Standard fee for school visits

The Society of Authors provides guidelines for its members, which you might like to look at.

It's there, I'm sure. But it'll be in pounds sterling, as the SoA is a British organisation.

There must be similar American organisations which provide such guidelines. If not, work out a reasonable hourly rate for the event, a smaller rate for travelling, and then add your expenses for travelling and reasonable meals; and if the event will take so much of your day that you won't be able to do anything else, make sure you have charged for the full day.

Be aware, also, that many places expect writers to give such talks for free, will be surprised when you ask for a fee, and they might not engage you as a result.

Three local schools have asked me to come and speak to their students about creative writing recently, between the ages of 10-15. I turned all three down because of my absolute hatred of public speaking. I can only terrify myself once a year with a public appearance of sorts, saving that up for late in 2013

Back to topic... The schools that approached me are relatively close, all three are within 30 km, and the hint of payment never came to the surface, nor did I even think about it until reading this thread.

I don't know how local your schools are Rob, but I'd mention your fee before booking anything concrete.

As for what you should charge, it can vary. On one hand your trying to make a living from your writing, on the other this is a form of advertising.

It is not going to make you rich, but if I had to charge I'd go with;
20 cent(euro) per mile traveled.
20 Euro per hour (If doing multiple classes I'd go with 15/hr as you'll be repeating the same thing)
15 euro - Cost of a decent lunch
Bring a memory key with what I want the school to print off for me, no cost on materials.

Schools in this day and age are not flush with money (if they were, I'd not be here typing this, I'd be in a school working... they currently do not have budget to hire new teachers...) so I would be careful about asking for a fee unless they bring it up. If you feel they would be agreeable to it then yes, ask, but be prepared to either drop the gig or do it for free if they say no.

Expenses may be doable, however.

The value of these visits is not in the fee you get paid but rather in the chance to build a lot of kudos with the local community - you might get your photograph in the local paper, you can talk about your books, you can pass on advice to children. In the long run these are all great career building things.

Authors tend to undervalue their own time. That's why I put more trust in the Society of Authors' recommended fees, since their entire purpose is protect authors' rights and livelihood.

They recommend a bare minimum of £300 and say:

We recommend day and half-day rates of £350 and £250 respectively, plus expenses; or a fee of £150 for a single session (not exceeding an hour) when the author or illustrator is visiting a local school or carrying out a number of separate visits to schools in the same area.

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Converted to USD and rounded up or down to increments of fifty, that's a bare minimum of $500 and

We recommend day and half-day rates of $550 and $400 respectively, plus expenses; or a fee of $250 for a single session (not exceeding an hour) when the author or illustrator is visiting a local school or carrying out a number of separate visits to schools in the same area.

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I'd be interested in stories from writers on how charging works out for them. Personally I've never charged a school for my time, but when I get back on the promo wagon I'll be trying to. I've realised that not charging for my time is a disservice to other writers by implying my time isn't worth paying for.

areteus said:

Schools in this day and age are not flush with money (if they were, I'd not be here typing this, I'd be in a school working... they currently do not have budget to hire new teachers...) so I would be careful about asking for a fee unless they bring it up. If you feel they would be agreeable to it then yes, ask, but be prepared to either drop the gig or do it for free if they say no.

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Here's a different side to this: some US schools have tax allocations specifically reserved for bringing in interesting guests. Neil Gaiman has had some relevant blog posts discussing this in the past. If the guest budget isn't spent it's all lost.

Most schools do not have any such allocation. If they are offering a fee this should become apparent very quickly. If you require a fee you should mention this immediately. That way nobody's time is wasted.

Agreed. But if there isn't any fee or compensation, I'd much rather the school stated that up-front as well.

Bringing up the topic of payment is something I'm still not entirely comfortable with, though my freelance years have made it easier.

I think a simple, 'are you offering a speaker's honorarium?' covers the bases.

If I had time to do the event, I don't think I'd ever charge a school a speaking fee. (I've had one already and another lined up for May, so it's more than a hypothetical, but less than a rock-solid surety.)

If there is substantial travel, or an overnight required, we'd have to talk about expenses, but I know the struggle in my own children's schools with budget cuts. If the teachers haven't gotten a raise in three years and there aren't enough dry erase markers and whatnot to the point the teachers have to buy supplies themselves, I don't know that I'd feel right taking a fee.

Schools often have separate budgets for paying speakers, so paying for speakers isn't always going to take money away for their budgets for other stuff. And there are often grants available for paying writers, too, which are entirely separate from the schools' budgets.

It's worth asking if they have a fee available. If they don't, then you have to decide whether you're happy working for free because the potential sales you make through such events are very unlikely to cover the cost of your time.

These days most public schools do their own budgeting, so something used for one thing is by definition not used for something else. Regardless, it is a matter that needs to be established rather than assumed.

I was asked to come to a small festival and they offered a small payment, so that was great. I'm definitely not against taking money to flap my jaws. : )

Speaking for free in schools is one thing; speaking for free at festivals which are charging for admission is another.

If the festival is charging people to come and listen to you, why are they not paying you for your time?

We have an author visit our school each year and they are never paid. We send home an order form and advertise their books a few weeks in advance and they actually have to give a percentage of the book sales back to the school. So they sell a lot of books and the PTA gives them a nice lunch but that's it. The budget doesn't allow for a fee to be paid although it would be nice. They can't even give us paper and pencils.

I'm not trying to be a goody two-shoes, but if a school offered to pay me, I'd take it and give it back to the teachers to buy classroom stuff with.

I have several good friends who are teachers and I've been shocked to a one at how much of their own money goes towards the most basic things - paper, pencils, markers, etc.

My daughter's school has had a local self-pubbed author of kids' picture books come in twice in recent years. From the looks of it, she more than made her money back in time spent on the visit, because every kid in the class was clamoring to buy a copy to get signed.