I am happy to announce that I will be doing another author visit!  This time I will be speaking with students on May 21st.  I can’t wait!  Speaking with children is so much more rewarding and enjoyable than speaking with adults.

I’m in a constant state of surprise as I navigate my way through the world of authoring books and learn how things actually work, and what is considered “normal”.  What was conveyed to me (albeit secondhand) about the typical experience with authors for author visits as this particular elementary school shocked me.  Apparently most authors will loan a (single) copy of their book to the school for the students and teacher to share.  The author then tells the school that the students have to purchase at least 30 copies (or whatever the size of the class is) of their book in total before they’ll schedule a time to do an author visit.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I find that just disgusting.  I understand how incredibly difficult it is to sell books as an indie author, but requiring that students purchase X amount of books before you’ll even schedule a visit?!?

And while we’re on the topic of author visits.  Apparently I’m the only author that doesn’t use their time with students hyping their own book and telling the kids they should buy it.  Again, I just find that disgusting.  I’m very proud of my book, but when I visited the elementary school I spent the entire time speaking with the kids about imagination, reading books, journaling, discipline, perseverance, etc.  To me, I thought that was the whole point of an author visit:  to reiterate what the teacher had been instructing the children.  I was invited because I was to speak about these topics because they’re central to the pursuit of writing, not to hawk books like a used car salesman.