What's the correct ettiquette about getting a book signed?

[Jay Kinetic]

I've never gotten a book signed by the author (with two exceptions, because I know the author (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Beattie)).

Isaac Asimov once wrote a column mentioning that he didn't mind people mailing him books to sign as long as they included return postage. Is that a common attitude authors have?

Or should one only try to solicit signings at actual signing events?

[Jozanny]

I recently asked a professor to sign his collection for me and included return postage, but with Robert Creeley, and this was in 89, some time before he passed, I chatted with him at the table, and he wrote that I was a delight, but I do not think there is any right or less right way to request signatures. With writers I consider my equal it is a pleasure, with my fans, or audience, a nuisance. Comfort zones vary depending on who it is, how famous--with Creeley it felt nearly to be an intimate exchange in a public space, but I've also had uncomfortable moments.

[jmnixon95]

I wish I would have looked at this thread earlier.
Today I went to a Daniel Dennett talk (renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist), and I had him sign my copy of his Freedom Evolves.

How it went:

he looks at me, hand held out
D.D: Hello, how are you?
Me: Hello.
I hand him book
He signs
Me: Thank you.
I retrieve bookwalk away

I felt weird because the guy ahead of me practically made a speech to him, then I came up awkwardly...
I'm only fifteen and it was my first time handing a book to an author to have it signed, so I'll just need to work on it. :P

[Jozanny]

I wish I would have looked at this thread earlier.
Today I went to a Daniel Dennett talk (renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist), and I had him sign my copy of his Freedom Evolves.

How it went:

he looks at me, hand held out
D.D: Hello, how are you?
Me: Hello.
I hand him book
He signs
Me: Thank you.
I retrieve bookwalk away

I felt weird because the guy ahead of me practically made a speech to him, then I came up awkwardly...
I'm only fifteen and it was my first time handing a book to an author to have it signed, so I'll just need to work on it. :P

jm: I would be intimidated by Dennett; don't sweat it. People who gain reputations are used to it, and I am somewhere in the middle. I have had young writers mail me across borders begging for me to read their manuscripts, and admirers don't often realize that personalities are people too, but then, neither do detractors.

I probably hurt Daniel Schneider's feelings as much as my ignorance about who he was upset me too, and that is the weird thing about recognition, getting yourself noticed, or becoming famous. If you become A-list famous, something that will never happen to me, then it becomes a constraint. You cannot go food shopping, for instance, and have to hire someone.

I've tasted it, and it sort of creates a double membrane that some handle better than others, and many taste it and lose it, and some are content to remain anonymous, or fall from grace, like Snipes. As economically stressed as I am, I feel sorry for Snipes, that he tried to buck, thinking his fame was a cushion, and lost. Prison cannot be easy for an actor of his stature. Let's shoot Jozanny already for biting off so much in an obscure thread about book signings, hey? :wink5: