“Are those your real teeth?” asked a small child
sitting at the feet of the well-known children’s author who, after an hour
talking about her books to a large audience, asked if there were any questions.
“Did you write the Bible?” another asked an elderly author. “I thought you’d be
prettier and not so fat,” commented another. Australian children’s authors who
are pro-active in schools have many such anecdotes. “School visits vary from
unbelievable hell to the fantastic,” recently commented one best-selling
writer.
Promoting their own titles, meeting their readers, exciting
kids to read, helping to develop literacy and writing skills, boosting their
income: these are the main reasons why authors visit schools. The reasons
schools invite authors (and illustrators) to visit range from wanting students
to meet “a real, live author”, to letting students quiz the author of a book
they are studying, to hoping that the author will impart “tricks” of the
writing trade (sometimes via writing workshops), and as an alternative to an
out-of-school excursion. Naturally, expectations on both sides of the
author-visit fence differ.
Over the past decade, it has become increasingly more
difficult for authors to expect their publishers to promote their titles: there
are fewer publicists, more titles in the marketplace and less promotional
money. Nowadays, most children’s authors realise that being published means that
one has to be pro-active in self-promotion, and happily, most publishers are
only too pleased to have authors taking the initiative.
It is not easy for creators – who often lead solitary lives
- to walk into schools and entertain hundreds of children with whom they have
no history and no relationship, no knowledge of what level of enthusiasm there
is for the visit, even who the trouble-makers are. For some authors, their
school visits experiences are not happy. This is especially so where the author
has no teaching background or public speaking experience; more so when students
are not adequately prepared, supervised, and/or are unruly. One author of YA
novels expressed his experiences thus: “I’m not a natural speaker. I work at
it. And I’ve been told by others that I’m a very good speaker. But my
enthusiasm for going to schools has ground down into a knot of resistance.”
Like other authors interviewed for this article, he reported
on bugbears many have - that students have not read any of their books leading
up to the visit, on presentation day authors are given far more students than
initially agreed upon, there are last minute changes of venue or presentation
times, and they are often expected to introduce themselves. Other complaints
include visiting authors having to move a venue full of furniture by themselves
pre-performance, and having to find essential equipment (such as a microphone
and electrical extension chord). Some have been asked, five minutes before the
presentation, “What is this visit all about? What did you say your name is?
What books have you written?”
One of Australia’s leading, award-winning children’s authors
mentions a time when her talk was interrupted by carpet-layers – three days
early – who proceeded to cut up carpet on which her audience was sitting! Try
speaking to 200 infants’ children with a lawn mower or a jack hammer just
outside the open windows; workmen replacing blinds in the same room, or
frequent amplified voice-overs from the office! These things have – and do – happen!
Teachers sometimes leave students – often large groups –
alone with authors who may be inexperienced at crowd control. “The moment you
deal with a discipline problem,” a children’s author explains, “you’ve crossed
the line. You are no longer a visitor; you are one of ‘the enemy’.” He related
that in a city school as he walked from the car park to find the office, a
group of kids once started flinging spit balls at him. “They (the teachers)
then took me into a double classroom that stretched a long way back and was
packed to the rafters with over 150 kids. No microphone.”
The worst story reported was of a children’s illustrator in
Darwin on tour who, ill with flu, literally collapsed after her third
consecutive hour-long session. The organisers insisted she continue her gig 15
minutes later – with another group of hundreds of children.
Happily, the vast majority of schools’ organisers –
teachers, librarians and English co-ordinators – are enthusiastic and
courteous. Many have already introduced their students to the visiting authors’
books; often they have created fabulous displays of students’ author projects –
wall murals, dioramas, photographs, reviews, book cover replicas. Such
enthusiasm means that the audience is buzzing as the author enters, the
presentation primed for success!
A Tasmanian public high school teacher summed up the “best”
author visits as those which are planned, organised and entertaining, where the
author is flexible in accommodating a school’s needs and where he or she not
only spreads the word about their own books, but acknowledges that other
authors exist. She also suggested that authors should know to project their
voices and how to manage poor student behaviour. “The important thing,” she
said, “is that students see that authors are human with their own
idiosyncrasies and foibles, and that they are approachable.”
Another teacher-librarian who has organised author visits
for decades suggests that authors should expect misbehaviour
and “have a strategy for silly behaviour or dopey questions.” She
offers further valuable advice: “Very few groups of kids are capable of
listening for more than twenty minutes. They need to do or look at something or
to talk about things.” An English co-ordinator for a private boys’ secondary
college recommends that authors, “Get kids talking about themselves
as writers and readers. Make them laugh. Be sincere.” She describes
the various authors whom she has invited to her school as “exceptionally
funny,” “incredibly empathetic and supportive during workshops”, “exciting and
unpredictable,” “boring”, and “enthralling.”
As a children’s author who once made most of her annual
income from school visits, I always referred to myself as an author
“performer”. My background as a primary school teacher was invaluable, as was
my study of marketing practices and of watching children’s performers in
action, as well as years with Toastmasters International practising at how to
speak in public. Unlike many pro-active authors, I never used a booking agent:
for me, nothing beats direct contact with organisers as it ensures that all
contingencies are covered. Many authors charge an hourly fee for a school visit
(often in line with the ASA’s recommended fee of $450 for a 180 minutes’
presentation.) However, I found that charging a per-head fee with a minimum
number of students meant that when teachers tried to admit more students than
originally agreed, I was adequately renumerated. Prior to all engagements, I
verified - orally and via mail - that the organiser and I were agreed about the
location of the presentation, the session times and duration, the grades and
number of students involved, and the cost per student and minimum hourly cost.
