R.W. Alley

One of the best things about drawing for children is going out to meet your readers.

Since I work in formats ranging from board books to chapter books, most of my school visits usually range from kindergartens through fifth or sixth grades. Sometimes the older students are in the process of making their own books and I will discuss how they might approach that assignment. For the younger grades, I concentrate on drawing and talking about characters from the stories I have illustrated.

The most important thing for a successful school visit is to make sure that the students have read my books prior to my visit.

Library visits vary in topic depending on the age group that attends. I know from experience to be ready for anything.

I also am happy to talk to adult and professional groups. In these cases the topic and form of the presentation will vary with the group's focus.

Setting Up a Talk

The way my school visits are usually set up, I speak to groups of no more than fifty children at one sitting. I try not to do more than three classroom presentations in one visit. Of course, there is always room for a little maneuvering if this doesn’t fit your needs.

Library and professional visits can be organized depending on the venue of the talk.

What I Need for a Talk

For school talks, all I require is a good-sized blackboard, chalk and an eraser or access to a whiteboard (I have markers for whiteboards, so I won't dry out yours). With quick sketching and erasing, I try to show how characters and settings for stories are developed from the initial written descriptions in the text. For examples I rely on stories that I have either illustrated or written and illustrated. I have to admit that sometimes I’ll test out a story on which I am currently working.

For any visit, I'd be happy to do some big sketches to leave behind. For this I'd need an easel and a large pad of paper. I always bring drawing materials with me, so don't worry about that.

Depending on the age group, I might add some thoughts on the more technical end of illustrating and publishing. These things I can demonstrate by showing slides -- especially useful in auditorium talks.

For library and professional visits, I like to use slides to demonstrate what I'm talking about. This isn't a requirement, but it's fun.

And, please leave time for questions.

Advance Planning

It is usually a good idea to plan visits several months in advance. Also, publishers are usually quite willing to provide books for sale and signing in advance of a visit.

Questions

If your school or library or organization has any questions about any of this, please feel free to email. I will try to respond quickly.

Speaking Fees

Presentation fees vary depending on the venue, the audience, the time of day and the length and number of presentations.

As you may expect, additional compensation to cover the time and expense of out-of-state travel would need to be considered for each individual visit.

Please be in touch via email (giving as many details as possible) and I'll happily reply.

Book Signing

For book signings, situations in which a presentation is not planned, any compensation will usually be limited to travel expenses.

Speaking and Book Signing

This is a good idea. The speaking draws an audience for the signing and the signing offsets the speaking fees. It usually works out well. Publishers are quite pleased to help arrange these events. And, I would be happy to answer any questions I can on the subject.

Getting the Books

The best way to obtain books is through a local bookseller. This will allow you to pick and choose among the various publishers and to make sure you have a good collection of both hardcover and paperback books.

A thing that works out very well is to prepare a pre-talk order form for several titles that can be sent out several weeks before the event. Orders would be prepaid and arrive so that the books are available for signing at the event. Your local bookstore could help out with this.