Today, I mailed out more than 100 flyers (front, back) to Austin area librarians, advertising my school/library program. Beyond my website, this is the first time I’ve marketed directly to librarians.

I began by downloading promotional materials of other authors and illustrators. Once I had a taste of the competition, I wrote, designed, and then had the flyers printed and folded at Kinkos.

An author friend of mine gave me a list he’d already compiled of local librarians. Only thing I had to do was to confirm his list with the AISD website, just in case some librarians had moved. I also sent flyers to private school, some of my best and most reliable customers.

The most exciting thing about this flyer was making a last minute revision. Normally, I’m not thrilled about stopping the presses to make a change. But in this case, my newest book, Ron’s Big Mission, has been selected by the Junior Library Guild. I think that’s good enough news to throw away a few flyers to make that addition.

This year, I adjusted my pricing down a bit. I’m charging $600 for a full day (three presentations). Four hundred for a half day (two presentations). And all that is negotiable. Some of my colleagues have said I should charge more, that the going rate for an author/illustrator visit is at least $1,000.00, and that’s low. But I’ve been doing school visits for about 10 years now, and at that price, I’d have not visited many school, if any at all — com’mon.

Typically, I visit about 6 to 7 schools per year, and I also speak at maybe one or two conferences. But with a slowdown in educational work, and two trade books that won’t provide any income for well over a year, I could use a boost from school visits.

Wish me luck!