3 months to a year before...

___ Read my School Visits page. Check out my presentations, my equipment needs, and my fees. (You can do these with less time to spare, but it's more likely I'll already be booked. If you don't have three months, try me anyway.)

___ Decide on a time of year you'd like me to come.

___ Contact me (e-mail is easiest), introduce yourself, ask if I'm available on your preferred dates. If I'm not, I'll try to find a date that works for both of us. If I can't, I can help you find someone who would be available.

at least 2 months before...

___ Decide what you'd like me to do at your school, and send me a tentative schedule. You can use my Sample Schedules as guides.

___ Decide if you want to have a book sale and signing, and if so, how you want to handle it. To help you decide, check out my School Visits page, and my Bringing an Author to Your School pages.

___ If you decide to have a book sale, arrange for books through the publishers, through a bookstore, or through me.

___ Make sure your library has plenty of my books for kids and teachers to check out.

___ Send me the school's address and phone number, and directions to your school.

___ Plan with your faculty how you're going to incorporate my visit into the curriculum.

at least 1 month before...

___ Plan what publicity you're going to need. My website has lots of publicity information for your use.

___ Make arrangements for payment of my fee. Sometimes school districts need time to process checks. Do I need to sign something for the district? Do I need to bring a receipt, or send an invoice? Will the check need to be mailed to me because the district won't have it available until after my visit? Let me know.

at least 2 weeks before...

___ Begin enrichment activities to help prepare kids for my visit. Activities might include reading my books to the kids, going through some of the curriculum activities on my website, or anything else that will teach and prepare.

___ Make any other book sale arrangements that you'll need to make. Do you need to find someone who can handle the book sale table the day of the visit? Do you need to prepare a letter and price list to send home with the kids? How are you going to handle money?

___ Decide how you want to handle lunch. I am happy to eat school lunch, but I find it works best if I eat and chat with teachers, or with a select group of students. Some schools serve lunchroom food, some serve potluck, some order out.

at least 3 days before...

___ Send book order forms home with kids.

the day before the visit

___ Make sure you have the equipment you'll need for my presentations--laptop hooked up to a projector, microphone that reaches to where the projector will be, whiteboard, markers, eraser, cash drawer if you're handling book sales.

___ Make sure teachers understand the schedule.

___ Make sure everything's ready for book sales.

___ Make sure all arrangements are made for tomorrow's lunch.

___ Make sure you know who will introduce me at the assembly, and that they know what they will say. (They don't have to say much--my assembly will tell the kids a lot about me.)

the day of the visit...

___ Have the laptop, projector, screen, and microphone set up in the auditorium before I arrive.

___ Make sure the office staff is expecting me. I'll come to the office and introduce myself.

___ If I'm bringing books to sell, I might need help bringing them in. A dolly or wheeled cart, or several strong sixth graders can be helpful.

___ Take me to the auditorium. We'll make sure everything's working.

___ Unless all the presentations are in the same room, make sure there's someone assigned to get me to my next presentation.

___ Have someone come and get me when it's time for lunch.

___ If needed, have me sign any financial forms required by the school or district.

___ Signing always takes longer than planned. Because of that, I'm willing to sign for teachers, for the library, and for students who can't make the signing, in any schedule gaps that we have--before the first assembly, between sessions, during lunch.

___ If you plan a signing, make sure it goes efficiently. Best use of time allows me maximum interaction with students with minimum waiting around. I like to talk to students. They will want me to sign everything, though--papers, notebooks, hands, foreheads, clothing. I'm willing to sign almost anything, but if you'd rather I not, let me know. Sometimes the rush to get autographs can be overwhelming. Sometimes schools print up bookmarks with my signature on them to pass out to all the kids. There's also the option of giving all the kids a signed book.

right after the visit...

___ If I brought books to sell, help me pack up remaining books to take home.

___ Unless we've made other arrangements, settle up any presentation and book sale money's owed.

___ Wrap up any other remaining details.

later...

___ Do followup enrichment activities with the kids.

___ Let me know how the visit went. If kids want to write me letters, I love to get them.

___ If you found my visit worthwhile, let your colleagues at other schools know.

___ Start planning for next year's author visit.