this may sound a little silly, but i am wondering how you autographed your books. i am getting so many requests and am wondering if it is OK to buy a label to go on one of the first inside pages. this will enable me to use pens i like without bleeding through. does the autograph have to be on the paper?
please share your advice!
It doesn't HAVE to be on the actual paper of the book, but as a "collector" I would strongly suggest it to make buyers happy. "Flatsigned" books are more desirable than signatures on a bookplate stuck in the book, as it gives the (not always true!) impression that the author actually held the book in his/her hand when signing it. But I can see where signing a label would be a good alternative for someone in another country, where it would be prohibitive to mail the actual book back and forth.
I have Neal Boortz' "Somebody's Gotta Say It" I ordered from Premiere Collectibles:
http://premierecollectibles.us/
Boortz signed copies of the title page for this edition while the book was still being edited and such, about a month before publication. That page was then bound in when the rest of the book was printed, so he never actually held any of these copies. OTOH, this is one of the first 5,000 numbered "copies" of this book he signed, so it may be worth more than a "regular" signed book which is presumably what that website is selling now. I recall a story of an author who signed pre-printed title pages and then
died before the actual book went on sale, leading some people to believe the signature had to be a forgery!
I at first thought your question was going to be "What does your autograph look like?" and I was going to suggest it be legible. When the Fair Tax book came out I stood in line to have it signed by both authors: Boortz' is a series of spirals he did in one or two seconds, whereas John Linder took at least five seconds and his signature is distinctive and clearly legible. Perhaps Linder learned to take his time doing things by being in Congress...