One of the things on my mother’s bucket list was to write a book about her childhood growing up in a sharecropper family from Texas that included her transition to California and a new way of life, but after suffering a stroke that left her with blurred vision in one eye, and unable to write, that one single bucket list item became a source of depression for her. She felt bad for putting off writing about her life until she could no longer write.  When I learned about that fact from her I arranged to interview her and ghost wrote her memoir for her.

I learned during my interview process that one of her grandkids had asked about some of our Texas family members and when my mother told him she didn’t quite remember, he told her it was okay, adding that he would just go to the library and checkout a book about our family and learn that way. It was when she tried explaining to the three year old imagination that the book she was talking about didn’t exist, not at that time anyway, and depression came to visit her once more.

I took the information she shared with me and between family life, and my day job at Stanford University crafted her family tales into a biography for and about her. She had meant her book project to be an autobiography, but my publisher would only clear it as a biography in spite of me giving my mom all the writing credit. The stroke that left her unable to write also left her unable to sign any of her books; so I had a rubber stamp made of her signature at the local print shop, and watched her gleefully sign her book, titled Faye, with her rubber stamp at family gatherings and whenever an opportunity presented itself.

The reason I mention this is because back when her book was taking shape I did do some serious thinking about book signing etiquette, collecting whatever information I could find to help my mom sign like a pro once the book was finally in her hands, and her book writing project joyfully crossed off her to do list. Not long after that she relocated from the San Francisco Bay Area to Las Vegas to live with my sister Dolores and working long distance I helped her cross yet another item off her bucket list, her High School Diploma though a correspondence course.

Now to be perfectly honest with you my mother didn’t use any of the book-signing information I gathered but if you’re a new author you might find it useful.

Number one: if you can still write and don’t require a signature stamp choose a good, comfortable, classy ink pen, preferably acid free and one that won’t bleed through the page. My mother’s health wouldn’t allow a major book signing tour so I always expected her book signing not to get outside the range of signing maybe one or two books at a time, but guess what?

Somehow news of my mother’s birthday celebration (at the age of 92) attracted Las Vegas television broadcast cameras. My mother ended up with a full page in a Vegas newspaper, that told about her newly acquired High School Diploma, she even appeared on a couple of the local television stations in the Vegas area and of course in addition to the news of her graduation High School that year, her book was mentioned. I heard that because of the media attention my mom must have signed (stamped) at least 10 copies of her book in one day.

Book signing tip number two: When it’s time to sign your book let anyone wanting a signed book know that you would be more than happy to personalize their copy of your book for them.

Book signing tip number three: Don’t sign the flyleaf or the inside cover; put your signature, or personal message, on the title page.

Book signing tip number fours is probably the most important tip of all, spell each name correctly. If you have a good pen, one that won’t stop writing in the middle of a signature because you left the cap off, and follow all of the above instructions to the letter, let me know if it works.