Friday, April 15, 2011

Book Signings & Ebooks...What Do You Do?


With the emergance of ebooks and ereaders, I have been humming and hawing over the switch. I'm an old dinosaur and still love holding my books, love looking at all the books on my bookshelf. After considering all the pros and cons, at this point I'm still not convinced the ebook is right for me. One thing I hadn't even considered though was book signings! I just came across this blog post by Scholastic: The digital future of autographing books

So what do you do if you are attending a bookish event and have the ebook? If it's all about the convience of having the ebook ready in an instant, do you also buy the hardcopy? If not, would signed swag make up for it?

7 comments:

  1. I have a pdf reader....I find I'm picking up my regular books and ignoring the pdf reader (it's on my Xoom). I'm trying, but I love the feel of books, turning the pages, and the smell of new ones :P

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  2. I've had my Kobo since last summer and I've only read a handful of books on it. I still like reading from an actual book vs an ebook. For author signings I haven't really thought that far ahead mostly because not many authors come to my city.

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  3. I have printed out a cover of the book I want signed and then had them sign the photo. They didn't ask to "see" the book.

    I'm thinking of getting a 4x6 photo book (the size that goes in your purse) and having my book covers in that...multiple covers can go on the same printout. I also thought of getting an autograph/scrapbook type book with blank pages.

    I better decide soon....the LA Times Book Festival is at the end of the month ;)

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  4. Good question! I prefer to have a physical book autographed, but think having an autograph book would be a good idea as well. I'd hesitate to have the eReader signed, because what happens if it breaks and needs to be replaced? I love my nook, but my first love will always be the physical book!

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  5. I recently picked up an e reader but will never (never!) give up on books. I think I will have a happy medium. The e reader is for travel when taking the 10-12 books I may read are a burden... I can instead take my e reader.

    To a signing - well that is all books :)

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  6. I got a Nook at Christmas and I love it. I love it WAY more than I thought I would, but I did just run into this problem. I went to RT and some of the newer books I have, I couldn't get signed so I had to bring the older books in the series. It was a bummer. It's something I didn't think of until the situation popped up. I don't buy e and hard copies so not sure what I would do in the future.

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