A Second Signature?

Last week, someone posted a link on Twitter to an article about book signing. Sorry, but I don’t recall who tweeted the link, or who wrote the article (if either was you, please claim credit in the comments!). However, the article raised an interesting point/issue that I had never previously considered, so I thought I would see what you all thought.

Imagine the scene. I am sitting at a desk in my local Barnes & Noble with a stack of books next to me. A long (long, long, long) line of starry-eyed devotees wait for me to start adorning my latest novel with my signature. I pull the first book down from the stack, open it to the title page, pick up my trusty Sharpie, and look up at the grinning face hovering over me.

“Hello,” I say, trying to appear really quite gregarious and not at all the stereotypical introverted writer.

“Hello!” says the grinning fan, her bright blue eyes glistening with excitement. “It’s such an honor to meet you Mr. Smith!” My smile disguises the nauseating pressure of having to sound as eloquent as I write. That’s why I’m a writer, not an orator–I’m far more comfortable with the written word.

“Thank you,” I say. “I’m a bit stunned at the turnout to be honest. Thank you for coming.” She nods, clearly a little speechless. I’m envious. She’s a fan, she’s allowed to be speechless. I’m a writer. I should always have a bon mot for every occasion. None come to mind, so I get straight to the point. “Is this for you?” I indicate the novel awaiting my monicker.

“Yes,” she says. “My name’s Clara.” I begin writing: To Clara, it was a pleasure meeting you. Best wishes–then I sign my name, close the book and hand it back to the young lady. Before stepping out of the line, she opens the book and looks at my words.

“Excuse me,” she says, “but, do you think you could sign your full name, not just your initials?” I frown.

“That is my full name.” She blushes.

“Oh, sorry!”

She walks off, no doubt wondering how someone so good with words can have such crappy handwriting. And would any of her friends believe I signed that book when no-one could make head nor tail of the black marks?

And now we get to the point of this post. In the article, the author suggested that writers consider using a signature other than their legal signature for signing books. There is, apparently, nothing legally wrong with this. Indeed, there are some advantages. First, someone could use a book signing as a way to get a sample of your signature which they could then use to forge on documents (sounds like something from a crime novel… *takes note*). And second, if your legal signature is like mine (the words I put in Clara’s mouth above were actually said to me by the minister at our wedding when I signed the marriage certificate), your fans might prefer to see that it’s really your name. On the other hand, by now, your legal signature has become second nature, and it might be hard to switch between the two.

What do you think? Should aspiring authors consider using a signature other than their legal signature for book signings? What would you do?

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