Came across today’s rather strange photo and thought it a good metaphor for the weird things that can, and have, happened at an author’s booksigning.
Over the years I’ve either stood in line, organized, facilitated, or observed over 300 author booksignings. Everything from popular celebrities to a local self-published author trying to make a mark.
Every once in a while there are some fun things that have happened:
- Author being asked to sign a teenager’s model airplane…on the wing.
- Fan showing off a tattoo on their leg…of the author’s book cover design.
- I stood in line for over two hours (in 1987) to have Edith Schaeffer sign her new book, The Art of Life. I always wanted to meet her. It took two hours to get to the front of the line because Edith drew a full page piece of art inside each book and talked with each person for at least five minutes. Suffice it to say, that was highly unusual!
- I watched a fan hand an author their Kindle and ask them to sign the back of the device.
- I was assigned to help the bestselling author Barbara Johnson with her booksigning at a major convention. When she and I got to the booth I noticed the line of her fans went around the corner of the exhibit hall. She said, “Let’s go look and see how many are waiting.” We turned the corner and the line extended the length of the building. At least 250 people. She gasped, turned to me and said, “Let’s get busy.” She must have signed at least 300 books in that one hour.
I want to hear your stories. Tell us, without embarrassing anyone, your most unusual experience at a booksigning. It can be either as a fan standing in line, as an author receiving an odd request, or an organizer.
My husband and I met our best friends at a book signing. We didn’t know we were destined to become such great friends at the time, and in fact we hadn’t planned to go to the signing. We walked into our local independent bookstore, saw a poster about the signing, which would start in about half an hour, said to each other, “We should check that out,” then had some coffee to pass the time. At the event, we connected with one of the two coauthors. He and my husband set up a time for us all to get together for lunch, and thus began a friendship that is going on seven years. We’ve been there for each other during some very tough times and many very fun times. It’s so obvious that God orchestrated it all.
Sigh…my most memorable experience wasn’t the happiest. My second book was released the same season as another book with the same title. Every time I showed up to sign my books, there were cases of the other book in its place.
Mary,
What a nightmare!
Hope the opposite happened to the other author…at least then sales would have balanced out.
In May I noticed one of my favorite authors, Nick Bantock, was signing at Powell’s in Portland, OR. My husband gave me two gift boxed sets (total of 6 books), one, The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy and the other The Morning Star Trilogy, years ago and I was excited about the chance to meet Mr. Bantock and have him sign them. Plus, the book he would be signing was a book for people who create, The Trickster’s Hat, A Mischievous Apprenticeship in Creativity. He is an author and an artist, and all of his books are illustrated with his artwork. We drove the hour and a half and got there a little late and it was packed – standing room only left. But I hung on his every word, stood in the long line with my boxed books and newly purchased craft book, and he very generously signed all 6 books, and their boxes (I didn’t even have to ask!). It was the end of a long signing for him but he treated me like a good friend he hadn’t seen for awhile. When I timidly told him I would be doing my very first author talk with a book signing on Long Island the next month, he graciously gave me some tips and wished me well. I gave him a postcard with the cover of my debut novel and he loved the artwork – that credit goes to my publisher, of course :o)
Sept. 2nd I’m returning to Powell’s for a book signing for my favorite historical fiction author and friend, Jane Kirkpatrick! She will be signing her new release A Light in the Wilderness. I can’t wait. She is also an author who is so engaging and generous with her audience. And can I just say that I hope one of my milestones will be a book signing at Powell’s!
Years ago, I stood in line to get a book signed by a well-known African-American author. I had long admired her, but when I took a picture of her, she took offense and made a cutting comment. I appologized and have never used that photo. It does not evoke good memories.
My local independent book store owner always hosts me for a booksigning when I have a new release. During a signing earlier this year, a customer walked in waving her copy of my latest book that she bought online, and of course, asking me to sign it. Awkward. However, the store owner was gracious and took the moment in stride. I signed the book and handed it back joking with the customer about how she could have saved postage by buying locally.
This past summer I was invited by a local bookstore to do a book signing. I had my four novels lined up on my table with book marks available as well. One visitor approached my table and looked with interest at all the books. Her comment will always remain indelibly impressed in my memory: “What is it about this author that you are so enamored with her, that you would have a whole table full of her books?” Ummmm…. 😉
Elaine, that is hilarious. Too bad there’s no photo of you as she asked that question!
Rick, I’m certain the gaping hole that my jaw dropping produced would have been quite unattractive!! LOL
Oh Elaine, that is HILARIOUS! Classic.
I know of many authors who are asked “Do you work here? Do you know where the bathroom is?”
or
“Could you tell me where to find —–” And the blank is filled in with the name of a competing author’s book.
Steve, it is a classic!! And I think I’ve been asked for help in stores as well. You never know what fun stories will come from book events. Always an adventure. 🙂
What a great post, Mr. Laube! The responses were fun to read as well. Thanks.
When we first launched Flying Pen Press, one of our first books was “The Game Day Poker Almanac Official Rules of Poker” by Kelli Mix. We released the book at the World Series of Poker, with a book signing in a conference room just off the main hall that leads to the tournament.
