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Children’s writers clearly don’t receive the celebrity we deserve. We have to buy our own groceries, dress ourselves, chew our own food and even fight end of level bosses alone. It’s a tragedy.

But it’s a tragedy that is corrected by the hallowed author school visit. This is a time when a kids writer is truly treated like a celebrity, even if it’s only for a few hours.

Being a kids writer terrible at self-promotion (as my four month delay in announcing my last batch of books clearly proves), I haven’t focused on getting out there and I have yet to do a *real* school visit.

I say *real* because there was one time before I was published when my little sister (then in grade 4) convinced her teacher to read my manuscript to the class over the course of a few weeks and then invite me in to talk to them. The manuscript was awful and is now buried in a drawer somewhere in my office, where it will remain. I don’t remember planning anything for the visit but I think it was a success. My sister said so anyway.

These memories have bubbled up in my mind and spilled out here because I have just finished reading a great article by fellow CANSCAIP member and school visit pro, Magriet Ruurs. The article, Optimizing Author Visits is aimed at teachers planning to have an author come to their school. It’s a fantastic resource for authors too, who may think about pointing it out to prospective host schools.

Among the great tips for teachers, is this final piece of advice definitely sets the bar of success for authors:

Have students write thank you notes. I have received wonderful letters from students that I treasure and often share in teacher presentations:

“Your presentation wasn?t even boring.”
“I like your books. You?re my third favorite author.”
“My name is Stephen. When I grow up I want to be an Arthur.”

With praise like that who wouldn’t want to hit the author visit circuit?

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