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Mini: Author Book-Signings · Why We Do What We Do

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to Why we do what we do Mini. I'm your
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Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm Shane. We are a psychology podcast.
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Speaker 1: We talk about all of the things that humans and
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Speaker 1: non human animals do, and sometimes we talk about a
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Speaker 1: very specific practice of memorabilia.
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Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, I mean people like things, they like tangibles, right,
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Speaker 2: and then this is just like a tangible enhancement.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, an augmented tangible.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: And this is our fifty second mini and we release
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Speaker 1: a mini ones a week, which means that this is
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Speaker 1: a one year of minis.
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Speaker 2: So yeah, congratulations, that's such a big deal. So we've
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Speaker 2: been a podcast for like thirty years at this point
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Speaker 2: in time, and we've done one year of minis, So
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Speaker 2: I think that we've accomplished quite a bit here.
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Speaker 1: Indeed, indeed, very exciting. Man. You know, when it first started,
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Speaker 1: I wasn't sure. I was like, can we keep this
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Speaker 1: up for a year? And we did. So that's it.
1:13
Speaker 1: Minis are done. Yes, I am planning to keep on
1:18
Speaker 1: doing minis. I think they're really fun, a quick way
1:21
Speaker 1: to do that. And as I said today, we're talking
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Speaker 1: about memorabilia specifically, we're talking about when authors sign their books.
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Speaker 1: And you might listen to that, hear that and think
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Speaker 1: to yourself, well, that's dumb. Who cares about? What's there
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Speaker 1: is to say about that? And I would argue there
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Speaker 1: are some things to consider it here. For one thing,
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Speaker 1: as we'll talk about, is like why does that increase
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Speaker 1: the value of a book? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: let's begin.
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Speaker 2: When the author publishes a book, they may offer a
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Speaker 2: special signed copy of their book and whole events in
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Speaker 2: which they sign those books. So why do we do that?
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Speaker 2: What is the point of having a signed book or
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Speaker 2: having a book signed in general, and what is the
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Speaker 2: effect of the author selling those signed copies? Well, there's
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Speaker 2: lots of things that go into this, but not so
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Speaker 2: many things that we had a full episode for this.
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Speaker 1: Sure, signing books is easy, like it seems easy, and
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Speaker 1: technically it is. But some authors will sign upward of
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Speaker 1: ten thousand books for a given release, which I saw
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Speaker 1: an estimate suggesting that that would take about or over
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Speaker 1: fifty hours, depending on their speed, which means that like
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Speaker 1: signing books might be a full time job for a
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Speaker 1: week or more for an author. Try to imagine You
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Speaker 1: get up in the morning, you sit down at your desk,
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Speaker 1: and from eight am to five pm, with an hour
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Speaker 1: break for lunch, you are signing your name all day. Like,
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Speaker 1: after an hour of that, I would be like, I'm done,
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Speaker 1: I'm done. Yeah, And then you do that for that
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Speaker 1: entire week Monday through Friday. You do it again on Monday,
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Speaker 1: and then for a couple hours into Tuesday. Like that's
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Speaker 1: what your weekend couple of days look like. That's just
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Speaker 1: that's a huge, a huge commitment. So we got we
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Speaker 1: I mean, salute to the authors who have taken on that,
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Speaker 1: because what a task, Yes, what an unenviable task?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Now, book signings are events where authors can
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Speaker 2: interact with fans, sign books, and possibly increase sales and exposure.
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Speaker 2: And so sometimes you'll find that an author will set
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Speaker 2: up at a bookshop or maybe a local venue. Maybe
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Speaker 2: they'll do a speaking engagement before their book signing. But
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Speaker 2: there's lots of ways and kind of features in which
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Speaker 2: the book signing will occur. But there are a couple
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Speaker 2: points to consider when it comes to actually hosting a
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Speaker 2: book signing.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the pros and the cons. Yeah, pros here, it's
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Speaker 1: publicity and exposure. You're out there, you're showing your face.
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Speaker 1: People say, hey, what's that person over there doing. Oh
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Speaker 1: that's an author. Oh they're selling a book. So it
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Speaker 1: can help grow recognition, allow the person to interact with readers,
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Speaker 1: can help sell books, which is obviously great. So yeah,
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Speaker 1: there's just like getting yourself out there, making yourself known.
