The Art of Signing Stock
Or how to get over awkwardly asking, “Can I sign copies of my book for you?”
I am still on the road, galavanting around NYC.1 Being the (usually) organized author I am, I had a regular Friday essay about when I got “The Call” and learned I had landed my first book deal planned for today, however I got to NYC and decided to bin in.2
“Why?” you might ask?
Well, I thought it was high time we talk about signing stock.
Sign sign sign
When an author talks about going into a bookstore to sign books, that’s signing stock. You can do this in a pre-arranged way where you or a member of your publishing team has contacted a bookshop in advance to arrange for a shipment of books to be in place when you go in. (That’s the dream.) Or you can just walk into a bookshop on spec and hope they have some of your books. That’s what I do whenever I travel back to the US.
It will likely surprise no regular readers of this newsletter that I’m a fan of book tourism in general, and I always make the time to stop off at bookshop to have a nose around. It’s come to the point that I think The Gentleman expects it, and he’s become very good at scouting out airport bookstores in particular to see if he can find my books on the shelves.
It probably sounds a little egotistical to go into a bookstore and not just browse for reading purposes but to also look for your own book, and it is. However, in my defense, living in the UK means that I rarely see my books on store shelves because the US and Canada are my primary publishing territories. Getting to see A Traitor in Whitehall or The Last Garden in England in the wild still feels like a novelty to me! However, I do have some bookstore stock signing rules that I live by:
Look before you ask. When I first started dropping by stores to sign stock, the idea of asking was…awkward. You’re basically walking up to someone who doesn’t know you and saying, “I’m an author, and if you have my book in stock, I’d love to sign it.” To avoid some of this awkwardness, the first thing I always do is go to find my own book on shelves and make sure they actually have it. This avoids the need to stand around while some poor employee explains that they don’t have your book, thus saving you both embarrassment.
Politely approach an employee. I usually find someone who isn’t a) at the register or b) actively helping a customer and politely introduce myself as an author and ask if I could sign any books they have in stock. Sometimes this leads to some confusion and a manager being called over. Sometimes the first person I approach is happy to help and knows where the “Signed by the Author” stickers live. Once I even ended up being part of a new employee’s training because they happened to be in their first week.3
Bring your own pen. This just makes everyone’s life easier.4
Sign, sign, sign! Sometimes it’s one book. Sometimes it’s a stack. Either way, signing books is always a cool feeling, especially when an employee pops one of those “Signed by the Author” stickers on the front.
Thank the employee/s who helped you. This feels as though it should be obvious, but I cannot emphasize enough how important booksellers are to hand-selling books.
Post to social media to promote the store and let readers know where they can find the books. I always post after I leave a location—safety first—but I like to let readers know that there are signed books out in the world.
To that end, I’ve already done a bit of book signing on this trip. On Monday my dear friend Laura went with me to the Upper West Side Barnes & Noble at 82nd and Broadway to see if they had any of my books in stock. In particular, I was looking for A Traitor in Whitehall because this would be the first time I’d seen in stores.
At first we thought that A Traitor in Whitehall was a strike out, but we found The Whispers of War, The Last Dance of the Debutante, and The Lost English Girl. However, after speaking to a very helpful B&N employee, she told me that A Traitor in Whitehall was in stock in the new hardcover mystery section, we’d just missed it.
Found it!
Laura very kindly played photographer while I signed books, and then she took me on a tour of the romance section, which was fascinating after having been out of the romance game for a number of years.5 On Laura’s recommendation, I picked up a copy of The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston, which I’m planning on cracking open as soon as I finish my current read.
If I have time to drop into other bookstores while on this trip, I’ll be posting to social media so keep an eye out on my Instagram and Facebook for more details!
I have actually been doing work things earlier this week, but I am happily transitioning to the vacation portion of my trip.
Don’t worry, you can expect to see that essay at a later date.
Not every author has a great experience asking to sign stock. Some authors, particularly those from marginalized groups, have talked online about been told by bookshop employees that they are not interested in signed stock. Many booksellers came to the defense of those authors and said that not only should those signed books be welcomed but that author signatures can actually help sales. I hope that message is being widely heard among the bookselling community and things are changing.
Ironically, on this trip I had a pen leak because of air pressure from flying making it messy and pretty useless for signing stock. You can’t win them all.
If you aren’t aware, I was first published in historical romance many years ago.