Speaker Solutions
Speaker Solutions by Simon Whaley
(Speaker Solutions was published in Writers’ News magazine)
A great guest speaker can inspire a room full of writers with an engaging talk, or a highly-practical workshop exercise. These days, finding a guest speaker to come and talk to your group isn’t easy, and then there’s the problem of finding the money to pay them for their efforts. However, with a bit of creativity, or some hard work, or both, it is possible to find someone to meet your requirements.
Stay local: Travel and accommodation costs can break any available budget, so it makes sense to approach local writers first. Depending upon the length of your talk/workshop, a travel time of up to 90 minutes may be acceptable to many potential guest speakers. To find writers in your area visit www.societyofauthors.org/WritersAZ where you can search for writers by name, writing genre or subject of expertise, and even by postcode. Another useful website is www.contactanauthor.co.uk which allows you to search by various criteria whilst also allowing you to restrict your search to within a certain radius of your own postcode. Don’t dismiss local directories either! You might be surprised what you find in the business section of the phone book, under Authors or Writers.
Share costs: Can you share a guest speaker with another group? Either combine your budgets and hire a venue big enough for two or three groups to attend at the same time, or enquire whether the guest speaker is willing to do a talk or workshop to one group in the morning, and repeat it with another group, a few miles further down the road, in the afternoon. Not only does this mean that travel costs will be shared, but a speaker may reduce their charges slightly if they’re seeing two different audiences on the same day.
Think ‘writing-related’ not ‘writers’: For a workshop, or guest speaker with a difference, why not consider someone from a writing-related organisation, rather than an actual author? For example, your local Chief Librarian may be willing to offer a talk about how library books are chosen, which books are borrowed most locally, and how local writers can make use of the research facilities that are on their own doorstep. Do you have a local independent bookseller nearby? Consider approaching them to give you a behind-the-scenes talk of what today’s readers are buying and what the current publishing trends are. The bookseller may even hold the talk in their shop, when it is closed to customers, giving you an opportunity for a private browsing. Remember to support them by buying a few books too!
Think publishers: Forget the Bloomsburys and the Random Houses of this world, why not see if there is a small, independent publisher in your area who would be willing to come and talk to you? At the writers’ group I go to, Alan Maher, of Tindal Street Press, came and spoke at one of our regular two-hour meetings. Tindal Street Press is a small independent publisher, but their authors have had amazing success with many prestigious, national awards. He explained to us the publishing process and why it is such a tricky business! He was a 50-minute train ride away, in Birmingham. Check out The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and The Writers’ Handbook for publishers located within your regional area. And don’t forget to look in your local phone book again, either!
Piggyback on a book tour: If an author is coming to your area to sign copies of their book at a nearby bookstore, consider approaching them to see if they’d be happy to come and talk to you too. You may need to be adaptable with your meeting time and venue, but if an author will be in your locality, then travel costs won’t be an issue! Authors on a publicity tour expect to sign books at every opportunity, so if everyone in the group agrees to buy a copy, the author may be happy to talk to you for an hour after the official signing, in a private area of the bookshop, or local hotel.
Apply for a grant: Yes, the arts have not escaped the government cuts, but there are still grants out there for which you can apply. Some hard work is required with form filling and information gathering, but if it enables you to pay for a professional workshop from a professional writer, the hard work is worth the effort. Visit www.lotteryfunding.org.uk for information about the different grant schemes available that offer financial support to arts organisations (which, as a writers’ group, you fall under). I’ve been a guest speaker at a couple of writers’ groups who’d applied for grant funding to cover the costs of my fee (I’m quite cheap really!), the hire of the venue and publicity of the event.
Other fundraising ideas: You could consider raising money by running an open writing competition (assuming you attract enough entries to cover the costs of the competition), or produce and sell an anthology of your group’s work. Both of these require effort over a period of time, so it is worth considering these as long-term strategies for future years, but once established, the effort is worth it.
Finding a good guest speaker isn’t easy, but with a bit of creative thinking it is possible. And who knows? One of them could provide you with the inspiration and knowledge that helps you to take your writing to the next level.
(c) Simon Whaley
