Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

An unusual way to autograph a book?

Maybe I don't attend enough book signings, but I've never seen anyone autograph a book the way Guy Kawasaki does his book Enchantment--on the cover. He explains in this blog post why.

Question: Why do you sign the cover?

Answer: There are three reasons. First, it saves me lots of time by not having to open the book. Second, and more important, the main purpose of getting an autograph is to show others that you know the author, so having the autograph on the cover makes this much more obvious. Third, it helps readers meet people because the autograph is a good way to start a conversation: “How did you get his autograph? What does it say?”

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What do you think of doing it like this? Would you want to or not?

Please share with us too how you autograph or would autograph your own books. It would be interesting to hear what you all do or plan to do. :)

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on May 1, 2011 at 7:21pm

I don't like that at all. The cover's too easily lost or damaged for a start and you could lose the autograph. It's okay for him to say I'd send you another one but what if he can't or even is pushing up daisies?

I wouldn't use a marker to do one either. Maybe that's the norm, but I don't think it looks very nice. If I were autographing a book I'd like to think I'd take more time and care over it to show my appreciation of the fan base.

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Permalink Reply by Viviana Arteaga on May 2, 2011 at 6:59am

I agree with Kay! I wouldn't like that I think that's a little lazy. The cover of a book is important, if a person sees writing on it they won't think the author signed it they'll think the person doesn't care for his books properly.