Last weekend I went to the Texas Book Festival, which was really quite wonderful, I heard several thought-provoking panel discussions and one hilarious "Literary Death Match" (Amelia Gray, an Austin writer, was the winner and was terrifically outrageous, everyone loved her!). All-in-all it was two really intellectually stimulating days. But, what I don't get is the fascination we (Americans?) seem to have with getting an author to autograph our copies of their books. After each Author talk, there would be a book-signing table and many, many people standing in line for the authors' signature. I guess I get a little star-struck by my favorite celebrity just like anyone else, but really, what's the point in the book signing?
It's not as if that signature is going to make your book any more valuable, and really, you don't actually intend to resell the book to cash in on their signature anyway, right? But, we will stand in some really long lines, apparently for quite a long time, in order to smile sweetly and say something about how we just love their writing, recipes, tv show, whatever. And - you have to know that these things are a real drag for the authors - to sit there for hours, trying to look happy, just signing and signing and signing. Clearly it helps to sell books, so I understand why the publishers push it and the authors do it, but I do not understand how this makes any of the readers feel special.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment