Old Town Books Junior Fall Author Events
This September will mark two years of Old Town Books Junior! The time has flown by, and this year our children’s book buyer, Melissa LaSalle (@thebookmommy) has really grown our children’s events. We caught up with Melissa to talk all about Old Town Books Junior events and what (and who!) is coming up this fall!
Melissa LaSalle, @thebookmommy
Q: When did you start really focusing on kids events at Junior?
In March 2025, we hosted our first Celebrating Middle Grade Readers panel, where I moderated a conversation with four amazing authors, including Kate Albus, Katherine Marsh, C.C. Harrington, and Anna Lapera. I think that was when I knew we had hit gold, not just in our ability to pull off a high caliber of programming, but in the response from young readers, parents, and other authors in the packed, attentive audience. I'll never forget watching two girls jump up and down in the signing lines because they were so excited to meet the authors. The energy in the room that night was palpable, and I knew I wanted to do everything in my power to connect readers with favorite authors in the years ahead.
Q: Was this around the same time that you started bringing authors to schools?
Yes! As we started more aggressively pitching author events (every quarter, publicists share with us which authors will be touring for their newest releases and we craft formal pitches for the ones we want), we began to recognize we would need to start taking touring authors to schools, as much for the positive and widespread impact this would have on a diversity of young readers, as for the way these school visits would increase our chances of landing A-list authors in the first place. In the past year and a half, we have doubled down on these school visits, with 4-6 days of visits in some of our busiest months. (Kathryn heads up this initiative and she is a true miracle worker of pairing schools with authors!) When a publicist is choosing the stops for an author's tour, school visits are a major consideration, especially if those visits come with minimum book purchases; they ensure that a touring author's time is well spent and greatly increase our ability to land an evening public event with that same author.
Q: Why do you think author events are important for kids?
I will die on the hill that author events play an incomparable role in Raising Readers! In an age where everyone--parents, teachers, booksellers, librarians, publishers--are having to work harder to get kids reading for fun, NOTHING inspires a love for reading quite like hearing an author talk about their book. In many ways, it scaffolds the reading experience: before the child even cracks open the book, they're invested; they're already privy to what it's about, including behind-the-scenes details about how its characters came to be or what the author was going for. I remember how transfixed kids were earlier this year to hear Laurie Morrison talk about her character journals for WHERE ELLA WENT, with backstories for her characters that wouldn't necessarily make their way into the actual story but that helped her understand her characters better. Kids love hearing authors talk about their personal challenges. At an event we did with Alyson Gerber for THE LIARS SOCIETY, I teared up after she shared her personal journey with ADHD and a tween raised her hand to say, "My parents think I might have ADHD and I've been nervous about doing the testing, but now that I know I can still be a writer I feel less worried, so thank you." Consider this: hearing an author pitch their book is ten times more effective than a parent (or even a bookseller) trying to convince a kid to read it. Now, overlay that with the excitement of meeting an author of a book they've already read and loved, and we're talking CORE MEMORIES!
Q: Tell me some about how you've apporached planning events at Old Town Books Junior? How do you decide which authors to pitch/invite?
I am very picky about which authors I pitch. Today's kids (and their parents) are caught in a perpetual current of after-school commitments and opportunities, which means it has never been harder to compete for their attention. As a result, lots of bookstores have stopped doing public events all together, desperte to avoid the monetary loss (and embarrassment!) of organizing an in-store author event that no one comes to (I don't know a single author or bookstore that doesn't have a horror story...or five). Fortunately, we have been very, very successful in our kids author events so we have no intention to pull back, but it does mean I think long and hard about which events to go after. I generally pitch authors for whom we have a proven following; this way, we can also use things like sales histories to compile targeted email lists. I also try to hold a macro view in my head to ensure our programming in a single season targets different ages and different types of readers; after all, no one group of kids can come to every event!
Q: What's one of your favorite author events you've done?
You're asking me to pick just one?! I guess I'd have to go with our offsite event with Abby Hanlon, the author of the DORY FANTASMAGORY books, which is maybe my favorite kids series ever (certainly the funniest). Did I offer to moderate this event just so I could take a (surprise) phone call from Mr. Nuggy on a banana phone? Obviously. (A second favorite event would be our in-store event this past spring with Gareth Hinds and the Greeking Out podcast hosts for the former's graphic novel adaptation of THE ODYSSEY. It never ceases to amaze me how excited today's kids and teens are about Greek mythology, and watching Gareth do live drawings of gods and monsters was jaw-on-the-ground amazing.)
Q: What's one upcoming fall event you're especially excited about? Why?
On September 18 at 7pm, I'm going to be in conversation with Beth Lincoln for the third book in THE SWIFTS series. Pinch me! Reading the first SWIFTS book aloud to my daughter a few years ago ruined me (and her) for other middle grade mysteries. The erudite word play! The eccentric characters! The British wit! I've rarely squealed louder than when I learned Beth had chosen our store to visit from across the pond on her tour, and I am going to be studying all three books in the next few weeks so I can come up with questions worthy of her brilliance and cleverness!
Q: What's the biggest challenge in planning kids author events and school visits?
I've already talked about some of the challenges inherent in getting busy kids to come to public events, so let me address our second biggest challenge, which is profitability. Pulling off author events, whether they are in-store or at schools, is immensely time consuming and labor intensive. We have the logistics associated with placing the authors at schools and setting them up to hype and sell the books; we have logistics associated with creating ticket links, website copy, social media posts, etc. for our public events, not to mention the sheer physical effort involved in dismantling the kids side of the bookstore in order to pack in 60+ people! Every event results in lengthy email chains between us and publicists and ends with thoughtful recaps on audience size, number of books sold, anecodotes, etc. which the publicist will then consider in deciding what future authors to send our way. Given the payroll load involved, we're not making much money off events--they are our investments in building a community of readers--but we can do some things to help inch up that profitability and help us cover our costs. For many of the A-list author events, we require paid tickets that include a copy of the new book being promoted; this helps us guarantee book sales (which keeps authors and publicists happy) AND it gives folks some skin in the game to actually show up.
Q: And what is the biggest pay off?
The joy on kids' faces as they chuckle at an author's anecdote or learn something about a favorite series that they didn't know. I love eavesdropping on personal stories that kids or parents share with an author in a signing line. I love watching kids build piles of books to buy, not just the one being promoted but also other titles an author may have referenced during their talk or something that caught their eye while they were looking around the store. I love hearing a kid say to their parent, "I'm starting this the second we get home," as they walk out the door. My heart!
Q: How can schools learn more about partnering with Old Town Books Junior to arrange author visits?
Kathryn (email her at community@oldtownbooks.com) would love to hear from your children's teachers and librarians! We send out a quarterly educator newsletter, and we use that mailing list to reach out when we have authors we're looking to book! The best thing about working with us to get a touring author is that the author's typical speaking fee is waived in lieu of the school/parents purchasing copies of the new book, making for a more cost-effective way to get authors in front of kids! Similarly, if you (or your company) is interested in sponsoring a visit to a lower-income school--for example, paying for every child to receive a book--we'd love to hear from you too!
A preview of who will be coming to Old Town Books Junior’s Second Birthday Party!
Join us to celebrate Old Town Books Junior’s Second Birthday on Saturday, September 12! You can find the full listing of all the fun to be had throughout the day here.
And don’t miss out on any of our amazing upcoming fall author visits! All of our events can be found here.