Tips for Teachers: Author Visits Part Eleven – The Day of the Visit 2
On the day of the author visit, once everything’s all ready to go, have someone introduce the author with some biographical information, details about their books and about any other work that they do.
Most authors who visit schools on a regular basis are proficient in crowd control, but make sure you have a staff member on hand to deal with any disruptive or just overly excited and enthusiastic students. Have someone thank the author, either at the end of the whole day or at the end of each session, if the author’s presenting to multiple groups. Although not essential, most authors appreciate any tokens of thanks, such as coffee mugs featuring the school logo, pens, or whatever you have available, as a memento of their visit.
If there are going to be book sales to students after the session in which the author will autograph copies of their books, ensure that this is organized properly and that students line up in an orderly fashion. Once the author is ready to leave, have student volunteers to help the author with their belongings, if needed, at the end of the session. This may be particularly important if the author is engaged in a tour of your area and has a limited amount of time to travel to another school for an afternoon presentation, for example.
Before the author leaves the premises, ensure that their fee is paid, unless prior arrangements have been made to use direct deposit, mail out their payment, and so on. Even if you’ve given the author a thank you card after their time at your school, always send a thank you e mail a week or so later, since this is always appreciated by the author. And finally, if everything went smoothly, don’t forget to congratulate yourself on hosting a successful author visit at your school.
