Signed copies

[Danny McG]

Have any of you published writers on here considered doing this like Mr Powell?
I'd seriously consider buying some.

They've £3.99 (plus £1 postage) - more for a personal message, I've ordered two.

 

[Danny McG]

I suppose this links to this thread, however if he's writing personal messages then surely he'll be really signing them.

Signed copies that aren't

I just collected a paperback of The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time #2) from the library. On the title page is Robert Jordan's signature. Wow, I thought, this must be one of those things where they send the author a few hundred to sign. Then I thought, Hang on, this copy is new, and Jordan died years...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Biskit]

I've never considered it, but then I've never been interested in owning signed copies myself. I believe we have some signed Pratchett in the house, but the point there was the real rarity was supposedly unsigned Pratchett.

 

[CupofJoe]

I've never considered it, but then I've never been interested in owning signed copies myself. I believe we have some signed Pratchett in the house, but the point there was the real rarity was supposedly unsigned Pratchett.

Many years ago Sir Terry came to do a book signing at work [we had a bookshop on site] and one of the people I work with turned up it a stack of Discworld books over a metre high. Sir Terry was a true gent and signed them all.

 

[HareBrain]

Personally, I don't see the attraction in these. There's some kind of nebulous sense of "connection" with copies signed in the buyer's presence (or say a friend getting one signed for you) that's missing with something sent through the post and then stuck in the book; it's too far removed. Same with books signed en masse at the shop or at the publisher's office etc. (I'd probably change my tune for really famous or significant authors, mind.)

 

[Toby Frost]

It's been some years since I did a signing, as that sort of in-person stuff is almost impossible if you're published online, especially with Amazon. I'd be willing to do something like that, if there was enough interest.

 

[Danny McG]

Gareth Powell has just spent several days driving across America with his wife.
He went to a SF writers meet up en-route so he's maybe picked this idea up from another author.

(If I remember I'll post a pic once mine arrive and are duly mounted in my books)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've always sent out signed adhesive bookplates as a courtesy to those who asked for them—readers who wanted a signature but lived too far away to attend an event and couldn't afford the expense of sending a book back and forth by mail. I believe many other writers do the same.

I never would have thought to charge them for a signature they could get for free at a book-signing. (The whole point of a signed bookplate, I would have thought, is that it costs practically nothing to mail it, the reader is happy, and the writer has perhaps earned some good will.)

I obviously don't have a sufficiently entrepreneurial mind, which perhaps explains why I am still a starving author, occupying my tiny garret, warming my chilblains over a meager little fire. (OK, it's a four bedroom house shared with my extended family, and we don't do chilblains in California, but the principle is the same.)

 

[Steve Harrison]

I’ve never been much into signing my books, although I’m happy to do so when asked and I did a bunch at my first launch. Most of my sales are ebooks, so it’s a bit difficult.

I do think signing is an in-person activity, though. I live in an area of Sydney with a high concentration of authors, so the local bookshop often sells signed books, which seems a bit gratuitous without the author present. I also wonder if shop staff are out the back busily scribbling forgeries.

However, I do have a couple of prized books from signings many years ago, in the 1970s; a collection of Wilbur Smith novels and a paperback copy (couldn’t afford the hardback) of The Illearth War signed by Stephen R Donaldson.

 

[Dave]

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I also wonder if shop staff are out the back busily scribbling forgeries.

No, for authors who come in for signings or other events they generally force the author at knifepoint to sign all copies of their work remaining in stock after the event is over.

(Although just asking the author to sign existing stock usually works, too.)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

From the book selling perspective - signed copies sell considerably better than unsigned

From the author point of view - yep I’d sign anything that moved including sending out a bookplate

From the collector point of view, a signature adds value but it depends on

If it’s signed or bookplate (bookplates are worth less but if it’s an author who signs very little stock still useful)
Condition of book
Collectibility of book (limited, indie, specialist editions sell well, also sprayed edges are popular)
Rarity of signature - Michael Palin’s adds little, for instance. Pratchett adds a lot (sadly death always raises the value)

 

[Toby Frost]

I found that readers - well, people browsing the bookshop where I was doing the signing - were interested in two things: signed books and the idea of a "local author" (and just talking random stuff at you, and asking where the toilets are). Being local seemed quite important to some of them.

 

[Phyrebrat]

In the days of Twitter etc, if you want some form of connection with an author, I’d think that’s the way to go. I’ve had some lovely brief chats with GDT, John Langan, Laird Barron and Paul Tremblay.

But some people want a physical keepsake so this might be preferable to them. Personally I’d not be interested in signed copies unless it were someone like Joyce Carol Oates or someone like that.

 

[AllanR]

The only signed copies of books I have are ones written by friends.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

In the days of Twitter etc, if you want some form of connection with an author, I’d think that’s the way to go. I’ve had some lovely brief chats with GDT, John Langan, Laird Barron and Paul Tremblay.

But some people want a physical keepsake so this might be preferable to them. Personally I’d not be interested in signed copies unless it were someone like Joyce Carol Oates or someone like that.

And that’s the thing- most people only want them by favourite authors

 

[HareBrain]

Being local seemed quite important to some of them.

This wasn't in the Royston Vasey branch of Waterstones?

 

[Phyrebrat]

And that’s the thing- most people only want them by favourite authors

That reminds me; when we meet I need you to bring a sharpie marker for my kindle copy of Innish — or maybe you should start doing NFTs?!

Speaking of signed copies I met SK in 1999 and he signed my Bag of Bones (novel, not me! ) but it can’t compare to this personally signed copy of Man o War… from @Dan Jones who knows all too well my hatred for Save the Cat.

 

[Toby Frost]

This wasn't in the Royston Vasey branch of Waterstones?

It was a local bookshop for local people!

 

[Dave]

I found that readers - well, people browsing the bookshop where I was doing the signing - were interested in two things: signed books and the idea of a "local author" (and just talking random stuff at you, and asking where the toilets are). Being local seemed quite important to some of them.

Of course, if you do offer to sign a book, it helps if the customer actually knows who you are -
Quoting from my very old post here: Worlds Best Selling Book

The children's author Tony Bradman lives near me. He writes the 'Dilly the Dinosaur' books, among others, which are very popular. His girls went to the same school as mine when they were much younger, but he was helping at the school summer fayre once and selling some books on a stall. A woman wanted to buy a book and he kindly offered to sign it for her. She looked at him really strangely and he said, "Well I wrote it you see!" -- The problems of being not so famous!

(I'm not sure if he still lives locally, whether the books are still popular, whether he still even writes, or whether he is still not famous enough!)