Let's Discuss: Book Signing Preparations

 

Hey all! I thought of another weird discussion, mainly as I was struggling to think of one, as per usual I realized I had some conversation fodder going on now in my typical planning stages of life! Lol. Did I lose you yet?

How Do You Prepare for Book Signings?

So since I have TWO book signings this week, yes TWO, the past month I've been "prepping" by reading as many of their back-titles on my TBR pile as I could! I'm actually doing pretty good and am on the last "back-title" that I have. I used to love being able to have the newest one read too, but there's no way I can do that when I'm already behind! Lol. So as close as possible at least!

My prepping usually comes along in that way! I like to try to read as many of their books as I can (that are of interest to me)! Naturally, with some I may not read everything of theirs. One of the authors I'm seeing this week is Tessa Bailey and the majority of her books are along the lines of contemporary so that just won't be happening with me! I did read her fun little vampire trilogy which, yes, now I want to have signed! Lol! But in the case of Elle Cosimano, the other author I'm seeing this week, I've been reading everything of hers that I haven't read already! 

Granted her third Finlay Donovan book came out last week, but since I'm buying it at the signing, I couldn't feasibly afford two copies. Plus just with the pacing of my reading these days, I likely wouldn't be able to get to that one in time anyway! I'm hoping to have this second book done by then, hopefully this week won't be too crazy and I can manage that! Fingers crossed!

Besides the reading of all the books, my other prep work comes from getting my books flapped and tagged with post-its for the signing portion! I usually go for all personalizations in my books and luckily my name is a typical one, but I still like putting them in there. Saves the event team time and I just like being prepared!

I also double check my title pages to see if any metallic sharpies will be necessary! I mention this because for Elle Cosimano, it is necessary on one series! The title page is totally dark and since I had one book of that duology signed in gold sharpie, I am making sure I bring that one along! Lol! Otherwise I usually bring both and let the author choose what color!

My last step usually involved making sure my camera battery was charged, because yeah, I'm kind of old school with how I like taking pictures. But sadly my regular camera (not my Nikon for bookstagramming) is getting a little wonky. My flash doesn't always come up automatically anymore, the mechanism gets stuck and I usually have to force it out and repower it on. It's just been easier to bring my phone, despite how outdated that is. I've been reluctant to upgrade just yet since it's otherwise still a good phone. So since it has to be the phone (which in a sense is nice because it's one less thing to carry and worry about), I just make sure that's charged up too for the actual picture taking.

But that's pretty much my preparation process! Do you have a process for how you get ready for book signings?