I went to a very crowded Chuck Palahniuk book signing once. The book store was so packed that they had to turn people away at the door because there was no room for them at the store.
He was great though. He signed books for two and a half hours. This was in like 2003, when "Lullaby" came out, so I had the new book and his first three as well. He signed all of them. And he hung around to talk to the people who hadn't been able to get into the stores. The event started at seven, and he must have been there until almost midnight, and it's like that at all of his signings.
Chuck's a good one -- he actually gets to his events an hour early (as a rule) to mingle with his fans, start signing stuff, generally hanging out.
Neil Gaiman's another -- he'll hang out as long as he can, usually till the last person in line has had everything signed. But that's changed, as he's gone from 200 seat events to 800 seat events to 2000 seat events -- there was no signing at all at his Sydney event this past week. There were just too many people.
The restrictions on on author signing (limiting number of quantities, security measures, etc) are a delicate balancing act between the writer, the publicist, the venue and the bookseller (in whatever combination). Take the matter of cell phone photos. It used to be, you'd get a few dedicated fans bringing actual cameras to a Neil Gaiman event (as an example). Pose for a picture? No problem. Now, everyone has a camera in their cell, and everyone wants a photo. What's a few seconds here, a few seconds there, pose, fumble, take a shot? Maybe a minute total, right? Tops. But what if you're doing a sold out 800 seat event, and 25% of those people want pictures? (That's a low estimate, as a rule) That's 200 minutes (more than 3 hours) just for pictures. On top of the booksigning. So a lot of writers of a certain stature have said either no photos, or no posed photos.
Because they just can't. They're only human, and when they're on tour, they're up at 5 in the morning, out the door for a flight or to a tv studio. They're on the run all day, interview to bookstore for stock signing to interview. Maybe they get a chance to have a little dinner. And then they perform, and they sign books. 200 minutes on cell phone photos is 3 hours that could make the difference between exhausted and dead.
When you've got someone like a politician, it's that much more complicated, with security, etc. And it's not an option (retired American presidents have their own secret service details - I suspect it's similar in the UK). These are people whose lives are legitimately in danger at any given moment. You don't want to check your bag? Are you kidding me? I have to check my bag to browse at the Strand in New York. Suck it up, or don't bother with it.
When we had Salman Rushdie, it was actually the venue that demanded additional security -- they wouldn't rent to us otherwise. It was hilarious, though, because Salman refused to be handld -- if he had known there was armed security in the building, he would have been upset. So we kept them away from him, and we didn't breathe a word about the bomb searches in the days and hours up to the event.
(Wow - this got long.)
Basically (and this isn't directed at you, djf) -- rules and procedures are there for a reason, though you might not be aware of it. No bookseller and no writer wants to piss off readers. But the world is a complicated place. Deep breaths, understanding, and move on.
