It can be hard to determine when you need to take an action and when you need to bow out. Especially for us striving artists, where the mythology says that your future is based on you taking every opportunity and stepping up at every turn. A unique feature of writing for children is school visits. Schools pay authors to visit the school and talk to students. I have not jumped into this as yet—my life is quite full and I’m overwhelmed just thinking about adding another thing to my plate.

As life would have it, without me opening myself up to school visits, a school asked me to come in and talk to their 6th graders. Great, I thought, I’m not ready but this will be a good opportunity for me to test this out. But honestly, there was a part of me that just didn’t want to engage. When would I plan this presentation? When would I give it? Would it be worth my time  and energy. Honestly, I believe the answer to all of these questions would be yes, but I still was not enthusiastic about doing it.

So I set a ridiculous price. Four times the going rate. When they  balked, I cut it in half, which was now double the going rate. They ultimately decided not to host me because they didn’t have the budget and people—I wasn’t sad, I was RELIEVED. (Well, I was sad about disappointing the teacher and letting down the kids, but not sad about missing out on the opportunity.) I sent the teacher and activity guide and offered to make her a video for her students at no charge.

I am truly in awe of all the work educators do to engage their students. This woman came to one of my launch events, bought the book on the spot, read it and then had all the six grade teachers read it to their class. Now she’s doing a whole event around the book’s themes. What an engaged educator. I am always in awe.

There’s really no answer to this wily question of when to say yes and when to say no. Every opportunity could be beneficial or detrimental. The only way to go is to check in with your gut and try had not to be afraid to take a leap.

I’m happy I said no this time around. Part of that joy is knowing that this opportunity will circle back to me. And assuming I’m not focusing on completing the third draft of the next book and/or engaged in other important work for my self, I’ll be ready to say Yes!

Onward!

—K.