How to Propose an Event
Thank you for your interest in Kepler's Literary Foundation and for thinking of us for your literary event.
About Kepler's Literary Foundation
Kepler’s Literary Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization dedicated to enriching and inspiring the community through literary and cultural programs.
Kepler's Literary Foundation is modeled after successful arts and culture organizations like City Arts & Lectures, Commonwealth Club, and New York’s 92nd Street Y.
Our primary venues are the newly renovated Kepler’s Bookstore (up to 300 people), Menlo-Atherton Center for Performing Arts (300-500 people), the historic Fox Theatre in Redwood City (500-1,400 people), and the San Mateo Performing Arts Center (1,500 people). We only use venues with great ambience and state-of-the-art A/V systems.
Guidelines for proposing an event
Kepler's Literary Foundation is a great match for many writers and speakers – and a less good fit for many others. Our goal is to produce successful events for both the speaker and our community, so we want to know why you think your proposed event is a great match with us.
In your written proposal, please include the following information:
Topic of the event
Brief description of the event, including event format (lecture, panel discussion, on-stage interview, educational workshops, multi-media presentation, etc.)
Bio of the proposed speaker(s) and/ or author(s)
Details of any books you would like to see featured and sold at the event. Details should include full title, author’s name, ISBN, price, publication date, and publisher name. Please note that Kepler's Literary Foundation has a partnership with Kepler’s Books who will be the bookseller for the event, if one is needed.
Any relevant web links about the speaker(s), author(s), and book(s)
A brief summary of why your proposed event would be a good fit for our program
What you would do to help promote the event. Please be as specific as possible about the size of your mailing list, your social media following, any connections and affiliations in our local community, and other marketing platforms you propose to use to help market the event.
Please include information about presentations or events that the speaker has given on this topic. Include specifics on locations, attendance, book sales, and any other pertinent details.
Does the speaker have a previous relationship with Kepler's or Kepler's Literary Foundation as a Literary Circle member, Community Partner, long-term customer, previous talks given at Kepler's, etc.? Please provide details.
Your contact information
Please send your proposal to Heather Birchall heather@keplers.org
Please note that incomplete event proposals will be rejected and we will not follow up with you to seek additional information about them. We are unable to consider event proposals on the phone or in person.
Our events team will review your proposal and we will get in touch with you. If we agree to do an event together we will assign an event manager to you and work closely with you to produce and promote the event. Our marketing efforts typically include listing the event on our website, promoting it through an email newsletter to our 25,000-person mailing list, social media promotions through Kepler’s Facebook and Twitter pages, event flyers, notification of the event to about 50 local media outlets including radio, local print, and web outlets, and partnerships with local community organizations and schools as appropriate. For book-related events, Kepler’s Books will feature the book prominently in the store.
We generally book events four to six months in advance of the proposed event date.