Laura Purdie Salas

Small Reads for Brighters Days

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You are here: Home / Author Visit Fees

Author Visit Fees

OK, I know it’s easier for you if I just spell out all my fees, so here goes:

My fee is $800 for a one-day author visit in the Twin Cities area. This includes a maximum of four presentations, plus lunch with teachers or students. My fee for a standalone one-hour professional development session is $350. If you’d like to add a before- or after-school PD session on top of a school visit, the fee is reduced to $200.

For schools more than 50 miles away but within a three-hour drive from the Capitol Building in St. Paul, Minnesota, schools pay travel and lodging expenses. To reduce costs for outstate Minnesota (or nearby destinations within a three-hour drive), consider contacting other schools in your area. When I do several visits in the same area, schools can split the travel costs.

Please contact me for out-of-state visit fees.

Not sure if your school has the funds available for an author visit? Here are a few ideas for fundraising. You could also consider a Skype visit as a lower-cost alternative.

Ideas for Raising Funds for a School Visit

  • Ask the PTO/PTA or a community organization to sponsor the visit or to match school-raised funds.
  • Apply for a grant. Try http://www.donorschoose.org/homepage/main.html, https://unsungheroes.scholarshipamerica.org/, or http://www.ala.org/aasl/awards/innovative.

Finding money from an outside source is great, but if your teachers, parents, and students are involved, they will be more invested in the author visit itself!

  • Hold a book sale. Most publishers give schools a substantial discount (around 40%), which allows you to fund a visit by selling the author’s books.
  • Go to your families. Divide the visit cost by your number of families minus 10%. If the visit is $1,000 and you have 700 students, divide 1000 by 630. You get 1.59. Create a “permission slip” and ask each student to pay $1.60 (because you don’t want all those pennies!).
  • Sell a small reading/writing-related novelty item, like bracelets, to your students (try a company like http://www.school-fundraisers.com/).
  • Sell an extra treat in the cafeteria for 3 days only.
  • Ask the PTO/PTA to run a raffle. Solicit an excellent donation from a major retailer and sell raffle tickets. Announce the winner on the author visit day!
  • Ask parents who travel frequently to donate a flight or hotel stay.

Students love to see adults look foolish! If your teachers are willing…

  • Rent a dunking booth and have kids pay $1 for a chance to hit the sweet spot and send their favorite(!) teacher into the water.
  • Hold a coin drive. Each teacher chooses a prize to motivate the kids. The teacher of the top fundraising class delivers! Teachers have shaved their heads, sung songs onstage at lunch, and dressed up like book characters.
  • Hold a staff vs. kids challenge–and charge admission–anything from volleyball to trivia. Handicap the grown-ups to give kids a good chance of winning. Talk up the event, and hold it at night so that parents will come, too! Sell snacks.

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MARCH NEWS

ZAP! CLAP! BOOM! is out, and FINDING FAMILY and PUDDLE SONG are hot on its heels. I'm celebrating all 3 with a storytime book launch party at Red Balloon on April 1st. No fooling! Hope you can come (with or without kids).

Join me on April 1st? Click image for details!

I'm also presenting at a Young Authors Conference, marketing all 3 new books, and doing several virtual field trips for students. Happy almost-spring!

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