School Events
ABOUT BOOK SALES & SIGNINGS
Selling books is an important part of an author’s visit. It is a positive and motivational experience for children to have their own autographed copies. There is no minimum number of books to sell, but Rick does ask that each host school:
1) make books available for advance purchase by students and faculty.
2) have extra books on site for day-of sales.
Who handles the ordering and sales?
This varies from school to school. Some schools order directly from the publisher or a distributor. Rick can help answer any questions you may have about this. In many cases, a local bookstore will be happy to handle sales for an author visit if given enough advance warning (at least a month is preferable). When contacting the bookstore, ask to speak to their community relations manager or school sales specialist. Another common method is to sell the books and schedule Rick’s author visit in conjunction with a school’s annual book fair.
SAMPLE BOOK ORDER FORM. This is a template for a single-page flyer that informs parents of the opportunity to purchase books in conjunction with the upcoming author visit. Feel free to modify it to suit your needs. It is recommended that books be pre-sold (using a flyer like the one above) prior to ordering copies from the publisher or a distributor. You will also want to order a few extra books to have on hand for last minute purchases. Typically after students hear Rick speak, many students who did not pre-order decide they want to buy a copy.
Autograph sessions
You may choose to have your school’s autograph session with or without children present. Having children present is more personal, but slightly more time-consuming. In either case, place a sticky note inside each book, at the top of the first page, with the first name(s) of the person or persons to whom the book should be autographed. (Feel free to indicate if the book is a gift in honor of a birthday or other special occasion. Rick will do his best to personalize his message accordingly.)
If you opt for the children to be present, a signing table should be set up for Rick. The children should be brought in with their individual purchases and lined up along the table so Rick can meet the children as he signs their books.
Normally, an author can sign about one hundred books per hour with children present.
Please make students aware that in the interest of time, Rick can only autograph his books. Otherwise, requests quickly get out of hand and Rick ends up signing hundreds of hats, arms, shirts, binders and small pieces of paper!
*If you would like each student to get an autographed memento of the visit whether they bought a book or not, here is one idea from a resourceful librarian. Make one reproducible sheet of bookmarks with a Percy Jackson book cover and the date of the visit, i.e. “Rick Riordan visits _____ Middle School; April 12, 2008.” Rick will be happy to sign the master sheet during his visit day. You can then run off as many copies as you like, either on cardstock or paper to be laminated, then hand these out to students.
Rick with the students of Pebble Hills Elementary School in El Paso, TX
