ABRAMS virtual author event guidelines

  • The safety of our authors and attendees is ABRAMS’s priority at all events—virtual or in-person.
  • Advance registration is required for all events, regardless of ticket cost.
  • All ABRAMS virtual events should be hosted on a secure platform such as Crowdcast, Zoom Video Webinar, Facebook Live, or IGTV. We do not recommend using Zoom Meetings at this time.
  • If a hosting bookstore, library, conference, or festival requests to use their own paid platform rather than one of those listed above, enhanced security features must be discussed and approved in advance by the author and publisher’s publicist, and be in place one week prior to the event.
  • All events are “view only.” At no time during the event should attendees have the ability to appear onscreen, share audio, unmute themselves, play video, or screenshare.
  • The event plan—platform details, format, moderator—should be discussed and confirmed via email a week in advance with all parties directly involved.
  • Pre-event tech calls with the author, publicist, and hosting staff are highly encouraged, ideally the morning of the event.
  • Any history of harassment toward an author will be shared with the hosting venue ahead of time in writing in order to discuss safeguards during the event.
  • Enabling of public Chat or Q&A functions must be discussed in advance with the hosting venue, author, and publicist. If enabled, the hosting venue must designate a staffer whose sole duty is to eject attendees who exhibit any form of harassing and/or threatening behavior. ABRAMS will notify the hosting venue in advance if there are particular subjects that the author wishes not to discuss to ensure that the Chat and Q&A functions are confidently vetted.