Teamwork makes the perfect author visit.
What to expect after you Book your Visit.
Daryl is a professional touring artist with many years of experience working with event coordinators, booking agents and publishing professionals. Daryl takes a hands-on approach to his touring schedule, no third-party involvement. He will be working with you directly from the very beginning to make sure your day is perfect. When Daryl arrives at your school, he will come prepared for the event and everything you and he talked about along the way will fall right into place.
Preparation Material
Some schools will choose to prepare the students for the day by sharing Daryl's books with them. If you don't have his books in your Library, you can order them from Daryl directly by using his pre-visit book signing order form or order the publisher's author visit preparation book set listed here.
Let's get to work on this author visit.
Once you book your author visit there will be some information you will need to provide. You can expect Daryl to email you with paperwork and other author visit information. Some of the things you can expect to receive through e-mail are:
- Author Visit Contract
- Daryl's W-9
- Author Visit "To Do Checklist"
- Author Book Signing Order Form
- Book Sales Tracking Form
- Personalized Pirate School Book (PDF)
Author Book Signing Sale.
As you move forward you will be faced with several decisions. One of those is do we do a pre-visit author book signing sale. Daryl will make this process easy for everyone.
He will send you:
- A PDF of the order form.
- The sales tracking form
- He will place your order for the books when you are ready.
- He will pick the books up.
- He will sign them.
- He will tag each book for distribution.
- He will pack them up and bring them with him the day of the visit.
Coordinators, please watch your timeline between visit date and book ordering. It takes 13 days for your books to come in once the order is placed. Dary will inscribe and autograph all books, so keep in mind that 1 order can take many hours to finish. This season, Daryl will have 50 or more schools to do this for between January and May, so please be mindful of the time involved. Daryl does understand that there are bookings where last-minute ordering is unavoidable and that is not a problem, he keeps books on hand to cover this type of situation.
You will need to:
- Handout and collect all order forms.
- Tally all books sold and monies.
- E-mail order tracking form to Daryl, so he can place your order.
The sales tracking form is important as it serves several purposes. The form is how you will place your order for the books and what Daryl will use to inscribe and autograph them. Daryl will also tag each book purchased using this form. The form will be cut into strips, placed into each book, with the student and teacher's name sticking out for distribution.
Did you look at Daryl's Personalized Pirate School Book? (HERE) This book is usually a big hit with the staff and the student. And when it is completed, it's printed up and offered to the staff and students as part of the book signing sale. The school will receive 2 free copies to help prepare the kids for the day.
Let's keep working on this.
Personalized Pirate School Book
The students and the staff love this book and Daryl does not charge a fee to do it for a school. The expectation is that the costs will be recovered during the author visit book sale.
To do this book Daryl will need to get some information from you.
- Staff List (This list should include everyone that works in your school.)
- List Format: The staff list must be e-mailed to Daryl in either a Word Doc., Excel File, or Google Doc.
- NO Photocopies or PDFs (If Daryl can't cut and paste from the document, he can't use it.)
- Lists need to include staff's names and the jobs that they do at the school.
- Also Include: The year the school was built and what your school mascot is.
Let talk about the assembly space.
Where to hold the event at the school and what to consider when choosing the assembly space. Take a moment and watch Daryl's live video clips to get an idea of his movement and student interaction. Daryl will work with whatever space you choose but keep in mind that the space you decide on can impact the programs. Daryl likes to move in and around the whole audience, so more space is always better.
What to look for:
- Think about the lighting in the assembly space. No presenter can work in total darkness, but if there is too much light the LCD projector might not work well.
- Again, think about lighting, look at the windows, do they have shading. Can you adjust your overhead lighting or is it all on and all off.
- Does your space have a movie screen? If yes, is it a standard white front projection or a grey rear projection screen?
- Think about the size of your assembly spaces and the number of students you need to get into them. The space needs to allow for interaction and movement of the students and author.
Spaces often used for assemblies:
- Library: This space is often too small and inhibits interaction and movement. (Nice for small groups.)
- Cafetorium: This is often a good option and offers the larger space. (Occasionally has window issues.)
- Gym: This is usually a good space. (Occasionally has lighting issues and often doesn't have a movie screen or white walls).
Again, Daryl will work with whatever space you need to hold your assemblies in, but if you have a choice between big and small, go with the bigger space. You can't go wrong with too much room.
Let's talk assembly time frame.
Daryl's program times can be adjusted based on your needs. Listed are typical running times.
- "Music & Storytime" runs 40-45 minutes.
- "A Writer's Journey" runs 60 minutes.
Please remember to add time for seating.
What do you need to provide for the assembly?
A movie screen or a white wall to project onto. The LCD projectors works very well on white but loses clarity as the shade darkens, so eggshell and tans colors will lose visibility.
If your school does not have a movie screen or other viable option let Daryl know in advance, and he will make arrangements to bring one with him the day of the visit.
What else does the school need to provide? -- TIME!
Time to set up! Daryl's programs are filled with music, graphics and live storytelling. For Daryl to create a show like this, it comes with equipment needs that other authors don't require. Daryl comes with his own sound system and body microphones for cordless movement and guitar playing. He brings his own LCD projector and computer. So, running cords and setting up tables as well as doing a vocal warm up and sound check are all a part of his morning set up. Daryl asks for access to the assembly space about 90 minutes before the first program of the day. Daryl can clear the assembly space in about 20-25 minutes.