Author School Visits - Tip 1

by Em Lynas

I haven't done many school visits yet as my books You Can't Make Me Go To Witch School and Get Me Out of Witch School haven't even been out a year yet and I've been busy writing Help! I'm Trapped At Witch School! until this month.

But I have done a few and I'm learning what works and what doesn't work for me and so I thought I'd share because it might be helpful to all you authors out there who aren't ex-teachers and are feeling the fear of the school visit.

I've just been appearing at the West End Festival in Glasgow as part of their schools programme and it's got me thinking about the importance of dialogue to establish character from the outset for mg readers and how that helps in the creation of events.

Pre-published misconception - children coming along with their school to talks/workshops/performances will be familiar with the book.

The truth - This is unlikely. If there's been time, an organised teacher, and an available book then, yes they may have read some but mostly - not. They're coming along for many reasons, it might be a free visit organised by a festival, it might be they've picked me at random or because I'm local. Or because they need to tick the - we've seen an author box. Or it may be they are huge fans and can't wait to hear what I have to say. I just don't know what situation I'm walking in to.

So, as I'm planning I'm thinking - How do I engage the children (and teachers) and interact with them about a book they probably know nothing about? How do I talk about it without giving away any spoilers? How do I make that fun?

Well, luckily, You Can't make me Go To Witch School has illustrations by the fabulous Jamie Littler and so I based my event around them and talked about character creation with the aid of a simple Power Point slide show. This has a become even simpler with each event. I think I started at 25 slides and now I'm down to 8. It was also interactive for the first event - Noooooooo!

The slideshow is a sort of Who's Who at Toadspit Towers.

Here's a few characters with the relevant dialogue I read from the book.

Daisy Wart

Reluctant Witch and Awesome Actress.

“Granny.” I say it with firmness. This is definitely a hands-on-hips moment, so I put them there. “Chocolate, currently in my backpack, is a birthday treat. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare with pictures, also currently in my backpack, is a birthday treat. Money, in the backpack, is a birthday treat. Dumping me at witch school is NOT a birthday treat. I absolutely refuse to enter a dilapidated building named Toadspit Towers because I am NOT a witch!”

Ms Thorn

Lover of Strictness and Conformity

“Is you the headmistress?” asks Granny. “Is you Ms Toadspit?”

“I am not,” says the woman. “I am Ms Constance Thorn. Senior Teacher of Toadspit Towers. You may speak.”

Dominique Laffitte 


Thinks She Is The Best and Brightest Witch at Toadspit Towers
“Ms Thorn has appointed I dormitory monitor for I am the Best and Brightest Witch.” She points at the rosette on her cauldron as proof. “I have knowledge of everything in this school. If there is anything you want to know then ask I. And if there is anything you should know then I shall tell you. And if there is anything you do wrong, I shall tell you that too. You are lucky to be sharing the dormitory of the youngest Best and Brightest Witch in the history of Toadspit Towers.

Jessica Moss

Feeling The Fun And Loving Her Life!

“What’s happen— Hey, a new girl,” she says, spotting me. Her eyes light up at the sight of the cake. “Ooh, cake. My mam can’t bake cakes. They go flat in the middle and come out like biscuits. But that’s OK because I like biscuits. And pie.”

Once the children had been introduced to the characters we chatted about who was going to be for or against Daisy. Who was going to help her to escape from Witch School and who was going to get in the way.

That's when I realised how important first impressions are to children in mg and why the first words spoken are so important. They completely 'got' each character from the way they spoke, the words they used and the attitude. It was a light bulb moment even though I really should have known that all along but as I was writing the books I was just writing for me, creating individuals who I wanted to spend time with. I wasn't always thinking about the reader and how quickly I need to establish personality. I will now though.

We were able to go  deeper into the characters but I'll blog about that another time. This could end up being a series.

So I learned something on that visit as well as having a ball with the kids making up new characters. I'm already trimming and adjusting ready for the next one and I'm sure I'll learn something on that too.

If you don't have illustrations you can still use images. You could find three images for each character and ask the children to choose the one that was the most likely to say the dialogue. That could be fun!

Em

@emlynas on twitter - follow me!

Em is published by Nosy Crow and rep'd by Amber Caraveo

Oxfordshire Book Awards - or 300: The Remake

by Jo Wyton

Last Thursday was the day of the Oxfordshire Book Awards, held at Abingdon School. I attended as part of a team of volunteers/well-bribed peoples (Sally Poyton and Gabby Aquilina) to help the brilliant Mostly Books independent bookshop sell books to the children / teachers / librarians in attendance.

