Author Visits & Events

We love leading or being involved in events like author visits, conferences and workshops. Let us know what YOU are looking for - we'll do our best to accommodate!

The most common request we receive is for author visits at schools or libraries. These visits are typically assembly and/or classroom sessions given during a school day, arranged by grade level.

Visit Schedule

  • 10:00-10:45 K-1 Session 1
  • 11:00-11:45 2-3 Session 2
  • 12:00-1:00 Lunch
  • 1:00-1:45 Session 3

A session consist of three parts:

  • Introduction to who we are: 5 minutes
  • Slide-show reading from one of our books: 15 minutes
  • Presentation on the book creation process (assembly) or hands-on workshop on a book related activity (classroom): 20 minutes.

Booking

Contact us us with your desired: booking date(s), the type of session and which author you would like to attend. Only one of us will typically do a visit, due to cost and scheduling.

Cost & Contract

Visit costs are dependent upon: number of sessions, book orders and any T & L. Once we know your requirements, we will negotiate a fair price with you. After we reach agreement, we will send a contract for review. Upon receipt of your signed contract, we will send complimentary copies of our books, order forms (for the school and parents/students) and visit fliers you can photocopy and display

Book Sales

We do not push or advertise our books during visits. Our intent is to enrich and entertain by sharing our work. But selling books is important to our livelihood, and a personally autographed book is a great keepsake. By offering our books to students, you help make it possible for us to continue writing and doing visits and helping students grow their interest in literature

Listed below are the best channels to purchase our books:

  • Directly though Amazon.com or other on-line stores
  • Through your local bookstore
  • Ordering from us (cheapest option)

Ordering From Us

We do not collect money from students when you order through us. It is better for the school to collect all money in advance of our visit

We do love to sign each purchased book for students, and the easiest way for us (and you) is to do this in advance. Otherwise, you must add extra time to your schedule for book autographing, which equates to about 1 minute per book. This is NOT recommended

We ship our autographed books to you in advance of our visit. Please use our Student Take-Home Book Order Form, which you can photocopy and send home with students and our Bulk Book Order Form and Summary Autograph Form to provide us your full order. S & H costs greater than $20 will be added to the visit fee. Please include a minimum of 6 weeks for shipping

If you find that some students are not able to order in advance, please order a few extra copies if possible. There is nothing more heartbreaking to see a most of a class go home with a book, while a few children are left out

Payment

Payment for the visit and book sales is customarily handled via one check, PO or electronic payment at the end of a visit. If your organization requires a contract or other paperwork to be completed in advance, or an invoice from us, please contact us as soon as possible

Planning

The best visits we’ve had were at schools where teachers and staff were well prepared. Getting parents/family members and kids excited about the visit is important and fun. But, making sure that we and you are in lockstep, will help ensure a successful visit. Please reference the planning steps below as a guideline:

Two Months Before

  • Start talking to students, teachers, administrators, staff & parents about the visit
  • Share the free book copies we provide with other staff members for review and encourage them to visit our web site
  • Place an article in the school newsletter or local newspaper, publicizing the event
  • Contact us to share the visit schedule so we can suggest changes if necessary
  • Talk with your technology team on our requirements (e.g. large screen or display to connect our laptops to for displaying the presentation, a microphone, etc.)
  • email us the Bulk Book Order Form and Summary Autograph Form

Three Weeks Before

  • Create displays to advertise the event. Involve your students
  • Read teaser excerpts from our books
  • Double check with us on the book order

One Week Before

  • Distribute copies of the finalized visit schedule. Make sure we have one as well
  • Contact us with any questions and/or special instructions (e.g. "park in the lot on the right, check in here") etc
  • Make sure you are tied off with your accounting office for cutting a check/using PayPal

One Day Before

  • Run through a "pre-flight" check list to make sure everything is ready
  • Contact us with last minute changes or questions. If you can reach us during the day, we may be at another school the day before your visit, so please reach out in the evening if needed

Event Day!

  • Make sure the technology is set up and tested
  • Set up a table to display our books , if needed and provide something for us to write on. (i.e. a dry erase whiteboard or flip-chart with markers). If the room we will be presenting in is large, please have a microphone available
  • Remind students of behavior expected during the visit. It's okay to laugh, applaud, and ask questions when appropriate (typically at the end of the presentation). Please share any “quiet” hand signals or words you use, so we may emulate
  • We will arrive ~45 minutes early, to allow time for set-up, tour of the school, etc
  • If presentations span lunch, providing a quiet area where we can eat and recharge is appreciated

Feedback and Sharing

Please, email us your feedback. Let us know how the visit went and if there is anything we could have done to make it better. We always want to improve our books and visits but can only do that if we hear from you

You can also help us out by:

  • Adding our website link to your school website
  • Recommending us to friends or colleagues at other schools
  • Writing a recommendation we can post on our web site
  • Sharing photos of our visit to post on our web site gallery. But please check with parents and administrators to confirm that this is allowed
  • Reviewing our books on Amazon.com or other communities