My flyer also listed what my performance involved and additional services I
offered (such as writing workshops, sales of my remaindered books and teacher
in-service and/or parent courses.) Most of my bookings were the result of
word-of-mouth recommendation or of teachers having seen me in action at
conferences.
Knowing that first impressions count, my entrance into a
school playground meant I was dressed appropriately (in my brilliantly coloured
performers’ jacket and diamante-encrusted cap and shoes). A typical author
performance in front of 200 fourth graders might go thus:
Di: Well, hello (name of school)! Today, I'm going to tell
you the BIGGEST secret in the world. (Pause). It's a secret about me. And all
authors... And teachers too! But it’s … (confidential whisper) … rude!
(Long
pause, as, with wicked grin, I surveyed the audience.)
Di: Do you want me to tell you?
Kids: Yes!
Di: Do you really want to hear? It's really,
really rude. (Sideways glance at teachers…)
Kids: (shouting) Yes!
Di: Okay then, but you have to promise not to tell a single
solitary soul in the whole wide world because it is really, really embarrassing
and very, very rude..." (By this time kids are
hysterical.)
Di: All right then. I’ll tell you this very, very personal
secret about me – and your principal, Mr Twistburger, and your librarian, Ms
Goodfellow … and all the teachers in your school… and all the authors in
Australia…
(The secret – that I have holes in my underpants - was then
revealed and created great mirth, even more mirth when I asked how underpants
can possibly be put on without holes in them?)
Not all my introductions started like this, but this was
typical. Sometimes there was a series of jokes or verse (usually vile, but tame
enough to pass the principal’s inspection). By the time I had introduced
myself, the kids knew that their “show” was going to be a treat, that maybe my
books would be as funny as I was. It was rare for a child to misbehave: they
were all engaged in the performance.
Talking to an audience of kids is like writing the first
sentence of a novel: one needs a mighty good “hook”. Not everyone writes humour
and is willing (or able) to be exuberant in front of hundreds of pairs of
critical eyes. But “hooking” from the start is essential, as is having a
program which is marketed to suit the ages and interests of one’s audience, (at
the same time fulfilling one’s purpose, which is to get one’s book into as many
hands as possible.)
It is true – as teachers know - that students love being
amused and entertained; they love anecdotes (especially family secrets, the
grottier the better), and they need to be actively involved in their own
learning. Successful visiting authors take this on board and use audio and/or
visual props. Students can easily be encouraged to participate in dramatisation
of an author’s writing. In short play adaptations of his books, my children’s
author husband, Bill Condon, frequently involved good-natured teachers who
hammed it up in their roles of “babies” or “starry-eyed lovers”, much to the
hilarity of their students. On one memorable occasion, Bill’s trick of
sprinkling “African itching ants” (tea leaves) to attract his “lost (plastic)
spider”, created mass hysteria among his infants’ audience and all 150 of them
bolted from the school hall!
A smart visiting author, having presented a pacy, involving
and visually interesting session, will always allow for questions. The best
questions are generally from the school rascals: “Who will get the royalties
from your books after you die? Can you take your teeth out? “Were you good at school?”
“Are you gay?” “Did you ever get put in a mental hospital?” The top ten
most-asked questions don’t change much from school to school:
1. How much money do you get?
2. How old are you?
3. Where do you get your ideas?
4. How long does it take to write a
book?
5. What is your favourite book?
6. Where do you get your titles from?
7. Do you write about real people?
8. How long does it take to write a
book? (This question is always repeated)
9. What’s your next book about?
10. Please, will you write about me?
Publishers and booksellers can be an authors’ godsend,
if they are supportive and pro-active. Publishers can – and sometimes
do – provide publicists to accompany their authors on tour and to arrange media
interviews on the way. Availability of authors for school visits and
conferences listed on publishers’ websites are helpful, as is practical help
such as cab-vouchers or car-park passes, lists of contacts for forthcoming
festivals and/or conferences, teachers’ notes, press releases, publicity
material, and media contact details. Publishers often throw out
materials such as over-supplied proof-sheets and book jackets which authors can
either display in talks, or donate to schools. Pro-active authors are in an
excellent position – and usually only too happy - to publicise not only their
own books but those of other creators in their publisher’s stable with
give-aways, such as newsletters, pencils, bookmarks, even company promotional
flyers.
In the past, most publicists asked authors to inform them of
the dates of their tours, school visits, conferences and festivals a term in
advance so that they could alert booksellers in the appropriate regions to
stock the author’s books. More lately, judging from the many I’ve spoken to,
this does not appear to be the case. One children’s author says, “Even if your publisher does not inform bookshops (of a
local school visit), at least they can see that you are pro-active. A bonus of
visits is that after you have visited a region, shops may stock your
books.”
Booksellers can
indeed benefit from an author’s visit to their region, if they are prepared to
put in the effort. After ordering in relevant titles and mounting a window
display, they can publicise and arrange for the author to talk after school (or
in the evening) at a local venue and/or to an interested group, such as
librarians or parent groups. Book signings at the school itself
and/or in their store are also do-able. Country booksellers have reported to me
that even a year after I have toured their region, customers still ask for
and order my books.
No official
statistics exist to prove that school visits by authors generate more
readership or income for their books. However, the large numbers of visiting
authors “at the chalk-face” would seem to be testimony to their belief that the
publicity generated speaks volumes.
© Dianne Bates
Dianne (Di) is
the author of over 130 books, mostly for children. She’s been in the children’s
book industry for 35+ years and compiles (since 2006), a twice monthly
magazine, Buzz Words, for those in the industry. Check it out on www.buzzwordsmagazine.com