The Oxfordshire Book Awards have been running for a few years now - the books are voted for by the students of local schools - both primary and secondary - in three categories:

Primary picture book

Primary book

Secondary book

Check it out - a cake of Axel Sheffler's winning book, Zog!

The day started off well - I arrived in time for lunch, which is always good, then helped load the books into a car to go to the school. I won't try to estimate how many boxes of how many books we carried, but I can tell you that my spine changed trajectory between starting and finishing. We also had a fun game of Dodge the Car Whilst Not Dropping Box or Being Able to See Your Feet.

Whilst the ceremony was going on in the Amey Theatre, we set about constructing our makeshift bookshop. Cue lifting of tables that realistically women of 5 foot 2 shouldn't have been lifting and then the shuffling of those tables into something resembling practical. It turns out that this is an effective way to realign your spine after all that box carrying.

There were several authors in attendance, including two of the winners - Malorie Blackman (Boys Don't Cry - secondary book, which incidentally I've just read and it's flipping brilliant) and Axel Scheffler (Zog, with Julia Donaldson - primary picture book). Sally Nicholls, Jo Cotterill and S.L. Powell were also there. (Michael Morpurgo was the other winner for his book Shadow, but was unfortunately unable to attend, although he was there last year.) All were doing book signings after the ceremony.

So, picture this, if you will...

A school canteen. (Still smelling suspiciously like canteens did in the 1980s. You know - bleach and custard.) Four long (and heavy) tables lined up, and covered with cloths (because nobody likes a dirty book) (jokes on a postcard). Three tables set at jaunty angles for author signings. Books set out on various stands, in order of target age range, separate stands for the winners and authors in attendance, series fiction in order (harder than you'd think).

Finished.

Peace and quiet reigns. Just calm old us and the books.

Wait a minute... Oh my God, they're all heading straight for us! Man your stations!

300 children, all with pocket money stashed away in folded-up envelopes and stuffed in their pockets. All wanting the same books. Mayhem! Soon there were pound coins flying everywhere, kids whose pocket money fell fifty pence short of the book they really wanted, a plastic bag shortage and a penny piece catastrophe.

And SO much fun.

It's so great as a (wannabe) writer to see 300 children running at you, looking for nothing more than the latest, bestest book. How on earth those lovely authors coped with sitting there with mere canteen tables standing between them and so many excited kids, I will never know, but they all looked incredibly relaxed and calm!

Malorie Blackman hard at work!

Axel Scheffler equally hard at work!

The calm after the (signing) storm.

I love getting involved in stuff like this - it's great for reaffirming your belief in kids' love of books (if you're not left hiding under the tables first). There will be more on volunteering at events like this on Notes from the Slushpile in a couple of weeks, from Mostly Books' Nicki Thornton, but until then I'll just say that it's a great thing to do for anyone, but especially if you're trying to become a writer.

School Visits: It's Not all Wizards and Cake

by Addy Farmer


You know how it is. The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry rings you up (again) and says please can you come and do your spellbinding session on muggle stories.

They'll pay a hefty 1000 galleons, a complimentary set of Gryffindor robes and as many packets of Hob Nobs as a house elf can carry.


No?

Well, maybe you arrive un-noticed at a school and find that you're doing a free workshop on the fun of physics for 453 children while the staff drink strong liquor and plan a train robbery.

Not exactly?

So what is the Truth about school visits? I asked a few uber authors for their views.

Now, these writers - Linda Newbery, Penny Dolan, Katherine Langrish, Jane Clarke - LIKE school visits. They recognise the importance of them.

Jane Clarke writes Dinosaur Cove and Puddle the Naughtiest Puppy.
Photo: Dennis Oberg

Jane puts it succinctly:

On paper, school vists account for around15% of my income as a writer - but in real terms this is likely to be more as school visits keep me in touch with my target market and promote sales of my books. They're great fun, too!

But anyone with an inner Trunchbull may find them ... a challenge.

Linda Newbery says:

Not everyone likes school visits, and it's a bit odd, really, that someone who's written a novel should be expected to stand up in front of year 9 for an hour and keep them interested.

Linda Newbery, award-winning author of LOB

Do it 'cos you get paid, you get out of the house and you love it. As Katherine says:

I get such a kick out of it, every time. I love doing it. I love telling stories.

But let's first hear what Linda has to say about having cake and not eating it ...

(No Cake sticker from Red Bubble)

I've been doing school visits for about twenty years, and have had a huge range of experiences: bad, funny and wonderful. Visits can vary tremendously, depending on the enthusiasm of the librarian or teacher in charge.

