School Visits for Illustrators: Planning, Promoting, Connecting with Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Debbie Ridpath Ohi is one of the most innovative artists/bookmakers/persons you’ll ever meet. She bravely she jumps into new formats and makes them her own, a true inspiration. You’ve seen her fantastic picture books and book covers (Judy Frickin Blume!), and you probably know she’s a social media dynamo, but did you know Debbie also makes art in virtual reality? And that she can play the harp (in all realities)!? 

She’s also the most generous person you’d ever hope to know in publishing, or on social media, and that sentiment is echoed in every quadrant of the industry/internet. As soon as I heard she was giving a presentation on—well—it didn’t matter—I knew it would be fabulous. 

And this particular session on School Visits for Illustrators: Planning, Promoting, Connecting has every nanosecond of it full of great tips and advice. The title says 'for Illustrators’, but really, Debbie has great ideas for authors and artists alike. It’s definitely worth rewatching if you missed it live, probably worth watching it multiple times til the link expires! 

Debbie reminds attendees that there are many benefits for book creators to try doing school visits: Connecting with readers is an enriching experience for all parties involved. It also usually means connecting with educators, booksellers and librarians, fellow adults who love kid books as much as kidlit creators do. And school visits can also be an important source of income to book creators.

Debbie and educators at a NerdCamp

Here are a few of Debbie’s tips for Nervous Newbies:

• Practice in whatever way makes sense to you
• Find a friendly pre-audience and get feedback. An educator being the ideal audience
• Record yourself on Zoom, then watch the reply and figure out what you need to improve
• Have a checklist of reminders

Debbie goes over the prep work that makes for a successful school visit whether it’s in-person or virtual. She has tips for engaging audiences of all age ranges, whether that’s in person or virtual, too! And she showed her virtual event presentation zone set up—Debbie has a green screen! Many monitors! And also utilizes various cameras/angles for easy sharing of artmaking or booktalking. And is the first to say you do not need any of that to give a quality virtual visit: The appropriateness of the content to the age of the audience and your energy and engagement are the key.

Debbie also shared wonderful business-side best practices for navigating the wide range of school visit opportunities that can come up. The School Visit Workshop handout she provided to session attendees (live or recorded!) is easily worth hundreds of dollars of tips and links—her tech and supply source links alone will save you time and money!

Find out more about Debbie and all the awesome things she’s up to on DebbieOhi.com, on Twitter at @inkyelbows, and on Instagram at @inkygirl (art) / @inkyelbows (Bookstagram).

Phil Bildner: Rocking Your Presentation—How to Wow Your Audience

Phil Bildner, one of the planet's most dynamic humans, has written a whole heap of picture books, including Marvelous Cornelius, Martina & Chrissie, Twenty-One Elephants, The Soccer Fence, and The Hallelujah flight. He also wrote the MG series Rip & Red, and co-created the NYT bestselling MG chapter book series Sluggers.

But that's not all.

A veteran visitor of schools, Phil in 2017 founded The Author Village, a booking service that features dozens of the industry's best authors and illustrators.

He talked to us today about rocking school visits.

He used to teach in New York's public schools and doesn't consider himself a former teacher, but a traveling teacher who brings messages of respect to groups of students all over. Here are just a few of the invaluable bits of advice he gave those of us looking to boost our school visit game.

1. The key to presentations is to get your audience's attention right away.

Look! It's a Philmoji!

"Know your audience or you will have no audience," he said. This means you have to speak their language—not yours.

Once he was in Mitch McConnell country, Kentucky. He wanted to get a feel for who the kids were and he asked them to describe themselves in five words—first choosing six, and then crossing out one.

This helped him set a tone. One of the words he used to describe himself was "queer," because he knew some of the audience members would never have heard an educator describe themselves that way. He was nervous about it. But every kid showed up the second day, and they wanted to know if he'd be back.

Another way to connect with an audience: tell a story. Make yourself human. Show your humor and heart.

If you're an illustrator or painter, DRAW. They will be mesmerized. If you play an instrument, play it. If you can writ poems, recite one. Basically, if you have a trick, bring it out.

2. Request a tech person: Don't be afraid to ask for the tech person's number. Ask for the kind of microphone you like. If you're bringing your own laptop, bring all the adapters and cords. If possible, use the school's equipment. You can't always count on sound or internet connectivity for your presentation. Have backups on the flash drive and the cloud. (The Logitech wireless Presenter R400 is reliable.)

3. Show the behind-the-scenes process. "Your mess is your message." He likes to show sketches and iterations for cover designs, because kids love seeing how an idea evolves and where inspiration comes from. It's also good to show them the kinds of revisions we do, likening the work of editors to the work of teachers.

