I went to an authors talk at a literature festival last year. I’ve been to a few signings and events before and only ever had good experiences.
After the talk, the author did a signing, people were running to the front as soon as the talk was over. I unfortunately ended up near the back because of where I was seated and for the first 15/20 minutes, the queue hardly moved. I could hear people at the front shouting… I saw people walking away with piles of their books signed and I was getting so excited. As I was getting closer, I could hear the event staff saying the authors train was due in 20 minutes and they were trying to hurry the line. When I got to the front, the author took my book off the staff member on the left of the table (who we were instructed to give books to), turned to them and said ‘my trains in 12 minutes, can I get a car?’, she asked the event staff if she’d read my name right, scribbled in it, gave it me back and said thank you for coming before the event staff waved me off. I stood there frozen, because the whole thing felt very strange and transactional and after I left the event, I felt like I regretted even queuing for the signing.
I felt disappointed because it felt rushed and impersonal and this is someone I considered a favourite author. It felt like she wanted to get the whole thing over with so she could go home – was I overreacting or expecting too much? I didn’t care as much about her signing the book as much as I did about saying a few words on how much her work had meant to me, even if it was brief. A signature in a book means less to me than interacting briefly with the person who wrote the book I love so much. I don’t know.
After the event, people at the front of the line who got pictures and had a small chat to her posted them to Instagram and I felt so awful that my experience was less than theirs when we all paid the same price for our ticket.
A part of me feels guilty for feeling this way because I get it’s not always easy to do signings. I get authors don’t really owe us anything and I’m not sure if I’m being entitled or if I’m justified in thinking this was a bad experience.
I feel like this has knocked my confidence with signings, at least with bigger authors. Are they still worth going to anymore?
by Accomplished_Try_607