Exciting news for my American fans—I’m coming back to the States on tour in November 2010, for the first time in 2 years!! It’s not going to be a massive tour but I’m going to try to squeeze in as many events as I can while I’m there! The tour will run from approximately November 15th to 23rd, give or take a day or two either side. As for where I’m going to be visiting… well, that has yet to be confirmed, and here is where it gets VERY exciting for those of you who want to try and pitch for a visit from me!!!

My publishers pick most of the venues whenever I tour the States, but we always try to give people a chance to request a visit, and sometimes events result from those requests! Read the following carefully, and if you pitch smoothly, and if luck is on your side, YOU might be one of those who succeed in luring the Shan to YOUR local school, library or bookstore!!

First, my publicist, Jessica, WILL NOT entertain requests from individual fans. All requests MUST be made by a teacher, librarian or bookseller (or a combination of them). If you are not one of those, but are interested in trying to arrange an event, talk to your teacher, librarian or local bookseller and see if you can get them interested. It CAN work—I have done plenty of events in the past which started with a single fan spreading the word and trying to convince those with the power to make a pitch!!

Attention teachers, librarians and booksellers!! When making a pitch, you need to be as clear as you can about what sort of an event you are looking for and where you plan to host it. The more details you can provide Jessica with, the more seriously she will take your request. Jessica will need to know how many students or fans you hope to have at the event. Where do you plan to stage it? How many people does the venue hold? Can you arrange book sales or do you need help from LittleBrown to do this? Where are you based geographically, i.e. which airports are you near??? I do events for all sorts of groups, but as a general rule of thumb I prefer BIG events with lots of kids, especially if it’s a school event. And my absolute favourite type of school events are if we can bring together students from a variety of schools. But I also do smaller events too, particularly if they’re evening or weekend fan events, so don’t be afraid to pitch just because you don’t have somewhere big to host me!!

All requests need to be submitted by August 1st. Jessica will then start putting the tour together after that, contacting those who have been successful with their requests. If you don’t hear back from her, please understand that it’s not always possible to reqpond to every request. Although don’t lose hope—sometimes events can come together very late in the day, so there’s always a chance that you might be contacted a bit further down the line!!!!

If you’ve read all of the above, and are keen to make a pitch, then please email Jessica at the following address: [email protected]

Best of luck!!!!