Creators

Welcome to LoveReading's BookCamp!

BookCamp is a gathering of children’s book authors, illustrators, and industry professionals that bring the love of books directly to young readers.

Our Mission

BookCamp (and LoveReading) are not-for-profit. Our goal is to support the book community, authors, and creators who have been impacted by COVID-19 while promoting literacy and giving back to the community.

A portion of all profits will be donated to We Need Diverse Books.

Why?

We started BookCamp out of a desire to bring readers and book creators together in the wake of COVID-19.

The pandemic caused massive disruption in the book community. School visits and conferences were cancelled. In person book launches, festivals, and other book celebrations were abandoned. Book publishers delayed book publications. This has had a massive impact within the author community.

Likewise, young readers across the country have been adversely impacted by the pandemic. Schools went virtual. Summer camps have been cancelled. Parents are looking for ways to keep their children engaged in the summer months.

That’s where BookCamp comes in!

BookCamp allows authors to connect with their readers! Not only are authors paid for their time, they are able to promote their books to boost sales.

Children are able to engage with their favorite authors in live, interactive sessions. They are also able to connect and interact with other, like-minded kid readers while social distancing. By participating in diverse, specially curated classes readers will be inspired and engaged through the summer months.

F.A.Q.

BookCamp is a new platform that allows book creators to connect with their readers in a classroom type of setting. We are a 501C3 not for profit.

We are looking for book creators to submit proposals for courseware on the BookCamp platform.

We are currently seeking proposals from traditionally published authors, illustrators, and book professionals.

Please use this form.

Yes! We will evaluate all proposals individually. Please complete a new form for each course you are proposing.
BookCamp is looking for the most engaging and exciting content for young readers. We are also looking for unique and diverse voices. Unfortunately, we cannot accept all proposals, but we are hoping to feature as much diverse content on our platform as possible.
We are not looking for a typical author virtual meet and greet session. When thinking about content to submit, consider more of an author-in residence approach. We are looking for creators who want to engage and educate readers. While we will consider single session classes, it is highly desirable for authors to create multi day classes. This allows you to cover your topic more deeply and allows you to build a greater rapport with your students. As an example, you might consider structuring your course as five, one-hour sessions offered every day for a week. Another example is to offer your course once a week for a month. Number of sessions, duration, and scheduling for the course is entirely up to you. We urge you to create a schedule that is convenient for you but will also be suitable to your target audience. In other words, we do not recommend scheduling a two hour course at 10pm for a target age group of 5-7 year olds.

Sure! But you know your audience and your abilities better than anyone else. We encourage you to get creative! As a reminder, we are looking for unique, original, and diverse content. Have fun coming up with fresh and exciting ideas. What do your readers want to hear from you? What can you uniquely teach your readers?

Here are some suggestions:

  • Writing craft workshops
  • Character development workshops
  • Revision strategies
  • How an idea becomes a book
  • Illustration tutorials
  • STEM topics
  • Ideas for kid activism and/or getting involved in the community
  • Silly, funny, quirky publishing stories
  • A deep dive into a topic covered by one or more of your books

What else can you think of where you can spend a few hours having fun with your readers? How can you engage and inspire them?

At this time, we are looking to fill a very specific market demand for children in grades K-12 who are social distancing and whose summer plans have been disrupted. BookCamp will align our own marketing efforts to support our authors in this direction. We expect to expand our reach to adult course participants in the future. That said, if you have a creative idea that you think would have wide appeal and can be marketed on our platform, please don’t hesitate to submit your proposal. We will carefully consider all proposals.
Yes! You set your own prices for your courses. BookCamp takes a 15% administration fee that is used to maintain our platform and market you.
That will depend on how many students sign up for your course! Courses are priced on a per student basis. You set the price for your course. The more students that sign up for your course the more money you will make. Promote your session! Use your social media platform, author newsletter, and other platforms to connect with your target audience! We encourage authors to cap the number of students permitted in each session to allow for closer interaction with each student, but authors will have the option to offer multiple sessions of their courses to allow for more participants.
We know how much time authors donate every year. At Bookcamp we believe an author’s time is worth being recognized. We know how much you love meeting with readers and understand if you could afford to give away your time for free you would. But the reality is, author’s need to earn a living. Pricing your course is extremely personal. If you price it too high, you may have a hard time getting students to commit. If you price it too low, you are not earning what you rightfully deserve. We recommend pricing your course based on how many hours the course will take. Choose an hourly rate that you think is appropriate. We recommend an hourly rate in the range of $50-$100. Multiply the number of hours of instruction you are offering by the hourly rate you selected. This will be the price for your course. It’s important to point out that the total money you earn will depend on the number of students that ultimately enroll in your course. Here is an example: You are offering a course that contains 5 hours of instruction. You decide an appropriate hourly rate is $100, hence you price your course at $500. Ten students sign up for your course. The total you earn is $5,000 (less BookCamp fees).

Of course! This is all about promoting book creators and that means promoting your books! While we do not want your courses to be entirely about book promotion (proposal that are 100% marketing will not be considered), it is reasonable for you to leverage your books and your platform to be a springboard for your course content.

Authors selected to participate in our program must have Internet access and video conferencing capabilities.

(Think Zoom & Google Meet)

We will be leveraging video conferencing providers like Zoom. Additional details will follow.

Yes. But please be mindful of time zones and your target audience.

BookCamp believes that all children deserve to see themselves in the books they read. We recognize that historically the publishing industry has not promoted diversity and inclusion in books that have been published. We advocate for change in the children’s book publishing industry and support BIPOC and LGBTQ authors and creators. We pledge that our platform will include representation from diverse voices. As a 501c not for profit organization our mission is strongly tied to supporting diversity in the publishing industry. A portion of all profits are donated to We Need Diverse Books and other organizations working hard to honor fairness and equality in children’s literature.

We will endeavor to provide a response within 2-3 business days.

You will have the opportunity to schedule courses at a time convenient for you and your students within the date range of July 6 through August 28th which coincides with summer vacation in the U.S. At this time, we are looking to fill a specific need for students whose summer plans have been disrupted due to COVID-19. We expect to offer additional courses during the school year on a rolling basis. Check back soon as we expect to offer additional application windows for the 2020/21 academic year.

Have other questions we haven’t answered? Please email us at info@lovereading.org

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