Sign Me Up…Or Not…

Posted by A. A. Omer on August 2, 2012 · 3 Comments

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and felt that this was an adequate place to discuss it.

One of the things that point to a writer being successful are signings. An event where an author is seated in front of adoring fans who wait eagerly in line for the author to sign a copy of their book. The longer the line, the more popular the author. The earlier the fans camp out to get better positions in line, the more…uh…dedicated the fans.

But I’ve never gone to a signing despite being a huge reader and a fan of countless authors.

Why?

Because they don’t make sense to me.

The author signing the book doesn’t make the book more valuable to me. It’s just their name handwritten. Nothing else. I liked to the book and author because of the story. I liked what they did with their words and can do without the signature since the cover already tells me who the writer of the story is.

I’d much rather have the first draft (or drafts) of their story to see how much it’s changed from point A to Z. I’d much rather go to a reading where I can hear the author bring to life the words that they placed on the page in they way they intended it to be. I’d much rather go to a Q & A or even have coffee with the writer and pick their brain about the many interpretations I have of their work (and see if it matches or opposes their own).

Hell, I’d wait in line at a signing just to have a few moments to thank the author for writing what they wrote and then would have left without a signature…

…But that’s just me.

I’m not saying that people who go to signings are wasting their time (I’m the same person who thinks people who eat raisins are crazy…). I’m just putting out there why I don’t seem to do what a lot of readers are doing. I’ve realized that I don’t do get obsessed with certain series or authors the way a lot of fans seem to be in terms of the huge fandoms out there (the dedicated tumblr pages, fan websites, the line ups in the rain days before hand) or at least for a brief time anyway.

I guess I just like getting lost in the world the story offers. I do, however, enjoy the fandoms from a observers point of view. The beautiful artwork, fan fiction, gifs, etc make fans like myself happy to have been in this “exclusive” group of readers who’ve all shared an experience with a particular story.

Isn’t that what writing and reading are about?

Okay, I wasn’t sure where this post was heading (I kind of just found myself at the end) but I’m glad I wrote it.

Keep reading and keep writing,

A. A. Omer