I recently saw a writer asking, “So how do you have book signings with ebooks?”

Good question. You can only get so many signatures on an iPad, right?

But that got me to wondering if an author might produce a different version of their book with “value added” features such as deleted scenes, alternate endings, etc. — sort of a “director’s cut” for ebooks. This could then become “only available” through the book signing – perhaps on a CD or other format that could be sold to a fan.

That said, given the poor sales most book signings see, this might be better as a marketing ploy for a second sale rather than as a book signing gimmick. Unless an author is really famous (as in, “made a movie of my book” famous), chances are there will be meager numbers at a book signing.

That said, there appear to be ways to enhance these numbers: One is to give a lecture or be on a panel before the signing. Another is to be at a convention where thousands of potential fans will be wandering from booth to booth looking for gifts and things to buy. One saw has suggested signing books while the author is naked – but for some of us that likely would lower the number of sales rather than enhance them.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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