Funding Your Author Visit

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Authors must charge an honorarium (and sometimes request travel reimbursements) to make a school visit financially viable on their end. Consider some of the following options to fund an author visit at your school:

 

• Book sale, bake sale, car wash, etc.

 

• Crowdsource funding.

 

• Connect with local businesses, bookstores, and public libraries to see what resources they can provide or if they want to partner with you.

 

• Look for literacy/educational grants. Contact your state humanities commission. Humanities councils will often cover the cost of the author FOR you. Contact them to see if programs like this exist in your state.

 

• Same with your state or local arts commission!

 

• Arts commissions will also cover author visit costs. Contact them to see if your school qualifies!

 

• Check out SCBWI's Amber Brown Fund! This grant is solely for the purpose of paying for authors to visit schools. Apply for one!

 

• Ask your PTA/PTO if they can fund your next author visit, or if they have other fundraising ideas!

 

• Sell tickets! Charge your students $1-2 each to join in the fun!

 

• Pool with other area schools! Coordinate a visit with several schools in your district to split the travel costs. I can often lower my per-hour honorarium, too, if I know I'll be visiting several schools in one area.

 

• Ask your local public library to chip in!

 

• Frequently, a public library has grants and funding for things like author visits. Ask! It often involves an event at the library, too, which is wonderful!

 

• Ask your local university to pitch in! Ditto the above; I'll happily chat with university writing students as part of a district visit.

 

• Sell my books! Ask your local bookstore if they will give your school a percentage of book sales.

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