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Speaker 1: It's a form of advertising in a way.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and this also increases book sales. So events can
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Speaker 2: boot sales, especially with promotions or discounts offered, especially if
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Speaker 2: it's something that like a fan can go meet that person.
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Speaker 2: On top of that, so they're more likely to buy
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Speaker 2: the book if they can meet the person and get
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Speaker 2: directly from them versus like buying it online or somewhere
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Speaker 2: like that.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and this is an interesting point we're going to
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Speaker 1: come back to. But it raises the value of the
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Speaker 1: signed books. Books with an author's signature on them are
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Speaker 1: seen as more valuable and as a collectible. And so
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Speaker 1: that is again we're going to return to this piece.
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Speaker 1: But I think is an interesting component of this.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I mentioned this too, where you connect with fans,
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Speaker 2: and so this provides a platform for personal interactions and
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Speaker 2: feedback from readers. People like celebrity. At least in the
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Speaker 2: United States, Celebrity is a big deal. Popularity is a
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Speaker 2: big deal, And especially when you're a fan of somebody's work,
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Speaker 2: it's very cool. I think it's very cool to meet
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Speaker 2: that person and be able to talk to them one
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Speaker 2: on one. Now, I prefer to have like an actual
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Speaker 2: conversation and not just be like here your biggest fan,
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Speaker 2: O kayosie later, Like, I prefer to actually have a conversation.
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Speaker 2: But like it's cool to connect with fans in those spaces.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you get to walk away with a
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Speaker 1: tangible piece of that memory in the form of like
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Speaker 1: their interaction with you being that they signed a copy
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Speaker 1: of something your actually the sign your book. I went
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Speaker 1: to one of these when I was living in Nebraska.
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Speaker 1: I went to a book signing and got you know,
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Speaker 1: I handed it to the author who signed it and
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Speaker 1: handed it back to me, and that was cool. Like
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Speaker 1: it was a really cool experience. Yeah. Anyway, another advantage
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Speaker 1: here is that it supports the host venues. So if
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Speaker 1: it's a library or a bookstore or wherever this venue is,
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Speaker 1: like they also get a benefit by having the crowd
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Speaker 1: that's attracted to seeing this author, so like there's some
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Speaker 1: mutual benefits gained here.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we just hosted a book release event with some
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Speaker 2: authors at APBA and I wasn't there at APBA, but
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Speaker 2: like the authors were and they were able to host
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Speaker 2: this really great event at a local place. They had
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Speaker 2: a good turnout, it was it was a really great
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Speaker 2: a really great time. It looked like so fantastic.
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Speaker 1: Love that.
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Speaker 2: So we should probably talk about disadvantages of book signings.
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Speaker 2: But I think one of the biggest disadvantages of book
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Speaker 2: signings is the fact that some of them have ads.
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Speaker 1: Weare back from that ad break. Book signings might have
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Speaker 1: ads mostly from probably the host venue, but sure not
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Speaker 1: an inherent feature to them.
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Speaker 2: Right right, right, So we will say one of the
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Speaker 2: big disadvantages of having a book signing is like the
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Speaker 2: cost and the logistics of an event. If you organize
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Speaker 2: a promoted event, it can be very expensive, especially for
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Speaker 2: self published authors, where they're having to pay everything out
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Speaker 2: of pocket and they're having to like rent a venue
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Speaker 2: and get all their materials printed it. It can be
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Speaker 2: quite costly.
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Speaker 1: And there's also cost in terms of travel and time,
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Speaker 1: you know, traveling to the venue. That can add up.
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Speaker 1: If you're flying places, you have to book a hotel,
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Speaker 1: you have to rent a car or you know, take
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Speaker 1: a bunch of ride shares or taxis around or public
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Speaker 1: transit whatever, And it requires a lot of time and
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Speaker 1: investment for planning and executing the event, Like it becomes
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Speaker 1: again like a part time or even full time job
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Speaker 1: to organize enough that this event can actually play out successfully.
