The EWC created a Toolkit for a Perfect Author’s Meeting with the aim of providing guidance to the organisers when it comes to planning, contacting, hosting and accompanying a reading or a meeting with an author.

Toolkit for a perfect author’s meeting by EWC and EAD

It is often said that the authors’ job is a solitary task, based on isolation and concentration. And although having a good and nice space to focus and to imagine is important, it is also true that many authors enjoy sharing their work with the audience and with readers of all ages.

Exchanging opinions and impressions, reading excerpts aloud, talking about the creative process behind a particular book and discussing scenes and ideas are just some of the pleasures and surprises that this kind of event can offer, while it also helps guarantee citizens’ access to culture and a wider dissemination of the cultural conversation and debate.

Apart from that, readings are also a notable source of income for writers, along with the earnings they receive from copyright royalties resulting from the sales of their works. For this reason, readings and all the preparation involved in them should be understood as a valuable yet rigorous part of our job, and it is desirable that various aspects are considered when inviting, hosting and presenting authors in this context.

The Toolkit includes information and recommendations on aspects such as the invitation, preparation, the event itself, recordings, publications and copyright, and remuneration and working conditions, as well as other issues to be taken into account, such as the post-event follow-up and event cancellations.

BEST-PRACTICE PRINCIPLES for how to organise a Perfect Author Event:

• Respect the author and its authors’ rights

• Communication is key

• Everyone – public, organisers, author – should enjoy the event

The Toolkit was created upon request of the European Authors Day Consortium and prepared by a task force made up of Conor Kostick (EWC Board Member), Nicole Pfister Fetz (EWC Secretary General) and Sebastià Portell (EWC President), along with the precious contributions of the EWC Members who responded to our call a few months ago and shared with us similar documents from their national contexts. The EWC would therefore like to thank the Danish Authors’ Society, the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), the Association of Writers of Maltese, the Association of Catalan Language Writers (AELC), the Swiss writers’ and literary translators’ association (A*dS), and the Society of Authors (SoA) from the United Kingdom for their invaluable contribution.