What is in a Signature?

[Overread]

So a post by someone else got me thinking - why are signed editions important?

Why are one or two words, a name - so important? Why do we desire them, why are they valued so highly above a regular copy of a book and why do some of us want to have them. Why do we want those few words extra when we already hold within our hands thousands of words, maybe not hand written, but certainly from the same mind and at one point the same hand on paper/keyboard.

So why are those few words more important?

Is it because its just different; that it makes our copy a touch more unique in the world.
Is it because we want to have something more personal from the author, even if its not addressed to us or the author is not a person we actually know (save through their writing).
Is it a memory of meeting the author; maybe a few words as we got to our turn in the line at the convention; or a few more words as we catch them in a rare moment alone for an extended talk.

Is there anything at all - what are your views?



Mine are odd; I've never really wanted to meet an author. Or rather I'd never have anything to say; never really had any burning need to meet an author. To be sure it could be interesting; but I've no desire to be one in a legion of fans hounding and fighting for their time, I'd rather they go their way and I go mine and we meet within the pages of their books.
And yet it dawned on me when I read of Terry Pratchett's passing that I now could never get a signature from the man. Was that in itself part of what made me want one even though at that moment it was impossible?

Is there something in a meeting of people beyond within the pages of a book that is more important to us than some of us might realise. Even if its only a fleeting moment and the only record is a few letters scribbled by a practised hand

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I like that they're rare and that they have a connection to the person who wrote it. And that they come with memories.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

For me, it's that it was actually handled by the author. That's why I don't care as much for bookplates.

And, although I don't have any books that I've personally had autographed by the author, autographs in general remind me of meeting the person -- which is why I wouldn't bother buying an autograph other than in a book.

(A picture in my head, here, of Sheldon Cooper, holding a napkin, gasping, "I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy!")

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I'd only have an interest in a signed edition if:
1) It was an author I'd really like to chat with. Most books I enjoy, I've no urge to meet the Author, the few I would like to meet seem to be inconveniently dead.
AND
2) I'd met and chatted with the Author and liked the Author afterwards, still.
AND
3) I'd already read the book.

I have some signed copies. Mysteriously by accident. As I have not had the opportunity to have the above. The fact that some books just happen to be signed, without any connection between me and the author is thus no significance. The inscription from parent, wife, offspring or friend has more significance.

 

[HareBrain]

I like having books signed in my presence, as others have said, it reminds me of the time I met the author. I don't much see the point of buying a pre-signed book off a shelf, though I can see why a shop would get an author to sign all the stock if they've been in for a signing.

It surprised me yesterday, though, to come across a signed copy of The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, which stated on the cover page that it was a signed edition. So he'd signed the entire print run of that edition, presumably whilst sitting at his desk. Is this common? It didn't make the book more attractive to me -- less so, if anything. Seemed a bit too commercialised.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I like having books signed in my presence, as others have said, it reminds me of the time I met the author. I don't much see the point of buying a pre-signed book off a shelf, though I can see why a shop would get an author to sign all the stock if they've been in for a signing.

It surprised me yesterday, though, to come across a signed copy of The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, which stated on the cover page that it was a signed edition. So he'd signed the entire print run of that edition, presumably whilst sitting at his desk. Is this common? It didn't make the book more attractive to me -- less so, if anything. Seemed a bit too commercialised.

Yes, it's pretty common now for big authors to do a big signing run and, whilst I also have that book, for collectors it makes that edition a bit of a meh.

However, signed books do sell better and, for new authors, make the shop less likely to send them back.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

However, signed books do sell better and, for new authors, make the shop less likely to send them back.

How strange.
So how do we do the equivalent on an eBook?
Send a signed postcard / photo / poem / bookmark etc to anyone registering on your website?

 

[thaddeus6th]

I'm not really into signed editions.

However, I did ask for Red Country for one birthday, and (purely by chance) when my mum went to buy it she encountered Joe Abercrombie in the shop and got it signed. And that was quite a nice surprise when I found it was signed.

