Host Your Own Event:
Go Back To School

Author: C. Hope Clark

Look closely at your child’s papers when you empty out that book bag. How many of those crunched, folded, wilted papers reference sponsors, supporters, guests or VIPs? When you consider that each school has hundreds (if not thousands) of students who take papers home to family and friends, is there any wonder that kids sell wrapping paper, chocolate, raffle tickets and doughnuts to earn money for projects? Schools are a business Mecca! Why aren’t you tapping into this opportunity for your writing business?

SUPPORTER

A business donates money to the school or offers a discount for students and their families and instantly becomes a supporter. There’s never a down side to being an educational supporter. In return, your logo or name goes out on school paperwork, newsletters, emails and web sites. Place the fact you support education on your own web site, business card or newsletter and you propel your business even more. A friend of education is a friend to all.

Initially you might envision this as simply an elementary school affair, but all schools need sponsors. Support the band boosters at the high school, the soccer team at the middle school, the fall carnival at the elementary school. But you can also support the literary journal at the university and a scholarship at the community college.

A common support method is to offer coupons for purchases. Better to sell hundreds of copies for less than hold out for the full value of a few sales.

SPEAKING

Career Day is a perfect chance to speak about your writing. Whether you write children’s books or have a copywriting service, you are telling everyone you make your living as a writer.

Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs) request speakers and have budgets to pay them. As a minimum, you expose yourself to a sea of parents eager to buy your book.

At colleges, you can actually speak for a salary, incorporating your book into the cost of the course. Technical schools frequently need writing teachers, not to mention tutors. Continuing education classes at community colleges offer chances to speak to adults who want to expand their horizons and venture into new territory. Colleges request guest speakers to fit into existing curricula. Even high school and collegiate clubs request speakers, giving them opportunity to sell books afterwards.

BOOK FAIRS

Children’s authors jump at these chances. Give readings to eager little ears while their parents buy your book to take the experience home. Children feel like they are meeting celebrities, and parents love being the heroes in the eyes of their offspring.

WRITERS-IN-RESIDENCE

Schools will hire writers to teach for a day, a week, even months, often financing the residency through a state grant. All state arts commissions are federally and state funded to supply artists and writers for public schools, particularly in inner-city and rural settings. The grant is given to the school to pay a stipend to the writer. Go to NASSA-Arts.org to find your state arts commission.

AFTER SCHOOL

Day care is a serious affair for parents. To know their child is also being entertained or educated by you through an after-school program is a pleasant relief. Many foundations and nonprofits pay grants for after-school programs. Contact literary programs, or the library, or a civic club and entertain a creative writing after-school program. For a list of foundations that offer after-school programs, visit The Foundation Center. You might even be able to incorporate a writer-in-residence grant into this

type of setup.

Now that you know to knock on a school’s door, how about multiplying that times all the schools in your community? Then in your city or county? How about the state? You’ve heard the horror stories of book tours across the country, taking lots of time and tons of money. If you have a product that can be delivered through students, you can do well within a hundred-mile radius.

Schools are commercial nerve centers of the community. For each child you tap into, you reach at least four more potential customers. Become friends with teachers, principals and PTO volunteers. They can open doors for more sales than you imagined…without traveling very far to do it.