What's not to love about signed copies of books? ALLI author member Alison Morton signing copies of her alternative history novel, “Successio”
Here's a quick book marketing tip to enable you to personalise your books for individual readers, wherever they are in the world, without running up big postage bills.
Receiving a signed copy of a book makes it feel special. A signature and a personalised message add a “money can't buy” touch to a book. I often buy signed books as personalised gifts for friends and family, if I'm lucky enough to meet an author at a bookshop event or festival, or to have pledged supported a crowdfunder (signed books are great rewards for crowdfunding supporters, by the way).
But you don't have to meet the author in person – or to look at it from the author's perspective, to meet the reader – to organise a signed copy. Nor do you need to run up big shipping costs, even if author and reader live on opposite sides of the planet.
Both the ideas described below will help you provide signed books for your readers all over the world. You might also like to use them when running Goodreads giveaways, where signed books may have extra appeal.
How to Sign Print Books from Afar
Encourage readers to buy your books locally from their normal supplier, then for a small fee to cover your costs, produce beautiful adhesive bookplates that match your book's design style, sign them, and pop them in a normal envelope that will cost you only letterpost rates – much cheaper than sending a signed book through the mail! Alternatively, you could sign clear stickers, so that the signature can be applied without the look of a bookplate, almost fooling the observer into thinking the signature is right on the printed page. Call me old-fashioned, but I love bookplates and would rather have a special bookplate than a clear sticker.
How to Sign Ebooks
Join Authorgraph, a service that lets you sign your ebooks, and which actively promotes the sale of signed ebooks. You simply add your books to their catalogue by inserting your Amazon ASIN codes (easily found on your KDP dashboard), and await requests. Each one is done individually, so you can respond to each with a personal message, rather than a blanket signature, which is a nice touch, though I've found it takes a bit of practice to create a neat signature online, using my mouse as a pen! For more information, visit www.authorgraph.com, where you will also find a detailed explanation of how it works and answers to FAQs.
OVER TO YOU
If you know of other solutions, or would like to share your experience of the processes outlined above, please feel free to leave a comment.
The bookplates suggestion was a wonderful idea. Thank you so much!
Very useful tip here, Debbie. I’m a new author, and I’m buying some book plates as soon as I finish this comment. Thank you! D.S. Marquis, Author OF SCHOOL AND WOMEN dsmarquisamericanauthor.com
This would be great if Authorgraph actually sent the verification email to start an account. Seems this site has been running on autopilot for years now with no recourse to contact them for assistance. Poorly run at the very best.
Had not realised that people had not been aware of Authorgraph as they have been around for some little time now and I registered with them the earlier part of this year https://www.authorgraph.com/authors/iGOeBooks – not done a great number but a nice alternative option as technology stands at present but doubtless over time there will be other ways.