The Rio Hotel & Casino did very little to help, and we were refused permission to post signs or direct traffic in any way to the signing. More than ten thousand poker players walked past, but to poor Kelli’s chagrin, mot a single person walked in to get the book signed.
At the end of it, we broke down the room, totally dejected. We had two half-sheet cakes decorated with the book cover. My wife suggested that I just set them at a table by the snack bar. As I carried one cake down the hall, however, a dealer ran out of the restroom and nearly bowled me over. He saw the cake and jokingly asked, “Hey, is that for the dealers?”
Sensing a small opportinity, I replied “Yes, but can you take me to the dealer room?”
Off we went. In the dealer’s breakroom, the hungry, tired and overworked dealers, who had come from casinos all over the country, descended on the cake. Once they realized there would not be enough for everyone, I assured them I would come back with another cake very shortly.
I ran back to our conference room, piled about four cases of the Official Rules of Poker on the bell cart, and put the second cake on top. I wheeled them to the dealer’s breakroom.
Having heard of free cake, there were more dealers in the room. I opened the cake box and the first case of books, explaining that the books were free to dealers. They almost rioted as each dealer reached to get a copy. Some of the poker dealers even asked me to sign the book, despite my insistence that I was only the publisher, not the author.
About this time, the tournament director stepped in. He saw me, some unauthorized book huckster causing a commotion among his otherwise sleepy troupe of poker dealers.
I thought he would have me arrested or at least escorted off the property. Instead, he asked what I was giving away, and grabbed three copies for himself and the other tournament directors, and then told the dealers To be sure to get a copy.
Knowing I still had considerably more books, I let the room know that I would be back in the morning with more copies for the following shift, dropped off a pile of bookmarks, and then ran off to find Kelli.
Kelli reluctantly agreed to come to the dealer’s room in the morning. She figured it would be just as depressing as the official signing. The dealers mobbed her, as they had with me, and plied her tough rules questions that, thankfully, she was prepared to answer. I showed up with donuts and more bookmarks.
After the World Series of Poker was over, most of the dealers went back to the small casinos and card rooms from whence they came. They used Kelli’s book at their own casinos, and players and other dealers began buying our book. The Official Rules of Poker became the best-selling poker rulebook on Amazon for three years and still takes that position around poker season and Christmas.
To this date, we still find dealers showing off the book, and many of the dealer schools use it as a primary textbook.
Keep ’em Flying,
David Rozansky, Publisher
FlyingPenPress
Serendipity comes in a lot of forms! What a great story David!
Steve
The overwhelming majority of the people I meet at signings are kind, considerate, and genuinely happy to meet me. There was one incident, however, that I’ve come to refer to as the:
“Beam me up Scotty” incident.
I was having a rather successful signing when a lady who I had seen floating around my table finally approached me. She didn’t have a book in hand and didn’t pick one up from the table. She asked, “Where do you get your idea?” A fair enough question and one that we all encounter. I began to tell her when she said, “Do you ever feel like there’s someone or something above you that beams them into your head”?
“Uh, no. I can’t say that I’ve had that happen. I –”
“Oh, I have! It happens all the time. They just keep coming and coming and coming …” she grasp her head with both hands as if to stem the flow of ideas.
At this point, I acknowledged the lady behind her who DID have a book in hand and wanted me to sign it. I reached for the book when the extra-terrestrial in front of me turned to the lady with the book and said:
“Hey! I’m talking here. Do you mind?”
The lady with the book smiled, told her she didn’t and then, when the alien turned her attention back to me, spun her index finger around her temple in the time-honored mode that says, “She’s CRAZY!”
All ended well, thankfully, and I’ve never had another encounter with an alien life form.
Brandt,
“alien life form”…. too funny.
Some think literary agents are from a different place too. A hot place….
you know, like Arizona.
Steve
At one of my early ICRS events (CBA then) Barbour invited me to a retailer event. They asked me to arrive early. I did and found a huge poster of myself on an easel (My book was already the centerfold of the exhibit hall program). They asked the authors to eat and then stand at the tables with our books and the photo display. I had the table where everyone had to stand in line for food. I felt silly just standing there, so I started talking about the book and flipping to various pages. I had a great conversation with the buyers for Australia. The next year I went to Australia for vacation and did a side activity of a radio show. The studio was located above a bookstore where the owner rushed up to meet me. He said the buyers told him they knew me and he really needed to carry the book.
Location. Location. Location.
You wisely made the best of it.
Interesting with the earlier story that food and books seem to work well together. Maybe a lesson for the rest of us?
Steve
I was doing a children’s book signing at Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe, California inside a wonderful boutique vintage store, Sugar Pine Gifts. After going outside to take pictures with people that had driven quite a distance to be there, my book signing right hand began to swell up to the size of a baseball. I had to leave and go to the ER to get treatment for a black widow spider bite. (The spider was probably hiding under the antique table ) One thoughtful lady went to a drugstore to buy Benadryl for me before I went to the ER. I missed the rest of my book signing but the people who came ate cookies, drank lemonade, bought my books and left them to be signed when I was able to return. We had quite the party hours later. By the way, I never felt the spider bite me. When we reviewed those pictures, you could already see that the top of my hand was swelling.
OUCH!! That spider bite is an incredible story.
A bunch of terrible puns come to mind, but I suspect you’ve heard them all.
Steve