There are lots of different kinds of school visits, and I work with teachers and librarians to try to gear my visits towards the needs of the school (I do virtual visits, too!) – but generally most of my in-person school visits tend to look like this:

Month before

– Finalize date / honorarium / travel
– Submit any necessary clearances and other paperwork
– Decide on method of book sales
– Start to build excitement with parents and students, reinforcing the school visit with free activity sheets, coloring pages and other resources (that you can find here)

Week before

– Send my powerpoint presentation to a school contact, so it can be tested and ready to go on the morning of the event (this helps reduce tech stress for everyone)

Day of

8:30. Check-in and greetings

9:15 – 10:15 / 12:15. One or multiple 1 hour “How to Write a Novel” auditorium presentations, including Q&A (whole school or grade).

For bigger schools or schools with limited space, I’m happy to do up to three big presentations over the course of the morning.

10:30 – 12:15. If it’s just one presentation: book signing with a brief 1:1 conversation with each student.

12:15 – 1:15. Lunch with select students / teachers / PTA.

1:30 – 2:30. Interactive writers’ workshop with select students (I’ve done these with up to 400 students at once, but anywhere between 10 – 40 is a sweet spot).

2:30 – Pickup. Book signings / goodbyes.

This sample schedule can shift around a lot depending on the school, but generally that’s how these days (and the lead-up to these days) go!

I’m unlike a lot of children’s book authors in that I’ve worked on the non-author side of publishing for kind of a long time – since 2006! – and I’m currently a partner at Courage Literary, the literary agency I founded with my wife Rachel Ekstrom Courage (who’s a literary agent and Young Adult novelist).

Before I started writing books for kids, I spent a decade working at publishing houses like Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Picador. I’ve worked on campaigns for bestselling and award-winning “adult” authors like Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Michael Cunningham, Jeffrey Eugenides, Marilynne Robinson, and Paul Auster… and I also worked on kind of a lot of movie tie-ins starring Bradley Cooper (including—but not limited to!—Silver Linings Playbook and Limitless).

So in my school visits, I talk about how to write a book (with lots of tips and tricks and an emphasis on how research and libraries are FUN)… but I also talk a little bit about the publishing industry, how books are made, and how to live a life with books!

I talk widely about books and publishing, in school lists and also at events like the Brooklyn Book Festival, The Texas Book Festival, The Lousiana Book Festival, Creative Nonfiction’s Writers’ Conference, Erma Bombeck’s Writers Workshop, Chatham University’s Summer Community of Writers, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, and other larger scale events.

I’ve guest lectured at NYU’s publishing course and Seton Hill’s MFA program; spoken about zines in The New School’s graduate program; and I even designed and taught a “Writing Youth Literature” course at the University of Pittsburgh…

But one of my favorite things in the world is when I get to share all of that knowledge and enthusiasm with students (typically in grades 3 – 7) and inspire a new generation of readers, writers, and literary creators!

Students walk away from my visits:

1) Inspired and encouraged to write their own stories;
2) With all the tools they need to start writing;
3) And an excitement about a bigger world of books and storytelling.

The biggest factor with school visits is always travel and budget.

Unfortunately, publishers aren’t paying to fly their authors around anymore (like they did when I first started working in publishing) so travel costs are a consideration… but I’m happy to work within a school’s budget whenever I can, so please reach out if you’re thinking of asking me to visit but aren’t sure about honorarium.

There are certain times of the year and circumstances where I may be able to visit your school for free or reduced rates, so if budget is limited… please don’t let that stop you from reaching out!

Generally, my honorarium ranges from $300 – $2,500 for an in-person school visit (it’s a big range because I always try to work within a school’s budget to make a visit happen!). If budget is an issue and your class is reading one of my books, there’s nothing I like more than hopping on a quick Zoom for a Q&A—and I’ll usually just do those for the fun of it 🙂

I want to visit your school and help get your students excited about writing and reading, so the main thing is to reach out via my contact form and let me know you’re interested in having me visit—if I can swing it, I will…

And I might even bring Rachel and Chaely with me!