Tag Archives: Authorgraph

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

3 Replies

authorgraph logoMaybe it’s because I’m actually signing some autographs now, but I’ve been thinking a lot about signatures lately.

Your signature is a pretty important part of your identity, wouldn’t you say? I mean, we all make jokes about people with illegible handwriting going on to become doctors or pharmacists (or the U.S. Treasury Secretary), but some people really believe that your signature tells a great deal more about you than just how many times Sister Mary Frances rapped on your knuckles with a ruler during cursive practice.

There’s even a whole field of study dedicated to handwriting, called graphology (although when Wikipedia calls a field of study “pseudoscientific,” it’s wise to take any findings with a grain of salt).

Still, it is amusing, at least, to imagine what people can read from your signature. I even went online and took a signature analysis quiz (fair warning: it was a lame one), just for fun. My results focused entirely on the way I dot my I’s. Apparently, although I’m restless and always in a hurry, the fact that I actually take time to dot them means I am attentive to even minute details. Hmm. Freakily accurate.

One other reason I’m looking at my signature is my involvement with Authorgraph.com (just another thing I have in common with E.L. James). It connects readers wanting autographs with writers and allows them to receive personalized digital autographs for their e-books from their favorite authors. For authors, it’s a great tool to connect with readers who can’t attend their events in person.

When I first joined the Authorgraph stable, I didn’t yet own a tablet, so I had to use a mouse (and apparently an angry one at that) to create my digital signature. Haha, if I’d taken the signature analysis quiz with that, my results would’ve shown me to be restless, in a hurry, and wearing a large, heavy cast on my hand. Plus someone you wouldn’t want to sit next to on any form of public transportation.

Happily, now I’ve got tablet access, so I spent a little time this morning playing around with the stylus and tablet to try to improve my Authorgraph. I think it’s better now (although maybe I should take another quiz to make sure my signature doesn’t scream “demented photo bomber in training.”)

Let me know what you think.

Book Marketing for Ninjas and the Unscrupulous

1 Reply

Back in my starving college student days, I worked several jobs to try to stay afloat, one of which was to sell cutlery. Wait, let me correct that: I attempted to sell cutlery. I wasn’t very good at it. It wasn’t that the knives weren’t great—they were! I just wasn’t a very good salesman.

I was blessed to have some kind and compassionate family members and friends who tolerated my sales presentations—remember how cool it was seeing me cut a penny in half with those kitchen shears? *crickets chirping*

Okay, maybe I was the only one who thought that was cool.

Anyway, times have changed. I no longer sell knives, which is a good thing; now I’m selling books. My book, Widow Woman, to be specific.

Like most writers, I’m uncomfortable with the selling part of things. Just for the next few days, until the launch is over, I wish I weren’t so uncomfortable with it. I watch other authors out there with their constant barrages of emails, tweets, giveaways, FB posts—and I’m doing those things, too—but it just feels…icky.

I know, necessary evil and all. Maybe that’s the problem: is there a component of evil to sales that I just don’t possess? Do I need to be a little less scrupulous and just SELL, SELL, SELL!!!

If I were a ninja, it’d be so much easier.

First, I’d get to wear a mask, which is always cool.

Second, I could strike with my marketing weapons (geez, I wish I had some!) in the dead of night, silent and stealthy—you’d never even know you’d been pitched!

You, unsuspecting reader, would simply wake up in the morning with an unaccountable and burning desire to purchase Widow Woman from Amazon. You’d open up your Twitter account and follow me, then retweet my last 10 tweets, even the ones about my dog, to every one of your followers. You’d like the Widow Woman Facebook page, even if you’re not one of those creepy men I had to delete last week who were looking for vulnerable female companionship. You’d visit www.authorgraph.com to request my digital autograph so many times I’d have to block you as a stalker. You’d copy the QR code from my sell sheet,” accidentally” save it as “Kids’ 2012 Xmas Pictures,” and send it to everyone in your contacts list. You’d work the words “Julia Tagliere,” “Widow Woman,” and “Widow Woman book trailer” into your blog post and have no idea how they got there, especially since this week, your post was about the proper method for brining a turkey. Deteriorating rapidly, you’d follow me on Pinterest, then post amusing images of yourself reading Widow Woman in bizarre locations all over the world. Down to the last bat in your belfry, you’d download the FREE Kindle app to your phone, your PC, your Mac, your iPad, and your iPod simultaneously, go crazy trying to sync your read-to page on all your devices, and have to be transported in a straitjacket to a residential facility for internet addiction!

Whew!

Guess it’s a good thing I’m not a ninja.

Happy Launch Day tomorrow, and Happy I Love to Write Day, too!