Last year, I investigated book signing ediquitte and received a couple of helpful comments. Last year’s post applies to an event where there’s only one author. Today, I want to talk about book signing etiquette when there is more than one author present and I’m hoping you guys will be just as knowledgeable as last time (because I have no idea).
Buying Books
I know that you are generally supposed to buy the newest book (or the one the author is on tour promoting) at the bookstore where the event is held. But when there are multiple authors, do you have to buy multiple books (at least one from each person)? I mean, technically, the bookstore is still making money regardless of which book you buy, but I feel like its a bit unfair to the authors if you only purchase one author’s book(s) and not the others’. This brings me to my next question. The question of the day is…
Getting books signed
My million dollar question of the day is do you have to get all the authors present to sign at least one book? I attended an event with a panel of authors and only interacted with a few of them (and unintentionally snubbed the others). To be fair, I didn’t really want to spend a hundred dollars on books I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy reading. But, I still felt extremely guilty afterward. When I went to a signing with Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff for Illunimae, a book they co-wrote, I made sure to buy one of Jay’s other books (Stormdancer) beforehand. I planned on getting Amie to sign the first two books in her These Broken Stars series with Meagan Spooner and knew I woiuld feel really bad, (especially after the panel signing) if the only thing I had Jay sign was Illuninae.
Wait, I’m not quite done. Yet.
Pictures
They say pictures are worth a thousand words and while I don’t always agree with that statement, it is true that pictures hold a lot of sentimental value. That is why I like taking pictures with authors I get to meet. Not to say, “hey world, look, I met this author”, but to remember that meeting. When there are multiple authors, do you take pictures one by one (which I think would be more efficient) or with all of them at the same time? Or does it depend on the number of authors? While I kind of liked taking a picture with Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff together (with Illunimae) because they were coauthors, I personally think it would make sense if it was more common for people to take individual pictures with each author rather than with all of them at once. Especially if they don’t have much in common besides a publisher.
What do you consider book signing etiquette for multiple authors?
Do you have any tips for a signing?
I totally struggle with these questions as well. Sometimes I’ll go and really only be interested in one author, so what do I do with the rest???? Do I buy just to support??? Do I skip them in the signing line?? I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one with this.