Today I had my first bona-fide book signing. I left the house this morning with around 40 books and came home with 4. That's right, there's a whole lotta Swails verbiage floating around the world. I felt humbled and awed by the amount of support I got from my hometown homies. People whom I hadn't seen in years came out to buy a book, get it signed, and score a hug. I'm still a little giddy and high from the experience. I will say this, though: I seriously have to work on my book-signing skillz. Oh, sure, I can write my name and all that, but trying to come up with something witty for a stranger is tough. It's even hard for family! I have so much respect now for authors who talk with you for 6.3 seconds and then sign something in your book that is perfect.
This is, of course, assuming I sell anything ever again.
On that front, I'm getting the urge to write a short story. You know the AI/autism business I've blathered about recently? Interzone has a "mundane SF" issue coming up and I'm going to take a crack at it. It'd be a nice way to get myself aquainted with some characters, I think. Deadline 10-31-07. Plenty of time, especially since I'm finishing SW before I start on it.
3 comments:
Signing sekrit--have a dozen or so stock phrases that relate to the topic or characters of your book and another half dozen generic phrases memorized. These can be strung together with stuff from the three second conversation in a way to personalize without absolutely killing the signer. This was taught to me early. My problem is that I can't spell to save my life, not without thinking about it or having a keyboard handy. Also, cool pens in wild colors.
Y
Y: Duuude! That sounds like a lifesaver. I'll totally do that next time around. Anything that makes us look like rock stars is a good thing, eh? :) And I know what you mean about the spelling; usually I'm a good speller, but "believe" always trips me up, and so I have scratch marks in mom's copy. Bah.
Make your mom buy another copy, so you can sign it without scratch marks!
I'll be bringing my copy for an autograph - No scratch marks!
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