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How to compensate an author speaking at your event
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Claudette, I once had a high profile author/speaker at one of my online events. He charged me NOTHING. All he wanted to do is promote his books at the end. And have the names/emails of the registrant. That's my experience with it from bringing other speakers in.
Approach it how you want to however, this is in my experience, not a usual request.
Claudette wrote: "I'd like to know if anyone here has ever been asked to speak at an event and used their book as compensation.I'm hosting a virtual event and asked a well know author in my field to talk to my even..."
Since the pandemic has begun, I have done more than 185 Zoom presentations--and have been getting voluntary honorarium checks!
Regardless of the author's willingness to present at no charge, a check for us poor authors is always welcome. Even if it only covers this month's phone bill.
One thing that I abhor is an organization telling me that they have no budget for an honorarium, I agree to present, then they come up with some fund to buy me a gift I don't need (or worse, making a donation to a charity in my name, for which I can't even claim a tax deduction.)
As for book sales: Keep promoting both digital a print. Organizations that pair up with a local book store send me bookplates for my autograph, and that helps the sales.
Thank you for being sensitive to authors' needs and for even presenting the question!
Enjoy your event!
When I have been asked to speak, I never asked for compensation. IMHO, the best compensation for an author would be sales, and after that promotion of the book.On those occasions that a library offered an honorarium, I always asked for it to be donated to the library's budget for whatever their needs might be. Once a co-author and I were offered a fee from a small theatre company who wanted to incorporate a staging of one of our works in a "Night With Jane Austen" event. We asked that it be donated to the theatre company.
Book sales and word of mouth would be much appreciated. Tell your attendees that the speaker is not charging for their appearance and so in thanks we ask that attendees attending the free event purchase a copy of the book and/or post about the author and the book on social media to express their appreciation to the author.
Regarding offering to forgo an honorarium and donate it instead: If you take the honorarium and make a donation, you can deduct your donation from your taxes.Having done more than 350 in-person presentations and over 200 Zoom this past year alone, I learned that when an organization commits to an honorarium, they take the event more seriously. There are many non-professionals running these shows, and when the organization commits even to a small honorarium, it sometimes shows in the way they execute the program.
I'm hosting a virtual event and asked a well know author in my field to talk to my event. She agreed to do so and to wave her speaking fee.
Instead, we're looking at how I can compensate her through the sale of her book.
The event is free to attend but there's an upgrade to the event, where the offer to purchase her book at discount is promoted. We're trying to figure out a way to compensate her.
Any ideas or suggestions in how to approach this?
Thanks in advance.
Claudette