them. She says:

"When authors do school visits that aren't part of a publisher-sponsored book tour, they typically charge an honorarium plus travel expenses and invoice either the school or the PTA (which often fundraises for author visits, among other things.) Most schools pay on the day of the event, though some make arrangements to mail a check afterwards.

Author Village is a booking agency that represents a number of authors & illustrators who do school visits. They book appearances for authors when schools and conferences approach them to ask about an author and take a percentage of the honorarium, just like literary agents do."

I could leave it at that, but idk, I can't help embroidering. You didn't ask about this, so Kate didn't answer it, but, it'd be smart to have a list of the different kinds of talks/presentations you are able and willing to give on your website -- these will range from short virtual presentations (that maybe you do for free or for a very low honorarium, for book clubs or classrooms who buy the book), vs in-person, different programs for different age groups, etc. Here are the different offerings Kate has on her site, for example. Author Brad Herzog has a lot of info on his site, too. Look up some of your favorite authors who you know do a lot of school visits, and see what kind of programs they do!

Also, it's best practices to have a contract / memorandum of understanding with the school. That will specify what YOU are supposed to be doing -- how many talks, how big a group, how long, etc. What happens if you (or they) have to cancel. And what THEY are supposed to be doing: Paying x amount, when they are paying, if they are covering travel expenses, providing lunch, making sure that any tech you need such as a projector and screen, or microphones, are set up, asking them to prepare the kids in advance, or making sure that they have made arrangements with a bookstore or have some way to provide books. (they may send an order form home with kids ahead of time and have a bookstore drop them off day of, or order in advance and have somebody there to sell them, etc-- but whatever they do, they should have it in the agreement so you are all on the same page.)

This is important because you'll find that different schools have different levels of experience with these kind of visits, and a poorly coordinated visit can be a real shit-show, so it's best to really make it CRYSTAL CLEAR what you are each doing, and what they need to do to prepare. That's not to say you can't be flexible, obviously different schools have different needs, but whatever you have agreed upon in advance should be memorialized in a contract signed by both you and them. Here's an example of Brad's contract. Here's an example of a generic one.

Re Booking Agencies: You don't NEED to have a booking agency, and most authors probably don't until/unless they are doing a LOT of school visits. I have clients who use the following (but I personally have no direct experience with any of these, I'm not vouching for them or anything, there may be other ones, no idea, but these are just ones that I have heard of!):

Author Village 

Booking Biz   

Booked Authors 

How Now Booking 

Also it would probably be smart to either make friends with a bunch of other authors who do school visits, or at the very least join a Facebook group or SCBWI group or something, so you have people to ask questions of who actually have experience doing this professionally, rather than me, a random agent who has never booked a school visit a day in her life!

Here are some books that we selected to present to several 7th grade classes that visited us this week. The theme of these books was TEEN VOICES!

All of these books contain writing and art that was either created by teens, or was created by adults who were looking back at their childhood / teen years:

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka

Occulted by Amy Rose, Ryan Estrada, and Jeongmin Lee

Being Jazz: My Life as a Transgender Teen by Jazz Jennings

Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls ed. by Betsy Franco

You Hear Me? Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys ed. by Betsy Franco

Diary of a Tokyo Teen: A Japanese-American Girl Travels to the Land of Trendy Fashion, Hi-Tech Toilets and Maid Cafes by Christine Mari Inzer