How to Bring a Children’s Book Author to Your School
  1. Determine your school’s purpose in inviting an author, and then select a person well suited to fill it. For example, if the students are writing or reading biographies, invite a biographer. If the school is celebrating Women’s History Month, invite an author who’s written about women. As a final consideration, be aware that people who write well may not necessarily also be effective speakers. Look for an author who’s experienced in making presentations at schools.
2. Request funding. Good sources are your Home and School Club, or civic organizations like the Elks, Lions, AAUW, or Rotary.
3. Decide what you want the author to do during the visit -- give one or more assemblies, make time for autographing, and/or visit single classes. Authors’ fees usually depend on the length of the visit and the transportation costs to come.
4. To find an author who fulfills your criteria, contact your neighborhood independent children’s bookstore that will be likely to know local authors. You can also call other schools in your area to ask if they’ve hosted an author whose program was well received. Most professional children’s authors belong to the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the SCBWI. www.SCBWI.org provides links to authors’ sites.
5. After you and an author agree on the visit, ask the school library to purchase the author’s books at least six weeks before s/he comes. That will give teachers time to read the books with the children, who may do art or writing projects that tie in with the books’ subjects. When children are familiar with the author’s books, they anticipate the visit with excitement, and they listen really closely to advice given by a “real” author.
6. Alert parents about the upcoming visit. Invite them to attend, and give them a book order form that includes space for the name of the person for whom a book should be autographed. Based on these pre-orders, the school can determine how many books to ask the author or bookstore to bring to the event. When children get their own books autographed, they relish the one-on-one interaction with the author.

7. Designate an escort on the day of the visit to help the author with logistics that might include parking, carrying books to the assembly room, handling book sales, and autographing.

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