(September 2025)
Author Visits
The world of author visits is still pretty new to me. I haven’t even been doing them for a full year yet, so it feels like a muscle I’m still learning to stretch.
Maybe that’s because I’m not “technically” an author yet—not in the published, books-on-the-shelf sense of the word. But when a friend in the literary publishing world first suggested school visits as a way to build my author platform, it just made sense. Unlike adult authors, who can lean on social media or book tours, middle grade and younger readers don’t buy their own books or follow writers online. They read what’s put in their hands by parents, teachers, and especially librarians.
That’s where author visits come in. My friend told me: librarians should become my new best friends. They are the ones who hold the keys to the literary kingdom. They select which books go on the shelves, and even which books are prominently displayed on the tops of the bookshelves.
At first, I thought of visits as a future marketing strategy. But with more than 25 years in education behind me, I figured I’d at least feel at home in a classroom.
What I didn’t expect was just how much I’d love it.
Let me paint it to you this way: doing an author visit is a bit like being a grandparent. You get to walk in, bring the fun, hopefully win the kids over…and walk out. No report cards, no conferences, not even state standards. I teach what I want how I want. Some days I even get to let the students play with playdoh (one of my favorite revision lessons).
So that’s what is keeping me busy these days. I’m creating one-and-done lesson plans, hoping to inspire students and give them one more writing tool that they maybe didn’t previously own in their toolbox. And I give teachers a break, albeit a tiny one.
What started as a professional “should” has turned into one of the biggest joys in my schedule. My computer is crammed with Google slides for a handful of upcoming school visits, and my playdoh is packed and ready.
Let’s go.
(If I haven’t been to your classroom yet–why not? Let’s set a date! Go to my website and message me)