COSTS AND AVAILABLE DATES - TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How much does a visit cost?
Am I available to visit you?
Can you send us display materials?
Where will I visit?
Book sales on the day - primary schools please read
Book me for a visit
How much does a visit cost?
I charge a day rate in line with fees recommended by the Society of Authors for author visits to schools:
£350 per day (I do not do half days, so please don't ask)
For the Make a Non-Fiction Book Workshop you will typically need between 7 and 10 worksheets per workshop session.
Each sheet costs £5.Travel expenses to and from home (Winsford, Cheshire):
- by car charged at 40p per actual road mile travelled
- by rail charged at actual cost
- use this distance calculator to work out the approximate mileage from me to you.
Enter my postcode CW7 in the Start box, and the first part only of your school's postcode in the Finish box.
It's the road miles figure that counts, not the as the crow flies figure.
Also, remember to double the road miles figure to take account of my journey home.If you are a primary school and choose not to distribute the order form for signed books (see below)
you will be surcharged £25.Accommodation expenses if an over-night stay is needed.
(Happy to stay with a member of staff or one of my conveniently located relatives to keep costs down.)
I don't expect payment on the day. I will invoice you after the visit.
Payment can be made by cheque or BACS transfer (full details are given on the invoice).
All I ask is that payment is made in full within 30 days of the invoice date.
- You can see my available dates here, in my bookings diary. It's an embedded Google diary - if you can't see it, refresh the page. If you still can't see it, and you're viewing it from a school, your LEA has probably blocked it, so you'll need to view it from your home computer.
- Click the arrow buttons in the top left corner of the diary page to scroll through the months.
- If your first choice date is already booked, please consider another date.
- I'm happy to take bookings several months in advance.
- To get in touch, send me an email or complete the contact form - both are at the bottom of this page.
Can you send us display materials?
I'm often asked for display posters. Well, if my publishers made any, you'd be welcome to have some! Until then, you'll have to create your own display using images and text from this website, book covers from amazon, and your own creativity. I've put photos of examples of display materials made by schools in the Ideas for Pre-Visit Work section of this site - click link in sidebar to the left (the Pocket Biographies and Storyboards have been replicated by many schools).
Where will I visit?
As I live in Cheshire, many of my visits tend to be in the North West, West Yorkshire, the West Midlands, and North Wales. However, don't let geography stop you from inviting me to visit you - contact me and between us we'll see what can be arranged.
This map shows most of the schools I've visited (about 350, as of January 2012).
- The red circle is centred on my home in Winsford, Cheshire. It has a 70 mile / 112 km radius, which is an 'as the crow flies' distance, not a road miles distance (use the distance calculator above to work out the road miles from my door to yours).
- If your school is inside the circle, you should be within reach for a day visit starting at 9:00am.
- If your school is near the circle edge, I might not be able to get to you for a 9:00am start, so timetable for a later start (say 10:00am).
- If your school is outside the circle, I'll need to travel the day before and stay overnight in your area.
- To see which schools I've been to, use the zoom bar + and - buttons, or your mouse scroll wheel, to zoom in and out.
- The magnifying glass symbols contain clusters of schools within an area - as you zoom in, you'll see the markers for individual schools. Hover over a marker to see the name of the school; click the marker to see the date I visited.
- A good friend of mine says it looks like an invasion map! That made me smile. I hope you find it of interest.
Book me for a visit and you'll be added to the map!
This map uses ClusterMarker, developed by Martin Pearman, to group markers into clusters.
For information about ClusterMarker click here: ClusterMarker
Book sales on the day - primary schools please read
For primary school visits I offer signed books for parents/children to buy on the day of my visit, and will send you an order form (A4, one side). I will either post the form to you, or email it to you as a PDF document. Please photocopy it and send it home with the children a few days before my visit. The form usually has eight of my books, all suitable for KS2. If parents decide to purchase a book, they need to return the completed order form and payment to school in time for my visit (there is a return date printed on the form). I will sign books at lunchtime or at the end of the day.
Please note that if your school chooses not to distribute the order form, a surcharge will be made as part of the cost of the visit (see above).
Book sales FAQs
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Q: Can children order books after the visit?
A: Yes - but only if the parent or the school pays for the postage.
Q: Can school order books?
A: Certainly! Schools buy books for the library, as guided readers, and as prizes. If you decide to do this, please try and let me know in advance of the visit, so I know how many copies to bring with me. No need to pay on the day - I'll add the cost to the invoice.
Q: We are in an area of high social stress and don't think parents will buy your books. What do you say to this?
A: Simple - give your parents the choice and let them decide. You probably do that when you have a book fair, so do it when you invite an author to school. As I write this, I'm thinking of two inner-city schools with very similar demographics, visited within days of each other as part of World Book Day events. One school denied parents the chance to buy books, the other didn't, and almost 100 of their children went home that day with a signed book.
Q: We have a school book fair and think your book sales will reduce our commission from it. What do you say to this?
A: The book fair is probably in school all week, but I'm with you for one day only. Children enjoy meeting authors and welcome the chance to buy signed books. My books are hardly ever stocked by book fair companies, which makes it hard for children to find them. For children who prefer reading fact books, my visit gives them the chance to buy something they really want - look on my visit as adding value to the book fair, not as competition to it.
Book me for a visit
Two ways to book me:
1. By email
Please email me, giving your school name and address (town and postcode, please), the date or dates you would like me to visit, and your own name:
2. By form
Please enter your contact information below, with preferred date of visit (please check my available dates in my Bookings Diary first - it's on this page, above this form), plus any other comments or questions.