New for Teachers, Librarians, Authors & Publishers: Author Skype Tours!

A couple months ago, my teaching colleague Marjorie Light and I got talking.  Our creative writing class had just Skyped with author Lindsey Leavitt in a win-win situation. Our kids got to meet and ask writing questions of an author, and Lindsey got a chance to plug her upcoming YA novel to some enthusiastic readers.  Wouldn’t it be great, we thought, if there were an easy way for authors promoting a new book to connect with teachers & librarians who would love to have more virtual author visits in their schools?

So we’ve launched a new blog called  , where authors who want to do a limited number of free, no-strings-attached Skype chats to promote a book can list Skype Tours, and where teachers and librarians can search by theme, age level, and writing topics to find authors whose Skype chats will enhance what they’re working on in class. Everything’s free, and there’s no requirement that kids read the book ahead of time — this type of visit is designed to introduce kids to an author and a particular title and enhance classroom curriculum at the same time.  The listings will look like this:

Lindsey Leavitt agreed to be our first victim guinea pig author volunteer, and I have a spring Skype tour listed for SUGAR AND ICE, too. There are detailed directions on the blog for how to list a tour and how to book one.  And of course, it’s a LiveJournal site, so feel free to add   to your friends list or just bookmark us to keep up to date on who’s on tour.

We’re excited about this and curious to see how it works out.  Comments & suggestions are most welcome!