Can I have your autograph?
It has long been a tradition that authors would autograph the front-piece of books and perhaps write a short message there when giving copies to their close friends. Signed originals of books by Dickens or Darwin are now priceless collectors items. I don't have any priceless books, but I do have some quite ordinary books and CDs given to me by proud authors and artists, signed by them, and they are things I would never part with.
Publishers were quick to realise that this represented another promotional opportunity and the book-signing tour was born. Authors turn up at a bookshop, surrounded by a mountain of books for sale and a queue of people, and spend three hours scribbling out the "personal" message of choice into each customer's freshly purchased copy. Do people feel a personal connection with the author, or do they just have this idea that they have something very rare, and that somehow it will make the book more hugely valuable when they sell it the following day on eBay.
The emergence of the electronic book undermines that micro-industry. If you download a book for a Kindle, for example, you no longer have the possibility of it being a limited edition or signed by the author. Whatever will the book collectors do? Apple has come to the rescue and this month published a patent on a method of applying a unique digital signature to an individual copy of an e-book, and all the author needs to do is tap one button.
Does that add to the value you see in the e-book, or does it just emphasise how sterile and superficial this has become? Would you pay extra for a digitally signed copy?
26th November 2014