Industry news
Authors’ Booking Service just keeps on growing
When the Authors’ Booking Service – an online venture that helps children’s authors land paid speaking gigs at Ontario schools and libraries – was first launched three years ago, it represented only a few dozen authors. Today, that number has expanded to nearly 100, and the service’s co-ordinators, kids’ authors Marsha Skrypuch and Valerie Sherrard, say the roster is still growing.
ABS draws on the Ontario contacts of Skrypuch and Sherrard, who operate the service in their spare time. If an author expects to be in a particular part of Ontario for a certain period, Skrypuch and Sherrard let local librarians know in a weekly newsletter, in order to try to put together a full roster of events for the author. “Once several requests have come in, we figure out an itinerary and give a heads up to schools in the area,” Skrypuch explains. “[It] makes it much cheaper for the schools than if they tried to do it directly.” In return, authors simply pay ABS a flat $25 fee per booking.
The service has proved particularly useful for out-of-province authors, for whom the logistics of organizing a tour in unfamiliar terrain would be overwhelming. “Before [ABS] came along, it felt pretty much impossible for a Vancouver-based author to navigate schools and libraries in Ontario, and especially Toronto,” says Stanley’s Wild Ride author Linda Bailey, who visited Toronto schools for three days in February, when she was in town for a conference. Another out-of-province author, Nova Scotia’s Don Aker, says that after personally arranging a Toronto tour to coincide with his 2004 White Pine Award-winning novel The First Stone, he wouldn’t ever do it again. He was all the more grateful, then, when he heard about ABS. “The work that Marsha and Valerie do through ABS has helped introduce me to hundreds of young adult readers,” Aker says.
Currently, the ABS roster includes Ontario authors Norah McClintock, Kathy Stinson, and Frieda Wishinsky, as well as authors from farther afield, such as B.C.’s Shelley Hrdlitschka, Alberta’s David A. Poulsen, and Nunavut’s Michael Kusugak. (ABS has also recently partnered with a few authors known more for their adult work, including Robert J. Sawyer, Hal Niedzviecki, and Jessica Westhead.)
According to Skrypuch, there is a “huge” waiting list of writers who want to join, but she and Sherrard are trying to be selective. “We choose our authors for the excellence of their work, but also because they have demonstrated they’re good presenters,” Skrypuch explains. And while Skrypuch can see the service growing much larger, she’s not willing to make the venture a full-time vocation for herself or Sherrard. She also doesn’t like the idea of hiring a staffer to operate it. “We would have to charge a whole lot more [than the current $25 per booking] if we took on staff,” Skrypuch says.
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