I’ve met more than a few who were embarrased by it but at least it weeded out guys like Lamas. I’ve NEVER seen anyone ask him for an autograph at his table.

Yesterday my wife saw an add in the Metro, announcing that Adam Ant, this Saturday, would be signing his autobiography in Waterstone’s on Piccadilly.
When she showed me the add I found myself; “Ooh ooh, we gotta go, we gotta go!”.
So today we queued up for three hours in front of a bookshop so that I could get my freshly bought book autographed by the man himself; Adam Ant.

I don’t quite understand the lure, myself. Yes, I like to get autographs. But I won’t buy an autographed picture from a third party, even if it comes with a “certificate of authenticity”. The whole point of the autograph is the personalization, the proof of meeting the person.

But some people are so eager to get some personal connection with their hero/admiree, they will happily buy a previously signed article from a third party just to have a signed object. And then you get the inevitable fraud.

Some people do use the charge for an autograph as a deterrent to those who just want to sell the autographed articles. Other ways include limiting the number of free autographs you can get per cycle through the line. This is to keep one person from bringing in all 12 books in the series and getting each personalized, and then 5 people at the end can’t get autographs because the signor runs out of time or gets a hand cramp. (See David Webber.)

There are a couple of other factors. One is the difference between Promotional “Cons” (i.e. commercial ventures promoting their own products – see Creation Con for example) and fan run Cons. Fan run cons are typically non-profit enterprises, set up and run by fans for the express purpose of catering to fans. Promotional Cons tend to treat you more like a wallet than a person.

I’m not quite sure of Dragon*Con’s status. It has become so large and inclusive it has somewhat lost the sense of a theme. I mean come on, Wrestling? What is that doing there?

Yea, I know the feeling. Had that happen at a few Grateful Dead shows,,,,

GAry 7

As an author, I will sign books for free forever. I bring books along with me to meetings sometimes to sell, and I charge less than cover price, too. This makes me extremely smug and superior, though.

Autographs at cons are a touchy subject, because what TruFans (does anyone still use that?) expect is that the actors are there for love of the game, so to speak. It’s the same reaction when ballplayers are at shows and such.

It’s a shame, but I think you have the explanation: first, it’s probably cheaper for the promoters if part of the appearance fee is the signature charge, and second, it acts as something of a deterrant to people who just want stacks of autographs to sell.

You’re sweet to be bemused by the fee for signing your own stuff. Haven’t you seen all those people with sackfuls of items they want signed? *g*

I hope to hear you speak at one of the big cons someday. My big hope will be TAM5 but if not I hope to see you in Atlanta next year.

Inner Space was a wonderful movie, and he really did shine in it.

ANYONE?

you better hide that one from Sheila!

HAHHAHAH!

Mike, at least, is of the opinion that his autograph shouldn’t have any value at all, meaning that he will usually sign an autograph for anyone at no cost.

Speaking of Mike’s podcast, am I missing something, or has there not been a new “Think About This” since last December or so?

Or you could go into the archives for the past couple of weeks, where I talked about the Shuttle launch, the LMC images, the planetary definition stuff (including a new Hubble image), the SMART-1 impact, the Republican War on Science, and so on.

As it happens, I spent a total of ten days at science fiction conventions recently, so that’s what I’ve been posting about– and I’ve been busy with other work, making it difficult to post as much as I’d like.

If you don’t like the blog, don’t read it. And if you have an honest problem with it, then the polite thing to do is send me a private note.

(then proceed to give them your url).

I’ll be checking out the photos when I get home from work tonight. Thanks for the nsfw warning.