 

[wam]

I think I've done this before. Signed copies mean most to me when there's something more to it than that. Like the writer that also does little illustrations for her books and puts in the extra one with the signature, or the signed copy that has a different name on the cover, or the book with the cover that people wouldn't expect that writer to sign... I have examples of all of these. There are also the books with the odd little revelatory message. I've got something with a signature bought second hand (no guarantee that the signature belongs to the writer) with that kind of message.

 

[Vertigo]

How strange.
So how do we do the equivalent on an eBook?
Send a signed postcard / photo / poem / bookmark etc to anyone registering on your website?

There were some ideas put forward here on this one a year or so back on Chrons. Though I wouldn't want to try and find them again. I do seem to remember that the industry has a few ideas on it.

However it would be pretty pointless since you don't own and can't resell ebooks anyway. You can't even inherit them.

 

[Vince W]

I've never had a signed edition of any book. Not that I would mind having such items, I've simply never had the opportunity to have any of the books I own signed by their respective authors.

 

[Ogma]

I have a few first editions either from authors I've enjoyed or friends. I've never understood why anyone would want a bookplate. In my experience they are almost always included loose (to avoid damaging the book) so they're not really part of the book as such and open to abuse. Of the course, the biggest challenge buying first editions is authenticating the signature. There are some dodgy signatures about.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

However it would be pretty pointless since you don't own and can't resell ebooks anyway. You can't even inherit them.

It depends on the source.
It's true for iTunes I think. But I only buy DVDs and CDs.
Not all eBooks are sold
Not all eBooks have same licence conditions.

I hope to live to see the evil DMCA binned and consumers of digital download purchasers have the same rights as consumers of physical goods and copyright of digital products being honoured by the VENDORS instead of trying to sell a consumption rental licence like a video rental disguised as sale, with worse restrictions than normal copyright.

As far as I'm concerned I have bought eBooks on same basis as paper ones in the sense that EVENTUALLY the copyright expires. So then obviously a descendent can do what they like with them.

P.S. I also think the other extremists that want to abolish copyright (which includes Google for everything that isn't theirs) are totally bonkers. We need Copyright. But not DRM or evil rights-stealing-licence or evil EULA you don't see till you bought it.
A model were everything is Cloud Rental/Subscription and you can't buy a local copy is totally evil too.

 

[J Riff]

Autographs became big business in the sports collectible field some time back, then people went nuts pestering the athletes.
I was watching Paul McBeatle t'other day, and people were shoving scratch plates for guitars in the window at him and he said something like 'they just go and sell them yknow?" and he was mildy displeasured by that. But books, old enough books, are rare because very few people cared enough to garner a signature.
An inscription, from one author to another, or to a known character are more interesting, and it is very hard to put a value on same.

 

[ratsy]

I don't have a lot of signed books but I do a few. I have one from Jo, Susan Boulton, and Kissmequick (francis knight) so the fact that they are people I know from here is why I wanted the signed ones. Just kind of cool to see a tangible book that they personalized. KMQ's calls me Ratsy in it, which is cool.

I also have a couple from Brandon Sanderson, one is the Hardcover Mistborn I ordered on his site, and its personalized, so there is just a minor connection to the author there. A little more than one signed copy from the bookstore like HB is mentioning. One my brother got signed for me when he met him at a signing.

So I don't actively seek them out, but I do appreciate them. It's hard to get signed books in Canada, because there are never any events near where I live...

 

[Bick]

I'd only have an interest in a signed edition if:
... 2) I'd met and chatted with the Author

I get that, but I'd still be pretty stoked if I found a signed first edition of Great Expectations in the attic.

I love the idea of signed copies by authors I love. If I won the lottery I'd be scouring the interweb for signed Asimov 1st Eds. As it stands, I have only one signed book (I think). It's pretty cool though. I went to a public reading in New Jersey on the 29th April 1996, given by Allen Ginsberg. He was giving one of his last public readings in the neighborhood where he grew up. I met him backstage afterwards and I now have a signed copy of Howl and Other Poems.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I'd still be pretty stoked if I found a signed first edition of Great Expectations in the attic.

/me quickly checks the 10 volume 1899 printing of Kipling.
Ah well, that would be a horse of a serious colour.

I have a signed edition of something somewhere. But the fact I can't remember Author / title?