In #BehindtheScenes posts, I share tips and tricks I’ve learned (or am learning) about writing and publishing.
One of the most amazing parts of my life is sharing stories with kids. Sometimes I’m reading, sometimes I’m facilitating their reading, and sometimes they’re on stage, and I’m waving my arms frantically teaching them how to tell the story.
This is, by far, the thing I’m looking forward to most about being a published picture book author.
But it raises lots of logistical questions.
Should I charge for visits?
Yes. For a lot of reasons, but that’s a post for another day.
How can I best engage the audience?
Well, it depends on the age of the kids, the amount of time, can I get them on their feet… really there are a lot of variables. That’s probably also a post for another day.
Can I sell my books when I visit? And how?
Ah! Now, that I can answer!
There are two strains of thinking on this — one is the pre-purchase and one is the on site sale. Both have pros and cons.
If you do a pre-purchase, you have to whip up excitement for your visit before you’ve talked with the kids. You either set up a way to purchase online or with a paper form and then coordinate with the school to get that info so you can place an order for the right number of books. You take them with you to the visit, then you can sit and sign them at your leisure before the visit.
But if you’re traveling any distance, it could be a pain to bring them with you! (Or if you travel with a lot of props… not that I would know…)
Then there’s always the on-site sale. This can be one of two scenarios.
Either you bring the books with you (see the cons about dagging books around above and add the additional problem of over or under purchasing), or you make your sales using a flier, then get the books to the school at a later date. That isn’t a bad option, but it might deflate the excitement a little bit since they aren’t leaving with a book in hand.
But in a great FB group for authors in the “School Visit Trenches” (Creating Engaging School Visits — its really excellent information and I highly recommend it!) those that know recommended a new service called Author Visit Central.
If you’ve been following me for very long, you no doubt know that I’m not very fond of technology. I am capable, but it really has to be something special before I’ll give up my pen and paper solution. This looks like the kind of thing I will embrace wholeheartedly!
From the Author Visit Central page, “How It Works” seems like a brilliant improvement on you, the author, having to tote books around, or worry about getting orders right.
It seems too easy. (Please note: I’m not on the take from this website– it just seems like a cool service. As always, please do your own research and find what works for you in your situation!)
You set up the visit with your group — be it a school or other organization; live or virtual. Then you set up the visit with AVC.
There is a caveat here, your book has to be in-print and available to their network of independent bookstores… and you also have to pay their fee. If you meet their criteria (and pay them for their work) they set up your visit on the site.
Parents can then go to their website, enter your event code — which is on the handy-dandy flier they send you — and the books magically appear at the school. (And by magically, I mean The McCloskeys send the order and the bookstore sends them to the school.)
You can set the sale to close before your visit, or after to pick up those extra sales. (I would be interested to know if you could set up a two tier sale: one closing before the end, one closing after… but I tend to “bigger” things. You’d have to talk to AVC if you’re the same kind of kookie.
On top of offering a service I see as a game changer, AVC has a podcast and a ton of information for newbie authors. I highly recommend you check them out!
