Hosting a successful author visit OR ruby red grapefruit juice

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Thanks to terrific administrative support, our school district has an excellent visiting author program.

This year each student in all 30 elementary campuses and the early childhood school will meet Anastasia Suen.  All 12 of our middle school campuses will host either Gordon Korman, Cinda Williams Chima, and/or Neal Shusterman.   Aspiring writers in four of our high schools will be fortunate enough to attend a writing workshop led by Sonya Sones.

In the past we've hosted Rick Riordan, Jordan Sonnenblick, Grace Lin, Sharon Draper, and Jarrett Krosoczka, to name a delightful few.

Almost every author we've hosted has been fantastic.  Warm, engaging, and truly gracious.

After years of authors visits, I've made some wonderful friends and gathered some interesting stories.

We've been stuck in traffic so long after picking up an author from the airport that she missed her first session.  I've covered for a no-show author (and believe me, the eighth graders were unimpressed with me).

We have realized on Thursday that three different librarians have treated our author to the same Mexican restaurant three days running in an attempt to show off a little Tex-Mex cuisine.  

After a late evening airport pickup, I have frantically searched our local convenience and grocery stores at 10:30 p.m. for ruby red grapefruit juice, no sugar, while another librarian waited for our author's to go order.  "Your author is hungry, and I don't do fast food!"  Yes, it was a long week, and no, this author is not listed among the lovely folks above.

Our visiting author program is a hit with the kids, their parents, our teachers, librarians, and administrators.  Our circulation stats show sustaining interest in books by these authors, and I truly believe the program fosters a community of readers and writers in our district.

Its continuing success, even in lean budget years, is due to administrative support, advance planning, hard work by our librarians and teachers, and a host of fabulous authors. 

Want a few tips for a successful visit?

*Start a year in advance. Don't be afraid to contact big names.  You never know!
*Gain the support of your administrator.  Collaborate with teachers to create a schedule that is agreeable with them.
*Ask an author who may be popular with a wide segment of students.
*Be sure you keep emails about the honorarium agreed upon. If needed, get vendor paperwork to your district several weeks in advance. 
*Seek a grant, ask your principal for a bit of budget money, use book fair funds, or ask PTA to help sponsor the visit.
*Partner with a neighboring district to share travel costs.  You will be responsible for the author's daily honorarium, flight, hotel, transportation, and meals. Honorariums can range from $500 a day to $3500 a day and more.
*The summer prior to the visit, consider holding a professional development session for your teachers to familiarize them with the author and his/her work.
*Be sure your library has books by the author for checkout.
*Acquaint your students and staff with the author beforehand. Show the author's website, play book trailers, read one chapter of a novel each day at lunch, and create a great display.
*Set up a wiki with the schedule, librarians' contact information, start/end times for the sessions, and any pertinent info that may help the author and the librarians be informed.
*Have two campuses split the day, with two sessions and a signing in the morning and two sessions and a signing in the afternoon.
*The morning librarian picks the author up at her hotel. The afternoon librarian takes the author back to the hotel. Both librarians and the author have lunch together, which makes the campus switch easy and creates relationships.
*Work with your local bookstore to provide books to sell to students and staff.  Consider selling the books at your cost in order to pass the savings along to your patrons.
*Pick up your author at the airport. Offer a welcome packet with his/her check, schedule, and a handwritten note.
*Prepare the students on audience etiquette and thoughtful questions for the visit.
*Publicize the visit in your local newspaper--it's great PR for your library.
*Enjoy the vist!

No funding sources?  Consider local or new authors who might come with no honorarium but the opportunity to sell books. 

Or call your local bookstore.  Our excellent bookstore calls occasionally to ask if we'd like to host an author who is visiting their store.  We've been fortunate enough to host Stephenie Meyer and Jenna Bush, and we are looking forward to Laurie Halse Anderson next month.

Any tips that have worked well for you?