Booking terms

Last updated 21 August 2026

Sending a request is not a booking

Completing the request form does not reserve a date, create an obligation on either side, or authorise any charge. It starts a conversation. Nothing on this website takes payment.

Dates

Availability is checked against the dates you propose and a date is offered back to you. A date is not held or confirmed until you accept it and the paperwork is in place. Until then the date remains available to other schools.

Quotations

Every booking is quoted in writing before it is confirmed. The quotation itemises the package, any additional workshops, and travel. Published rates at the time of writing are $500 for a half-day visit with one workshop, $650 with two workshops, and $150 for each additional workshop. Your quotation carries the figures that apply to your booking.

Booking agreement

A booking agreement follows the quotation. It states the date, the arrival and session times, the package, the agreed price, what the school provides, and what Fiction Factory Workshops provides. A booking is confirmed when that agreement is accepted, or when your district issues a purchase order against the quotation.

Invoicing and payment

Confirmed bookings are invoiced. The invoice is numbered, carries your purchase order number where you have one, and is written so that a district finance office can process it in the ordinary way.

• No payment is taken through this website at any stage.
• Payment terms, and any deposit requirement, are stated on the quotation and the invoice.
• If a W-9 or vendor registration is needed first, tell us on the request form so it is handled before the invoice is raised.

Changes, rescheduling and cancellation

Schools move dates. Weather closes buildings. If something changes, contact us as early as you can and the date is moved wherever it can be moved. The rescheduling and cancellation terms for your booking are stated in the booking agreement, and are agreed with you before you accept it rather than applied afterwards.

What the school provides

• A space suitable for the assembly audience, with the sound and projection that space normally uses.
• A room for the writing workshops with seating for up to ten students.
• Staff supervision of students throughout the visit.
• The workshop groups, arranged however you have agreed to arrange them.

Exact requirements for your building are confirmed in writing once a date is agreed, so nothing is discovered on the morning.

What is provided in return

• The school-wide assembly, in both published packages.
• The writing workshops in the agreed package, capped at ten students each.
• A Young Author Certificate for every workshop participant.
• Written confirmation of timings and requirements before the day.

Photographs and publicity

No photograph of a student, no school name and no quotation from a member of staff is published on this website without written permission from the school. If your district has a policy on this, tell us and it is followed.

Questions

Anything not covered here goes to cindybarbera@comcast.net, or into the message box on the request form.