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Speaker 1: And like, the less support you have, like the more
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Speaker 1: independently you're doing this, the harder that's going to be.
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Speaker 1: But if you have the backing of your publisher, at
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Speaker 1: least they can then help handle some of that stuff.
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Speaker 1: But again, those are just costs to factor in the
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Speaker 1: actual costs and the cost and time right right.
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Speaker 2: So despite these potential challenges, though, book signings can actually
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Speaker 2: be beneficial for marketing and connecting with readers, like we
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Speaker 2: mentioned before, and authors should weigh the pros and cons
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Speaker 2: based on their personal and professional goals. Now that being said,
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Speaker 2: it's really cool to meet authors, it's really cool to
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Speaker 2: get signed copies and stuff like that, But let's talk
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Speaker 2: about the actual signed copy in the book itself and
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Speaker 2: kind of the value and the nature of that Like
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Speaker 2: collectible world.
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Speaker 1: Yes, so one of the things I found sort of
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Speaker 1: interesting and unique in this space is that although a
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Speaker 1: signed copy of a book is considered generally considered more valuable,
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Speaker 1: authors typically do not charge more for as signed book,
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Speaker 1: Like you pay the retail price for the book and
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Speaker 1: you get it with a signature. Presumably the signing of
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Speaker 1: the book increases the likelihood. But so I think factoring
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Speaker 1: in like, they're not going to make any more money
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Speaker 1: on this than they would if you just bought the book,
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Speaker 1: but they put in a little extra piece. Presumably one
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Speaker 1: thing that happens, and the reason that the author might
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Speaker 1: want to do this is that by offering to sign
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Speaker 1: the book, it increases the likelihood that that book will
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Speaker 1: be sold at all. So if you're sort of on
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Speaker 1: the fence that of whether or not you were going
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Speaker 1: to buy it, but then the author's like, here, i'll
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Speaker 1: sign it for you, they'd be like, okay, great, I'm
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Speaker 1: gonna buy it, and then I get a signed copy
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Speaker 1: Like that certainly is a valuable value to the author
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Speaker 1: and the publisher, and now is a value to to
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Speaker 1: the customer who decided to purchase that book. The signatures
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Speaker 1: are inexpensive, and if the signature is the difference between
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Speaker 1: a sold copy and an unsold copy of the book.
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Speaker 1: The author is going to sign that thing, right, Like
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Speaker 1: they're going to do that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And I think that's kind of a fun
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Speaker 2: thing though. So let's ask the question of what makes
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Speaker 2: it valuable, right, and likely it's just scarcity. There are
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Speaker 2: fewer signed copies of that book then there are copies
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Speaker 2: of that book. And even though the listed price will
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Speaker 2: not be different, someone attempted to sell that book will
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Speaker 2: likely fetch a higher price if that book is signed.
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Speaker 2: As an example, like just to kind of show the different,
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Speaker 2: like the difference between these these situations. Right, you can
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Speaker 2: go into a Barnes Noble or a Books a Million,
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Speaker 2: or my favorite bookstore in the world is Strand a
9:18
Speaker 2: bookstore up in New York.
9:19
Speaker 1: Cool.
9:20
Speaker 2: Or there's a place in Jacksonville called book Mind. Anyway,
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Speaker 2: I can talk about books all day. We'll do that
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Speaker 2: a different day. You can go into one of these
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Speaker 2: like larger stores, and sometimes you'll find like there's an
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Speaker 2: autograph section and you can buy a book or purchase
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Speaker 2: a book that is like it has a sticker on
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Speaker 2: it says autograph copy, and it is it is the
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Speaker 2: real retail price. And so like they'll have a couple
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Speaker 2: copies in the store. Like I've got like like maybe
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Speaker 2: twelve or thirteen signed copies of books from some of
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Speaker 2: my favorite authors that I didn't pay any extra for.
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Speaker 2: So it's kind of a cool thing. Yeah, But if
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Speaker 2: the book becomes more rare, like if it becomes very
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Speaker 2: popular or it becomes like a first edition because there's
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Speaker 2: multiple editions and everything like that, it can increase in value.
