Featherstone 
Volunteer children’s book & YA authors for Sydney Children’s Hospital School
The Sydney Children’s Hospital School’s K-12 students (children receiving treatment or recovering at Sydney Children’s Hospital), would love to meet with an author or illustrator during Book Week next term and beyond.
This request came into the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) and both they and Sydney Childrens Hospital School have asked me to share it on.
The school is looking for kidlit to YA authors who are engaging and willing to come in and talk about their writing process, their ideas, and what it’s like to make books.
Here’s what’s involved:
- Volunteer role: there’s no budget for speaker fees, but oodles of gratitude from the hospital and potential for fulfilment for the author. And yes, I’m a huge proponent that authors need to be paid for their time but this might be an opportunity for an up-and-coming author who lives nearby to Randwick and is in a position to volunteer on this occasion and might find it fulfilling) nb: You can find the ASA recommended rates for public appearances here so you can advocate for yourself in other situations, but please understand this is a volunteer/unpaid gig.
- Small groups: you will be speaking with anywhere from 4 to 15 primary-aged students, and similar numbers for high school ages
- Flexible timing:Book Week is ideal but there will be other opportunities throughout the year
- No WWCC required but preferred: a staff member will accompany you throughout the visit so a working with children check is not required but is highly recommended.
The school is at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick.
If you’re interested, please send a brief email covering you, your book, what you’d present on, and your readers’ age range to the Assistant Principal: meghan (dot) hughes (at) det.nsw.edu.au. The school team is small so please keep enquiries concise and they’ll reach out if there’s a good fit. Please don’t pester, be verbose, or leave guess work in your pitch – make it easy for the school team to see how you might add value to these kids.
Thanks for your interest and hope it’s beneficial all round.
Bestest as always, Anna Featherstone
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If this is the first time you’re hearing about ALLi, you can can join ALLi here – it’s a wonderful global organisation of indie authors generously sharing knowledge. You might also want to tune into ALLi podcasts via your favourite streaming service. I love platforming authors and publishing professionals on my monthly guest spots where we discuss production and distribution of books, so get in touch if you have valuable info to share.
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