Make money being a schools visiting author by taking advantage of savvy insider advice from William Gallagher

William Gallagher

There are thousands of writers and authors in the UK supplementing their income by visiting schools. Ask those thousands, though, and every one of them will tell you that schools make you earn the fee. Most of those thousands will also tell you that being a visiting author is exhilarating. You will leave a school exhausted but you’ll be energised and revitalised too.

To be a success and to enjoy it, you need to know the practical issues that nobody tells you about. There are things you have to do in order to get the work at all and then when you’re actually doing it, there are factors that will make the difference between a great schools visit and a stressful one.

Getting in

If you’re an established author of children’s books then not only are things easier for you but there are agencies that will find you the work. The money you earn reflects how established and popular you already are but a reasonable fee is £350-400 per day.

Most of us are not children’s writers at all and yet we can still get this work by building up to it. More than anything else, schools listen to other schools. A testimonial from a teacher is the best advert you can possibly get.

You can only get one of those if you’ve visited a school, however, so initially it feels like a chicken and egg circle. Play the local card, though: find schools near you and approach them as a local author. Also only ever approach primary schools: secondary ones rarely take writer visits because they haven’t space in the timetable. Search your nearest school’s websites for the staff list and anyone with ‘literacy’ in their title. You may not find anyone, in which case go for the head teacher.