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Speaker 2: So as an example, Stephen King's The gun Slinger first
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Speaker 2: edition hardcover not autographed is thirty one hundred dollars, Okay,
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Speaker 2: so if it were autographed, it would be bumped up
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Speaker 2: because that's that's a rarity you know, in those y Yes,
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Speaker 2: So I think it's just kind of one of those things.
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Speaker 2: It's like, like the autograph will make it more likely
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Speaker 2: to sell over time, the scarcity of it will increase
10:21
Speaker 2: its value.
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Speaker 1: Yes. So in addition to the scarcity, it does, as
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Speaker 1: we mentioned, give a personal connection to the author, and
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Speaker 1: like sometimes this is very direct. There's sort of these
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Speaker 1: elaborate inscriptions that mention the recipient of the book by name,
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Speaker 1: but simply signing the book at all creates this authentic, unique,
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Speaker 1: collectible object that you can take with you, you can
10:44
Speaker 1: you can have it, like it's yours. That I think
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Speaker 1: is kind of interesting and as you said, like it.
10:48
Speaker 1: It's when you run into these like first edition signed
10:53
Speaker 1: copies of things like that stands out as being very
10:56
Speaker 1: very unique. It is one of a kind. And even
10:59
Speaker 1: though there might be moremultiple signed first editions, like each
11:02
Speaker 1: one of those signatures, if they were hand done by
11:04
Speaker 1: the author, they'll be a little bit unique, making them
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Speaker 1: again sort of one of a kind in their own way.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, And the same is true for misprints, so like
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Speaker 2: if the guy is misprinted as well, and there's only
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Speaker 2: a certain amount, like you know, again the scarcity. But
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Speaker 2: let's talk about the signature itself, because you just brought
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Speaker 2: that up right, The signature itself is going to be
11:22
Speaker 2: unique if it is handwritten. Right. So, if every copy
11:25
Speaker 2: of a book had a printed signature like a stamp
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Speaker 2: or autopen if you will, this is not inherently more
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Speaker 2: valuable or likely to bose sales. Likewise, the imperfection of
11:33
Speaker 2: the signature helps create its uniqueness. So like it could
11:36
Speaker 2: be even a phrase they write, It could be the
11:38
Speaker 2: way they underline their name, It could be any number
11:41
Speaker 2: of things. That actually produce that uniqueness. So if an
11:44
Speaker 2: author has a rubber stamp with their signature, this would
11:46
Speaker 2: feel less likely satisfying, even less satisfying than their hand
11:49
Speaker 2: created signature in that moment.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, although it might still be better than like it
11:53
Speaker 1: was just printed as part of the publication process. Sure,
11:56
Speaker 1: again not being unique to that book. And there are
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Speaker 1: some authors who will they'll recruit help to have like
12:02
Speaker 1: other people will sign their name on their book while
12:05
Speaker 1: they're also signing just to help with the sheer volume
12:08
Speaker 1: of the project. That being said, most of them do
12:12
Speaker 1: sign the books themselves, at least that's what I found online, right,
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Speaker 1: And I've heard of authors on podcasts talk about, like,
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Speaker 1: you know, the time they spent signing books, and they're like,
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Speaker 1: it's worth it, but oh my god, is it tough.
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Speaker 1: It's a lot to sign your name ten thousand or
12:28
Speaker 1: however many thousands of times. So yeah, yeah, as I mentioned,
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Speaker 1: I have a signed book. I've never written a book,
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Speaker 1: so I've not had the opportunity to sign one, although
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Speaker 1: I have been asked from my autograph actually in connection
12:40
Speaker 1: to this podcast, which was fun that's funny, many many
12:42
Speaker 1: years ago you signed books. You said at your your event.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I have signed books and I and I like
12:48
Speaker 2: I own signed books and I have signed books as well.
