Authors Wanted (to help celebrate World Read Aloud Day!)

World Read Aloud Day 2014 is just three months away. Do you have plans yet?

For the past couple years, I’ve helped out with LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day by pulling together a list of author volunteers who would like to spend part of the day Skyping with classrooms around the world to share the joy of reading aloud. World Read Aloud Day 2014 is March 5th, and I’d love to do this again, to help interested authors, teachers, and librarians connect.

A suggested World Read Aloud Day Skype visit goes like this…

• 1-2 minutes: Author introduces himself or herself and talks a little about his or her books.
• 3-5 minutes: Author reads aloud a short picture book, or a short excerpt from a chapter book/novel
• 5-10 minutes: Author answers some questions from students about reading/writing
• 1-2 minutes: Author book-talks a couple books he or she loves (but didn’t write!) as recommendations for the kids

Sound like fun? If  you’re the author of a traditionally published* book and you’d like to volunteer to do some 10-15 minute Skype visits with classes on March 5, 2013, please send me an email via the contact form on my website (you can get there by clicking on the little envelope on the right side of the screen).  Deadline: January 1st, please, so people can plan.

• Put WORLD READ ALOUD DAY VOLUNTEER in the subject line
• Include the following information in the body of your email:
  • Your name
  • Your publisher
  • What ages your books fit best (Elementary, Middle School, or High School)
  • What time zone you live in (EST, CST, etc. This is important for scheduling!)
  • Hours you’ll be available for Skype visits on March 5, 2013 (10am-2pm EST, for example)
  • Your website (and email if your website doesn’t have contact information)

So a sample email from an author volunteer will look like this:

Please use this exact format; it will make it easy for me to copy & paste your entry to the blog post, and then I will love you forever.

I’ll pull all the author volunteer information together in a blog post for early January and share with teachers & librarians who want to Skype with read-aloud authors on March 5th.  Teachers & librarians will contact authors directly to request visits.  If you’re on the list for a while and then realize your schedule for the day is full, it will be helpful if you email me to let me know that so that I can cross you off and you don’t keep getting requests.

*I’m limiting this volunteer round-up to traditionally published authors who write children’s and YA books. That’s not because I have anything against self-publishing or ebooks — it’s simply to limit the scope of the project so it doesn’t overwhelm me. If someone else would like to create a similar list of self-published and/or ebook author volunteers, I’ll happily link to it here.  Thanks for understanding!