Have you ever been to a book signing? Have you ever been to an event were an author talks about his or her work and then signs copies of their book? I attended my first book signing last Saturday and I didn’t know what to expect. Do authors talk about their books or do they just make small talk before signing? What do they sign in the books? What do they sign with? Do a lot of people show up for signings? I had so many questions and not a lot of answers. Although I hate to admit it, I was pretty nervous, not just because I was attending my very first book signing, but because I was the author signing the books.
Last Saturday was a very special day for me for a number of reasons, but the thing that makes the day stand out isn’t the fact that I had my first book signing ever, or that I released my second novel The M-16 Agenda at the event, or even that I signed and sold over fifty books. The thing that stands out the most is how excited my own children were for me.
All three of my children were excited about the book signing and talked about it for days. When the day finally arrived, I think they were more nervous than I was. In an effort to burn off some of their nervous energy and to help ensure that the book signing was a success, each of my kids decided to make a sign promoting for my event. They drew pictures and wrote about my book signing (my three-year-old daughter needed a little help). They carried the signs with them as they left the house to come to the event and they held them up in the car windows on the drive to the bookstore. Once they arrived at the event, they honestly wanted to walk along the sidewalk with their signs to promote my book signing to the Metcalf traffic. Of course, my wife and I had to rein in their advertising plans a little (we didn’t let them walk up and down Metcalf).
I was excited and nervous, and I really didn’t know what to expect. Watching my children’s excitement and the genuine enthusiasm made me feel humble as well. They were so excited that their dad was signing copies of his book for friends and strangers alike. They found the entire experience rather impressive and honestly, so did I. The event would have been wonderful, but my children made it great. I can’t thank them enough; they made the day a true success.