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Speaker 2: So like every now and again, I'll get people request,
12:53
Speaker 2: like when they buy my book through our website, like
12:55
Speaker 2: they'll they'll ask me to sign and send them a
12:58
Speaker 2: signed copy or something like that. And so yeah, so
13:00
Speaker 2: that is a lot of fun. But I do, I
13:02
Speaker 2: do find a little bit more joy in obtaining them,
13:07
Speaker 2: like cause it doesn't it doesn't take a lot to
13:09
Speaker 2: sign a book, Like I can do that really quick
13:10
Speaker 2: if it's like one or two at a time, right, Yeah,
13:12
Speaker 2: But I like, I like finding them in My favorite
13:14
Speaker 2: my favorite one that I found was in New York
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Speaker 2: in a Strand bookstore, and it was an autograph copy
13:19
Speaker 2: of Tom Robbin's Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. It's
13:22
Speaker 2: a first edition hardcover signed by Tom Robbins, and it's
13:26
Speaker 2: up on my shelf tucked away, nobody's allowed to touch it.
13:28
Speaker 2: And it's just one of those things where it's like
13:29
Speaker 2: it's just a cool thing to have because I love
13:31
Speaker 2: that book so much. It's so strange that I was like,
13:34
Speaker 2: this feels like it's cool. It is cool to have that.
13:37
Speaker 1: That's awesome, Yeah, I could. I could totally see that.
13:40
Speaker 1: So all right, Well, I think that's what we have
13:42
Speaker 1: to say about signing books. Like I said, I feel
13:44
Speaker 1: like those interests here. It's interesting to me that like
13:46
Speaker 1: it increases the value, like you could presumably sell a
13:50
Speaker 1: first edition signed copy for more than the retail version
13:53
Speaker 1: of that, even though the signed retail version wouldn't be
13:55
Speaker 1: any different in price than the unset retail version, right,
13:58
Speaker 1: And it's it's kind of a lot of work for authors,
14:00
Speaker 1: but it's just this really unique sort of culture that
14:03
Speaker 1: we have sort of set up. And I think that
14:05
Speaker 1: you mentioned correctly that like celebrity has something to do
14:08
Speaker 1: with this scarcity of this has something to do with it.
14:11
Speaker 1: The uniqueness of their actual signature. Knowing that it came
14:15
Speaker 1: from them, even though like you could technically get an
14:18
Speaker 1: indistinguishable printed version of their signature or stamped version of
14:21
Speaker 1: their signature, knowing that it came from them makes it
14:24
Speaker 1: more valuable and more interesting. And I just think that
14:26
Speaker 1: that's all kind of cool and worth thinking about and
14:28
Speaker 1: spending a little time pondering over.
14:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, most definitely.
14:32
Speaker 1: Up to and including about fifteen minutes as we have
14:34
Speaker 1: done here today. There you go. So I think that's
14:38
Speaker 1: what we have to say about book signings. Thank you
14:40
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in to this Mini. I hope
14:42
Speaker 1: that you enjoyed what you heard here today. And as
14:43
Speaker 1: I said, if you like to support us, you can
14:45
Speaker 1: join us on Patreon, pick up some merch, leave us
14:47
Speaker 1: a rating and a review. All those things help us
14:49
Speaker 1: out tremendously. These short form episodes we release on Mondays.
14:52
Speaker 1: Our full length episodes come out on Wednesdays, So catch
14:55
Speaker 1: our episode on Wednesday this week for our full length discussion.
14:59
Speaker 1: And then if you like to reach out to us
15:00
Speaker 1: to tell us your experience with signed books, or anything
15:03
Speaker 1: about mini's or just to say hey, guys, we love
15:06
Speaker 1: all that stuff, you can email us directly at info
15:08
Speaker 1: at wwdwwdpodcast dot com. You can also reach us on
15:12
Speaker 1: the social media platforms. And I think that's it. Thank
15:16
Speaker 1: you to my team of people. Thank to you to
15:17
Speaker 1: your patrons. Oh, I'll read your name of patrons on
15:19
Speaker 1: full length episodes. Am I missing anything, Shane? Am I
15:22
Speaker 1: forgetting anything? They want to covered it? Okay, I got nothing?
15:25
Speaker 1: All right? Well, thank you for recording with me today.
15:27
Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. This is Abraham and this
15:30
Speaker 1: is Shane. Why We Do What We Do Mini is out. Bye.
15:34
Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
15:37
Speaker 2: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
15:39
Speaker 2: going to wwdwwdpodcast dot com. Thanks for listening, and we
15:45
Speaker 2: hope you have an awesome day