Comments on Bookride: Book signings

I always feel a slight trepidation when i wait on ...

2011-12-11T00:53:24.523Z

I always feel a slight trepidation when i wait on line for a signing. Often authors have these horrible handlers who impose arbitrary rules half way through the line. My attitude as a collector is that authors who think they are above signing however many books are placed in front of them should consider how they make or made their money in the first place. Authors who get into a snit about the after market or ebay, or get angry at dealers (who by the way buy dozen of their books) just seem petty.

The strangest thing I have heard from authors is they seem to think that ARCs and proofs and the like are "worth a lot of money" when in my experience this is rarely true compared to the actual first printings which they normally will sign happily (TC Boyle lost a lot in my eyes when he refused to sign one for me).

Why do authors care about the monetary value of th...

2011-10-31T23:34:53.142Z

Why do authors care about the monetary value of their books anyway (unless they are sitting on a pile of their own scarce books)? Are they under the impression that it is related to their literary worth?

What's really annoying are people like the pho...

2011-10-31T15:32:16.234Z

What's really annoying are people like the photographers Bruce Davidson and Josef Koudelka, who both refuse to sign copies of their older books, on the basis that it drives up the price and since they get none of it, they won't do it. There was a recent incident in which Davidson got into a shouting match with an unhappy fan when Davidson refused to a copy of the first edition of Subway, saying he was there to sign copies of the third edition and nothing else. The flaw in their reasoning is that if they signed more copies, the price would drop; by refusing to sign, the price goes up. They're both miserly, unpleasant characters, and it's interesting to note that the demand for signed copies of their books is based on work they produced at the beginning of their careers, some 30 or 40 years ago, and not for anything recent.

What about authors who charge for their signature ...

2011-10-31T13:22:12.822Z

What about authors who charge for their signature ?
Should they only charge if they think you are trying to increase the value of a older book ?

Surely a getting a book signed in person is just a souvenir,like picking a seashell from the beach -trying to sell it on later is like selling your memories - a bit silly.

Always thought dealers getting their old stock signed is suspect,you only have their word and as such why don't they just sign the books themselves ?

[Groans at Nigel's Clemens story] - it may eve...

2011-10-31T12:28:00.732Z

[Groans at Nigel's Clemens story] - it may even be true!

Chazza if you ask Ellroy nicely he will draw a (pretty basic) doodle of his dog with his signature (his own not the dog's). The dog is called 'Dudley' which is nice for LA Confidential (I am not making this up - can send Nigel a pic!).

Years ago, I took some books along for a signing b...

2011-10-31T09:27:44.653Z

Years ago, I took some books along for a signing by James Ellroy. When he asked me my first name, I glibly said "Elmore". He was'nt having any of it!

Thanks Edwin and thanks Angus. There are some very...

2011-10-31T07:54:55.067Z

Thanks Edwin and thanks Angus. There are some very old books that often turn up signed but not much before 1650. If you are ever offered a signed Lewis Carroll it's always the slightly unsaleable Sylvie and Bruno, one wonders if he did some kind of signing session.

Time to trot out the old story-- a dealer bought a fine first of Huckleberry Finn lacking the front endpaper, when he remarked on this to the seller the chap said 'Sorry we had to tear that out - some guy called Samuel Clemens wrote his name on it.'

A journalist friend booked into Devonshire Gardens...

2011-10-31T07:36:42.989Z

A journalist friend booked into Devonshire Gardens for a meal when he heard Dylan was staying there while in Glasgow, and wandered up to him with a copy of Blonde on Blonde - to be diverted by a heavy who said 'We don't do that'.

Another friend has a nice first of Macpherson's first Ossian - sadly it was a birthday present and there was a scribbled 'Happy Birthday Tommy' with a 1990 date all over the title page.

I once brought along a copy of Ian Rankin's first book The Flood to a signing - towards the end of his talk Rankin mentioned that he had given away most copies of The Flood (Reginald Hill did the same with his first Dalziel and Pascoe)
With some shame I proffered The Flood with the latest Rebus - Rankin smiled benign;y and signed both.

Once again, an interesting and thought-provoking p...

2011-10-30T19:49:46.548Z

Once again, an interesting and thought-provoking post. I don't know when the first signing session was, but (talking of Auden) a senior colleague once told me that in 1937 a London bookshop had one for Auden's (and MacNeice's) "Letters from Iceland": it certainly turns up with a neat Auden signature more often than you'd expect. No doubt there were earlier signing sessions (I've had my suspicions about Davenant's "Gondibert", 1651) and it would be good to hear about them. As for unwilling authors, another senior colleague has a theory that the ones who get in a snit about it are actually the least collected anyway: I won't name the unwilling one he mentioned, even though he may recently have become a little more "collectable", but I once asked Seamus Heaney to sign a first of "Death of a Naturalist", and he did so without demur, just saying "That's a valuable book now, you know". But then he is a seriously good poet! I wouldn't ask anyone to sign a book by someone else, though: that does seem to be pushing it. Finally (I promise): I once saw an early P.D. James novel with a contemporary, and personal, calligraphic inscription "from Phyllis" - later ruined, IMNVHO, by a ballpoint signature "P.D. James". I should get out more. Sorry.