You don't have to be a children's writer in order to
work with schools – except perhaps if you write erotica. You need to be able to
talk to children. This doesn't mean talking down to them. There are actually
very few people who can't relate to children. Many "full-time"
writers do many school visits. It can be well-paid and it can help you to
promote your books.
Charges
At the time of writing, I charge £400.00 for a full
day's visit. Very few schools actually pay that as I often offer a discount and
I offer a couple of other models – see below. Two schools near to each other
can also share a writer. It is important to charge – your time is precious.
However, you might offer a few visits free or very cheap while you find your
feet. If there are schools with which you have connections, try approaching
them fist.
My £400.00 workshops includes all of the materials, a free
book or two for the school library and all materials also on a memory stick for
teachers to use later and for follow up work. The school only has to supply any
stationery for the students.
I always charge travel expenses. However, I work these out
in advance and add it to the fee. That is 0.45 per mile plus £5.00 for
breakfast, £10.00 for lunch and £20.00 for dinner, plus £75.00 for an overnight
stay. Often, I'll go be train, which may be cheaper, but then expenses get
bumped up by taxi fares. Sometimes the hotel or airbnb is cheaper, sometimes
more expensive. Doing it this way is win/win. The school has a fixed price. I
claim the expenses on my tax return.
The "free" visit
Note, I still
charge travel expenses. This visit is limited to 1.5 hours. It includes:
·
A short
talk about me as a writer
·
Readings
from a book of the teacher's choice
·
A Q
& A session
·
One
creative writing exercise
·
A chance
for book signings
A fundamental
understanding of this sort of visit is that you will have the opportunity to
sell books.
The custom visit
This is where the school tell me what they can afford
and you tailor your visit to suit them. I make sure travel expenses are
covered.
I can customise my visit in the following ways:
·
I shorten the day
·
I don't give books to the library
·
The school shares me with another nearby school
·
The teachers produce the materials themselves -
though there is a risk here that the material may not be produced. I take them
along on my lap top or memory stick to the school just in case.
·
I lower my fee a little
Terms and conditions
Here is my
contract with terms and conditions attached:
Contract for School Visits from Gill James
Date and time of event
Contact person – name, phone number, email
Parking arrangements
Groups (year, number in each group)
Timings
Equipment I need
Equipment the school will provide
Estimate of travel expenses
Agreed fee
Terms and conditions
1.
I will invoice the school about ten days in advance.
Payment is due within one calendar month of the visit. An interest charge will
be added to late payments.
2.
Even "free" visits will incur a travel
expense charge.
3.
I am self-employed and pay tax annually. I must not be
processed through your payroll.
4.
I expect to sell books at your event but I will provide
them and process the sales. I shall supply in advance hard-copies of a letter
to parents. I will bring the books. There will be an option for parents /guardians
/ students to purchase in advance. Please allow ample time for signings.
5.
For paid visits I will bring all materials except for
stationery. I will indicate which student stationery is needed. For
"free" visits I may send you a few materials to be photocopied.
6.
You may at any time order one of my books from me
directly as an inspection copy. If you are going ahead with this workshop you
may keep this book free of charge. At paid workshops you will also be gifted
another book for your school library.
7.
Full-time staff from the school must be present in the
event room at all times – otherwise my public liability will be invalid.
8.
I must be allowed a short break at least every two
hours. Please supply water.
9.
Cancellation policy: if you cancel less than three
weeks before the event 10% of the fee is payable. If I have to cancel because
of ill-health, severe weather or public transport failure, the workshop will be
offered at another mutually convenient time with a 10% discount.
10.
On behalf of the school
|
On behalf of Gill James
|
Name
|
Gill James
|
Date:
|
Date:
|
This normally fits on to a sheet of A4. It's actually a
constant work in progress and if you'd like the latest version, email me at
gill.james@btinternet.com
Most of what is here you will probably have negotiated beforehand
via a set of emails. Incidentally, I usually print off all the emails and a
copy of this before I go the school. Don't rely on your phone, tablet or
lap-top. You may be without power or a signal when you most need it.
Always make sure about car parking arrangements and where
the entrance to the school is. The post code doesn’t always take you to the
front gate.
What you may need to negotiate
Be aware that many schools will try to put you on pay
roll. This is totally wrong and you must fight it. Otherwise you'll be paying
tax and NI twice. It's wise to include your tax number on your invoice.
Always expect to sell books.
There should always be a member of full time staff with you
and that should preferably be a qualified teacher. Okay, sometimes they'll sit
at the back of the class and get on with their marking. Most, however, join in.
You actually need this to validate your public liability insurance. More on
that later. They know their students well and you should leave all of the
discipline to them. You can remain the nice guy.
Negotiate a break to suit you. I insist on having one every
two hours and that I have water available.
Unless I am invited to lunch I take a packed one. You can usually sit quietly
in the staff room to eat this. Sometimes this gives you the opportunity to talk
to other subject teachers and perhaps start negotiations for another
workshop.
Be very firm about the shape of groups you are willing to work
with. Be wary too of being asked to talk too long to a whole year group or even
a whole school, though you might start and end your day that way.
Also be very firm about which age groups you are comfortable
with. I personally will not work with lower than year 5 but am happy to go up
to Year 13.
Here are some patterns I've used:
Pattern 1
1. I talked to the whole of a year group at the
beginning of the day.
2. I spent one hour with each of four classes
3. I met the whole year group again at the end
of the day for Q & A and book signing.
Pattern 2
I worked all day in the conference room with eight
gifted and talented students.
·
We talked about what they liked to read.
·
We worked through a series of creative writing
exercises to produce stories and poems.
·
We collaborated on a short play which we then
rehearsed and performed just amongst ourselves. Later they polished it up and
showed it to the rest of the school.
Pattern 3
Children were
cherry-picked to join groups of about 15 students.
1. I
read to the whole of lower school and conducted a Q & A session.
2. I
worked with Year 7 on Haiku, acrostic poems and some OULIPO activities. See:
3. I
worked on story with Year 8
4.
I worked on play scripts with Year 9
5.
I lead a further Q & A – this time I asked the questions.
This was followed by a book signing.
What you might do in your workshop
Obviously you want your books to feature prominently.
Negotiate with your contact person about which book/books might be the best to
use.
Topic of your book
You might have a book with a strong theme or setting.
You could base some or the whole of your workshop on your research. I do this
with my Schellberg Cycle workshop. This is very suitable for Year 9 as that is
when they learn about the Holocaust.
Creative Writing
Negotiate with your contact about what sort of thing
they'd like you to do. They'll probably want to hook it to the curriculum. You
will probably want to subvert that a little and in fact that's what they've
invited you in for – even if they don't realise it.
Produce a book
I have put together a workshop that can last one day or
more or be delivered over several weeks. You can access it here:
We write, edit, illustrate, publish and market a book. This
can be a free school visit as sales of the book cover my costs.
Making sure you can sell your books
I send enough hard copies of the following sort of letter
to the school. I keep a "float" of twenty books that I've purchased
at author discount. If I'm using self-published ones I can offer a substantial
discount to parents who purchase directly from me.
This sample letter makes it all largely self-explanatory:
Dear Parents or Guardians,
I shall be visiting the school on 31 March to deliver a
workshop about my Schellberg Cycle project. This will form part of students’
education about the Holocaust. This
project was kick-started by a sabbatical from the University of Salford. I am
an experienced secondary school teacher and university lecturer.
I am writing a cycle
of stories based on a true story, partly about my late mother-in-law who came
to England on the Kindertransport, and also informed by a collection of letters
from her classmates: the girls wrote letters in an exercise book that they sent
on to the next girl. Read more about the project here:
The workshop does deal with some of the horrors of the
Holocaust but also looks at how ordinary German people got caught up in it.
The first story in the cycle, The House on Schellberg
Street, is already published. It is Renate’s story of coming to England and
being puzzled about her identity. It also tells of what happens to her
grandmother, Clara Lehrs, and how this extraordinary woman, a Jewess and
therefore persecuted herself, looks after a group of disabled children also
threatened by the Nazi regime. The book is readable by children aged 13 and
above and may also be of interest to adults. This story ends on a hopeful
note.
I shall be signing copies on the day.
·
If you would like a signed copy you can:
·
Buy it from Amazon and get your child to bring
it on the day to be signed:
·
Send a cheque for £7.99 made to G James to the
above address with a note that this is for the book. I shall bring the book on
the day.
·
Make a bank transfer to G James sort code 60 18
28 /
Account number 19129823 and email
me (
gill.james@btinternet.com) that
you have done that.
I shall bring the
book on the day.
·
Send £7.99 in cash on the day with your child.
Note, as always there is a risk in sending cash into school and I also can’t
guarantee that I would have enough copies. The other options are safer.
Thank you for your support in this and I look forward to
working with your child.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Gill James
Some legalities
Public liability insurance
Most schools –
and indeed other organisations – will insist that you have public liability
insurance – and like you to have £10,000,000. You can obtain this for free if you
become a professional member of NAWE:
http://www.nawe.co.uk/. There are several other advantages of belonging
to NAWE as are mentioned elsewhere in this book. Take a look at their site to
see what else.
The Society of
Authors also offers this at a reasonable rate if you are a member and if you're
not, you might want to think about joining. Find them at:
DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) Checks
This is all
about child and vulnerable adult protection checks. The Service confirms that
you are not a risk to children and vulnerable adults.
Strictly speaking you
don't need these as your public liability insurance will insist that you have a
full time member of staff with you at all times and you only need a DBS check
if you will be alone with children or vulnerable adults. However, NAWE will
again process it at a reasonable price and remind you when the current one is
out of date.
Finding schools
Word of mouth
Do you have
contacts with local schools? Do you have friends and family who can help? How
about popping in to your local school and leaving your contact details? This is
particularly useful when you are just starting out.
Automatic listings
If you are a paid up member, NAWE, The Society of Authors
and SCBWI (The Society of Book Writers and Illustrators) allow you a free
listing:
Your own publisher
Many publishers will keep a list of authors who are
willing to visit schools. We're starting to do this for Bridge House, Chapeltown
and Red Telephone authors
Paid for
There are several paid for opportunities. Here you can often add more information and
update your details regularly. I
recommend Contact an Author:
I've used this myself quite successfully and I know the
people who run it.
Sprint mail
This is a handy way of emailing all appropriate
schools. They're not cheap but if a group of you bunch together you can make it
cost effective. I've worked with a group of other writers very
effectively. Find them at:
Your own web site
Have a page on your own web site devoted to your school
visits. You should include:
·
Details of what you do
·
Charges
·
Flexibility – what interested parties might do
if they cannot afford the full fee.
·
Endorsements
·
Link to your books
·
Link to past events - a note here: never post photographs
of students unless you have express permission. I tend to photograph their work
or the teachers and get one or two of myself.
