Fundraising Tips
Authors Booking Service
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NEWS
Congratulations to A Royal Little Pest Team whose first book has received an Honourable Mention in the Writer's Digest 18th Annual International Book Awards (picture book category).
It will be promoted in the March/April 2011 issue of Writer’s Digest.
UPDATE: White Pine nominee for Swim the Fly, Don Calame, is now available in the GTA during Book Week (April 30 to May 7) AND Tree Week (May 7 to 13). Book now to avoid disappointment.
Gail Sidonie Sobat’s novel, Gravity Journal, is nominated for a 2011 Stellar Award. Gail will be traveling to the Toronto area the week of April 25-30 in support of her new YA novel, Chance to Dance For You. She would be delighted to present on this or any of her books in Toronto area schools and libraries. Contact us to bring Gail to your students.
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A PERSONAL GLIMPSE OF DON AKER
Having balanced two careers for years, Don Aker has resigned his position as Literacy Mentor for Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley Regional School Board in order to write fulltime. Having been busy writing for educational publishers in recent years, he has again turned his attention to young adult fiction and, as a result, HarperCollins is slated to publish two more of his novels this spring. One of these, The Fifth Rule, is the long-awaited sequel to his bestseller The First Stone, which won the 2003 White Pine Award and Ann Connor Brimer Award. The second novel, tentatively titled The Grooming Ground, focuses on teenage gambling, and Don is already hard at work on a third for which he received a grant from the Culture Division of Nova Scotia’s Department of Tourism, Culture, and Heritage.
Don hopes to visit Ontario in the spring. Contact us today if you’d like to bring him to your classroom or library.
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FUNDRAISING TIPS FOR AUTHOR VISITS
Is your budget too tight to cover some or all of the cost of a visit from an author or illustrator? Knowing the positive impact author visits can have on students’ interest in reading, it may be worth exploring alternate ways to fund an event. Here are a few ideas we’ve gathered over the years:
Organize a read-a-thon. Students ask family and neighbours to sponsor them for each book read. Sponsor amounts can vary, from a quarter to a dollar per book. The duration of the read-a-thon can be a week or a month prior to the author visit. An alternate may be to hold a spell-a-thon.
Have a parent group organize a used book sale at the school.
Hold a silent auction of donated items (new or gently used).
Hold a monthly raffle for a school sweatshirt or similar item.
And, of course, sharing a date with a neighbouring school or library will help cut down on any travel costs.
We’d love to hear from you if you have fundraising suggestions to add to these!
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ABS MEMBERS coming your way!
Sigmund Brouwer has availability for the following dates and locations:
March 1: Oshawa, one time slot open
March 2: Barrie, one time slot open
March 3: Southern ON
March 23-25: any location
April 5-7: any location
April 20-22: any location
April 25: Southern ON
April 26: Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge, one time slot open
May 2 – 6: any location
Jo Ellen Bogart will be in Ottawa and has dates available April 18 and 20, 2011. Transportation for her trip to Ottawa is being partially subsidized, so is much reduced.
Philip Roy (Submarine Outlaw) is available in the GTA, Hamilton and Oakville area in April.
Gail Sidonie Sobat will be in the GTA and is available for school and library visits on April 27 and 28.
Jacqueline Guest is available in Toronto on the morning of April 28.
Helaine Becker is available in Brantford in the morning on May 3.
A Royal Little Pest Team will be in St. Catharines and is available for bookings on May 4
Helaine Becker is available in Peterborough in the afternoon on May 5.
Don Calame is available in the GTA April 30 to May 13.
Celia Godkin will be in the GTA and is available for bookings May 24 - 26.
Tololwa Mollel will be in the GTA and is available for bookings May 24 - 30.
Helaine Becker will be in the Ottawa area several times this school year and will waive travel costs for full day bookings (4 sessions).
Don Aker: Tentative spring visit, contact us if you’re interested.
Lois Peterson: Silver Birch Express Nominee for The Ballad of Knuckles McGraw will be in the GTA May 9-15, 2011.
Sorry, Courtney Summers has no remaining availability in her spring schedule.
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OUR MEMBER LISTS!
Click here for a direct link to our list of Forest of Reading nominees:
http://authorsbooking.com/2043/2064.html
A list of our regular members can be seen here:
http://www.authorsbooking.com/2043/index.html
Contact us today to book any of our members, or to be notified as to when they will be in your area.
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Visit our website at www.authorsbooking.com
Questions? Comments? We’re listening!
Marsha & Valerie
Contact us at a...@authorsbooking.com. We respond to all e-mails quickly.
Please note: If you haven't had a reply to messages sent to the above address within 2 working days, your message may have gone astray. In that case, please contact either of us at home.
Valerie Sherrard: val...@nbnet.nb.ca or Marsha Skrypuch: mar...@calla.com