A rough sketch and edited copy
from Martina & Chrissie by Phil Bildner

Phil Bildner: The ABCs of School Visits

Phil just before his breakout session

Phil Bildner is the author of numerous children’s picture books, including the Margaret Wise Brown Prize-winning Marvelous Cornelius, Martina & Chrissie, Twenty-One Elephants, The Soccer Fence, The Hallelujah Flight, and The Unforgettable Season. He is the author of the Rip & Red middle grade series and he is the co-creator of the New York Times best-selling middle grade chapter book serial, Sluggers. Phil spends much of the year visiting schools around the country conducting writing workshops and talking process with students.

**

Phil was a middle school teacher for 11 years, and he says that "I look at my writing as the vehicle that lets me do school visits..." Now, "I look at myself as a traveling teacher."

It's a presentation packed (packed!) with tips, including:

"You have to bring it every day." Some kids will never meet another author, it's you. 

How do you get more school visits?

Ask the PTO person or volunteer, or librarian, or teacher, would you reach out to other schools in your district and invite a representative to come?

Five more tips:

1) You're always the gracious and humble guest.

2) Ask to use the faculty bathroom.

3) Make sure your agreement (note: don't call it a contract) with the school spells out that you're going to be with a representative of the sponsor at all times, that you're never alone with kids.

4) Share picture of yourself as kid and awkward teen. "They love that."

and

5) "Know your worth. Never do a free school visit."

Phil shares his advice on book orders (first thing to try: find a local independent bookstore), contracts (yes, you need one), money (get paid as an independent contractor), virtual visits (how to structure them), and so much more.

Final insight to share in this post:

"A school visit is an in-school field trip."

Stacy Innerst: School Visits as an Illustrator

Stacy Innerst’s picture books have earned numerous honors including the BCCB Blue Ribbon, two Parents’ Choice Gold Medals, and a Smithsonian Notable Book Citation. His illustrations for The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue, written by Suzanne Slade (Boyds Mills), received the 2017 Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Illustration. Visit www.stacyinnerst.com.

Stacy Innerst's breakout session at the Los Angeles SCBWI Summer Conference was absolutely packed with information about school visits for illustrators.

He walked us through his personal school visit slideshow, beginning with the images he uses to introduce himself. In lieu of a typical biographical slideshow (Here's where I went to school; here are the books I made), Stacy shares images from home, of his son, of books he loved and read as a kid, and things he did as a kid (like scribble in books when he shouldn't have) -- something almost any kid can relate to. He then explains the process of making a book from researching and creating characters to showing images of his studio space and art materials.

Finally, he concludes with information about specific books he's made, the materials he used to make them, his art making process and background, and an interactive drawing demonstration that shows kids that drawing is something they can do, too.

• I particularly loved hearing his practical tips. As an illustrator who has never made a picture book school visit, it was incredibly helpful to learn about:
• What to include in your contract.
• Asking teachers for assistance prior to your visit: making sure they've read your book and their students will be familiar with your book; asking for their help calling on kids when it comes to Q&A; learning the school hand signal for "quiet please", etc.
• How to tactful bring up your visit fee, and what to do if a schools doesn't have the budget for it
• Planning your visit and making sure you and the school are on the same page -- i.e. materials that you're bringing or you need them to provide; how many sessions you'll be doing, how many kids you'll be presenting to, etc.
• How to handle book signings (and/or sales) during school visits.

After this session, I feel so much more prepared for my first school visit. Thank you to Stacy for so eloquently distilling his experiences into such helpful, specific, and actionable info.

Catch more of the conference highlights this year through blog posts tagged #LA17SCBWI or as-it-happens on Twitter.

Matt de la Pena: the Weird World of School Visits

Author Matt de la Pena

Matt de la Peña has written four critically acclaimed young adult novels: BALL DON'T LIE, MEXICAN WHITEBOY, WE WERE HERE and I WILL SAVE YOU.

His latest, THE LIVING, comes out later this year, along with THE CURSE OF THE ANCIENTS, part of the middle grade Infinity Ring series.

He’s also the author of the award-winning picture book A NATION'S HOPE: The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis (illustrated by Kadir Nelson).

He led a breakout session on school visits. Here are a few highlights: 

When he first started doing school visits, he didn't know what he was doing. "I made so many mistakes. I wish somebody could have sat me down."

About seven months after his first book came out, a Texas school invited him to visit. "If you get in good with the Texas librarians, you will do school visits forever. Everybody in Texas will hear about that visit."

At first, he charged too little. A librarian took him aside. He had to figure out his own price point. Linda Sue Park explained it like this: "You can charge more when you've written more books. If you are doing too many, you can charge more and they'll stop asking you."

A lot of this money comes from grants. If schools don't spend this, they lose it. What's more, the money can make for a better visit. "The free school visit is the worst school visit. It means they don't value you as much."

But it's not just about getting paid. It's about getting material for your writing. You can observe the kids and sometimes they'll share directly.

