A Physical Presence for Ebooks

[elcreative]

My comment was part of an arcane art form called humour... hence the

Originally Posted by DMB

I mean signed by the author.

[sakura-panda]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Since there is no legal secondary market for ebooks, I don't see the value in having an author signe an ebook. If I want an author-signed book, I buy the pbook version and have the author sign it.

As for having shelves of pbooks to impress others, that just doesn't fit my mode. I do have a large pbook library to which I keep adding, but it is for me and my family. I rarely bring others into the library.

I like autographed books. Both of mine are all hidden in the basement with the rest of my books and no one goes down there but me, but I like having them. I don't have very many because it is not a big deal to me, but it is a nice to have. I still remember the days that I got them.

I wouldn't want a signed ebook equivalent. I would just buy a new book -- while standing in line to meet the author -- and have it signed.

We went to a CD signing last summer and the artist signed cute little postcards for us. I would have rather she signed the CD insert (and bought it there specifically for that reason) but I'm not terribly broken up by it. The CD I bought from a concert one summer was pre-signed on the insert, which wasn't as much fun as watching the artist sign it, but at least I can keep it with the CD.

I don't think I know anybody that would be impressed by a book, much less a shelf of books, either signed or unsigned.

[SlowRain]

1. I'm not pretentious, so I don't need to show off my books.

2. I don't buy into the concept of celebrity or idolizing people, so autographs are meaningless to me.

[Tattncat]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

I guess that some people might have problems with those issues, but I have heard of authors doing electronic signing of their ebooks. Don't remember the details but I've heard it's been done.

For me, both aren't problems as I have no interest in either. I don't have books to impress, and I've never seen any value in anyone's signature.

And I sure don't need any more 'knicknacks' to store. I'm trying to get rid of the ones I've got!

I concur.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Two big problems with ebooks:

1. You can't have a shelf full of books to impress people.

2. There's nothing for an author to sign.

This has been said in this thread but...

1. I don't need to impress people... I'm happy without your validation.

2. We already have had an ebook signing event here on MobileRead and it went very well. So, it is possible. I expect support for author sigs on ebook devices will be supported fairly soon.

BOb

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by SlowRain

1. I'm not pretentious, so I don't need to show off my books.

2. I don't buy into the concept of celebrity or idolizing people, so autographs are meaningless to me.

This.

[jbcohen]

A pal of mine told me about an electronic book signing in his area. The author came to the bookstore with a Galaxy tablet under his arm and spent the next few minutes extoling the virtues of his book that he was there to talk about. Later he went to the chalk board supplied by the book store and wrote an email address on the board. Anyone that wants a signed electronic copy can email their own copy to that email address along with their own address in the body to the email. He took all submissions and signed them on the tablet and some sort of software on it and emailed back the result to the customer. The result was an electronically signed electronic book and if you looked in the book you found a signature in the book.

Personally I see no need for signings and see a physical presence as detracting from the electronic book since hte whole purpose of the electronic book is to for ease of storage and portability so a physical presence is exactly what I don't want.