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When I started writing my book, Catalyst, little did I realize the different paths it would lead me down. One of those paths and stops along the way is doing book signings. If you’ve seen the second National Treasure movie with, Nicholas Cage, there’s a scene where his sidekick has written a book and is doing a signing. He has a life-size cardboard cutout of himself with stacks and stacks of books piled all around; everything he needs for a successful signing, everything that is except for customers!
That’s the way I felt when I set up my first book signing in Borders (they have been great to me BTW). I had my folding card table, a couple of stacks of books and I wore my leather jacket figuring if you don’t know what you’re doing, at least look good.
But as they say, it’s not so much the destination but the stops along the way. Since that first signing (I sold 11 by the way and was ecstatic) I’ve improved my technique, added some eye catching props (a 4’tall practice bomb, ebay is a great thing) and have enjoyed meeting a lot of wonderful people.
I don’t have a flashy signature like Sarah Palin (though I wish I did) so I try and write a line or two along with scribbling my name. It may sound funny but I try and give the person their money’s worth because not only are they spending their hard-earned cash on something I did, but they are investing their precious time in reading it as well.
But book signings are not always about selling books as I found out. I was sitting at my table when this little boy, wearing a shy but big smile, walked up and handed me a book and asked me to sign it for him. I took it, looked at it, then looked at him and smile back. “I’d be happy too son, but I didn’t write this book.” He had handed me a book about dragons or something. “I know, that’s okay.” He replied, his smile never fading. What the heck I thought, why not, so I signed it. I enjoyed it as much as if it were my own book.
Catalyst is a WWII spy thriller but has an aviation theme to it, so I made up some bookmarkers with pictures of different aircraft from the book, put my website on it and give them away. On several occasions people have stopped by and said they couldn’t afford the book but asked if I would sign a marker for them? It’s a little thing and kind of hard to explain but I took great pride in signing those markers.
There are so many stops along the signing trail but I will leave you with this one that I will never forget. I was doing a signing at Christmas time when a woman walked in with her four children. We got to chatting and I discovered that they were on vacation and visiting from Australia. While we were talking, she brought her daughter over who I guess was about six. She looked to her daughter and said, “Look honey, this man is a real life author, he writes books.” Her eyes lit up and she looked at me like I was Santa himself with a bag full of toys just for her. The lady eventually bought two books (Wow, now I’m an internationally know author!) and on their way out I signed markers for all her kids. As they left, the little girl looked at me again and exclaimed to her mother, “Mommy, I met a real life author!”
I was awed, flattered and humbled by that little girl’s reaction to something that I did. Being a writer, I have a vivid imagination, so I envision that that little girl will grow up someday to be a bestselling author and during a television interview she will look back on her visit to America, and to that Sunday afternoon in a bookstore where she met a real life author and point to that moment as her inspiration. Corny, I know, but like I said, us writers see things just a little differently.
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