School visits do have some drawbacks. A one-day school visit out of state will take three of your days. It's also draining. You have to be a performer and salesman. You have to learn to write on the road. Matt returns to the hotel and either walks fast or runs for 30 minutes to transition from the performer mode to the writing mode. Logistics--planning and getting paid--is also time consuming.

Matt charges honorarium, hotel, and flight. He never charges for food or mileage. Some authors bring books. He doesn't. He doesn't even always demand book sales at appearances.

The worst school visits are ones where the author has a power point of their book and just reads from the book. "Go in with humor. If you can connect, that's key."

Alexis O'Neill Pro Track On School Visits: Setting Fees, Getting Gigs, and Delivering the Goods

I'm thrilled to sit in on Alexis O'Neill's session on School Visits this morning!



Alexis is an author of three picture books and numerous articles, pens the column "The Truth About School Visits" for the SCBWI Bulletin and just launched the blog schoolvisitexperts.com - where she shares her expertise and has created a community hub for authors and ilustrators to learn and talk about the art and commerce and pursuit of school visits!

First thing that impressed me about Alexis' session: She gave each of us a brief survey to fill out (30 seconds) before the session started to gauge the room's interest on the three main topics - setting fees, getting gigs, and delivering the goods.

And then she got our attention by getting us all clapping and singing a rhyming song - that got the room quiet and excited and attentive. (Without saying "okay, everybody sit down and be quiet, we're ready to begin!") Oooh, she's good.

She shared handouts where

Here's some highlights from the information she shared:

Setting Fees

You're professionals. You need to think about what you're worth. You have something of value to share with other people.

Where you are in the country can dictact how much you can charge.

Even when schools say they don't have any money, there are programs they are mandated to do (for example, title 1 schools have literacy requirements - suburban schools have parent organizations that raise money throughout the year for programs.)

Find out what other authors around you are charging - even libraries have budgets. That way you know what's reasonable.

And know your bottom line - what makes it worthwhile for you to do?


Getting Gigs

Get known locally first, but realize you're never a prophet in your own land. You'll get more gigs 50 miles away.

Find out what state and local meetings and events can you attend - is there a librarian event you and some other authors can do a showcase at?

"Wherever librarians and teachers gather, be there."

Delivering the Goods -

Your school visit needs to be enriching, and you want kids and teachers to learn something that they can use when they get back to the classroom. Kids are writing every day. You're a writer. If you're an illustrator, it's another way of expressing an idea - and kids need to do that, too!

Remember that everyone in the audience wants you to succeed. Be human, and don't think you have to be perfect.

As she wrote in her slideshow presentation

Inspiring lots of writing and art (where kids express themselves)

Wow. This is such a great session - lots of contributions from audience members (which includes some super-accomplished author visit experts themselves!), and lots of great stories and advice from Alexis! I'm really going to have to check out the articles and forms and downloadable pdfs on her schoolvisitexperts.com site, and if you're interested in doing school visits, so should you!

Bruce Hale: Skype School Visits

Bruce Hale wears a lot of hats, literally and figuratively. He's author of the Chet Gecko series and SNORING BEAUTY. He sings jazz, acts, and gives seminars on storytelling. And he can make illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka (don't miss his LUNCH LADY books) do his bidding. More or less*.

Bruce gave us a detailed overview of how to use Skype to bring your book act to schools.

Skype is free software that you can use for video conferencing. When the session began, we saw Bruce on stage, in front of a screen with a picture of Bruce on stage, and in that image was another picture of Bruce on stage. In other words, it was like looking at a Russian nesting doll, but one with a cool hat and a waistline. Also? Surreal.

Using Skype, Bruce and Jarrett demonstrated the things that could go wrong in a school visit. It took several minutes to actually connect--some of which was planned, some not.

It eventually worked, though, and Jarrett swore us to secrecy as he revealed a small disaster that occurred during his first school visit via Skype. I have censored this so that Jarrett doesn't hunt me down, which he promised to do should the vow of secrecy be broken.

So, Jarrett was waiting for his session to begin. The tech guys could hear him, but they couldn't see him. As he waited for a solution, he let rip a thundering fart.. They were too polite to comment on his flatulence, but everybody knew what had happened. They knew. The bottom line, so to speak: anything you say or do can be transmitted, he said. And then he farted.

Moving on.

Bruce gave some excellent, practical advice about using Skype for school visits. Among the gems:

• Be visual. Gesture lots, and use props.
• Prepare the students well beforehand (send them to your website, etc.)
• Pile on the Q&A, but let the teacher run that session
• Wear something suitable. No crazy patterns.
• Get feedback afterward, and use testimonials for your site.

* Jarrett did more, specifically, he ate Tostitos during the Skype, which gave us an enhanced sensory experience.