Most visiting authors have a fund of anecdotes about being ignored and belittled. My favourite (many years ago, but I'll never forget it) is the time I was sitting in a primary staff-room at break-time, apparently invisible - no one spoke to me, asked what I was doing, or offered me coffee.

It was someone's birthday, and three home-made cakes had been brought in. These cakes were cut up and passed round on plates, someone actually reaching across me to the person on my other side. It wasn't that I wanted cake ... but I did get up to make myself a coffee (still ignored).

Shame on them! But Linda goes on to say that:

But I mustn't get side-tracked from the wonderful visits ... Really enthusiastic staff ... eager children ... great preparation ... loads of questions - the sort of visit that makes me appreciate the privilege of working with children. Book sales were good, too, though that is a bonus and not something I necessarily expect on a visit.

Katherine Langrish. Photo: Helen Giles

Katherine Langrish of Troll Fell fame, gives her take on school visits:

I usually talk to Years 6, 7, and occasionally 8: but from Year 7 on, kids tend to be less well-organised: their parents and teachers are beginning to try and get them to organise themselves, so the all-important letter home ('Visiting Author; bring money for books!') often gets left in the bottom of the bag.

Plus, peer pressure and coolness points make it less likely that they'll arrive at my sessions /expecting/ to want to buy books. So I may not sell all that many.

But by the end of my sessions the kids usually wish they'd brought their money. My priority for a school visit is that it has to be fun.

I'm not there to teach them, I'm there to entertain them. If they don't have fun, why on earth would they want to read my books anyway? I write historical fantasy based on folklore and legends - rural and urban myths which have been passed down the centuries because people enjoy them!

So that's what I do - tell stories, throw some riddles and a bit of drama, do anything to get them interested in the stories shut up between the front and back covers of not only MY books, but any books.

Penny Dolan

Penny Dolan says it's important to find your own school visit way of doing things

Why do I do school visits? I meet children as they are now and not as I remember them from my earlier teaching life or my own childhood, which is useful when I'm working on a story.

I also love interesting the children in reading and in books, both mine and in general.

I try to show them that writing is a kind of making, an art form not a worksheet exercise.

My sessions are fairly fluid. Although I might use some of the same books, I will talk about the material differently for each age group. Over a long session, it’s important to vary the pace. My pattern might include telling stories, using the occasional prop, making up story with the children and being a bit funny at times, because that ‘s what suits my style. When I’m doing writing workshops, I use a much more serious approach.

I feel it’s important to become confident in your own type of "visitor" personality. It can be off-putting to hear that so and so is a really great performer, or comes with bells and whistles.

Go and see authors in action if you can, but learn to work to your own strengths. A quieter, reflective style can have long-term impact too!

And please forget fame and recognition! Schools are busy places. I don't even expect the children to know my name when I arrive. However, by the time I go, I hope they’ll remember it."

Let's not forget that we love to write. As Penny says:

The money has often been essential, but school visiting absorbs writing time. physical and creative energy. One can complete a busy “out there” year only to discover no books in the pipeline. It’s important to get the right balance in your life.

And A final word from Cliff McNish :

The secret is keeping them down to one or two a month, then they're fine.

Cliff winning the Salford Book Award in 2007 with Breathe

No, Cliff, I'm not jealous, not jealous at all. Write long and prosper.

School Visits ... Part of My Letting Other Folks Do The Talking Season

Some canny readers have noticed that I've been very brief for the past couple of weeks, letting other blogs or vlogs do the talking. It's because ... pssst! I've just started a new novel! Very exciting.

Now that I got that off my chest, here's Don Tate from the Crowe's Nest blog, explaining the secrets of school visits. Read his very informative article here.

If you can't see the video, this is the youtube page.

Dan Santat's School Visit

I follow the blog of Dan Santat just because I love his drawing (the other artist I subscribe to is Sarah Macintyre. Love her stuff!) Dan does the Disney cartoon The Replacements (I haven't seen it here in the UK but then I don't get the Disney Channel).

Anyway, this is not just about how wonderful Dan is (which he is) but about School Visits. Now I did a little piece on school visits featuring Doomspell author Cliff McNish a while back - school visits are a big deal for children's authors because it's a cool way of getting in touch with one's readers etc etc. Of course, it doesn't hurt either that you could make a little bit of money to supplement your non JK Rowling advance.

So here's Dan's truly super cool video about a week long visit to a school for gifted children in Virginia. We can all learn a thing or two about marketing ourselves here.