Tools for Live E-book Author Signings

Even in today’s increasingly digital market, the old-fashioned book signing is a valuable experience — both for authors and for readers.

To that end, at almost every author event, one question that always comes up is, “How do I do a signing for my digital book?” There are two nifty tools that I always recommend.

1. Autography

2. Authorgraph (formerly known as KindleGraph)

Autography

I first met the guys behinds Autography at Book Expo America 2012 (BEA12). They demoed their product for me, and I immediately signed up my Crowdsourced Guide to NYC to enable author signings. Autography is neat because all you have to do is create your Autography application online and then download the app from the iBooks store. Once you upload your EPUB file, you can then use the app to take pictures with your fans and send them autographed versions of your books. The nice thing about Autography is that you can take a picture with people, write them a message on your iPad, and they then get sent a version of the e-book with a signed picture at the beginning of the book. (See image at right.)

Authorgraph

Authograph is a handy tool that evolved from just being a tool for Kindle authors, and expanded into being able to be used for any e-reading app you use. You can’t put in pictures, but you can sign digitally. You just “Request Authorgraph” once you’ve set up your account and your readers can opt to get a customized message from you.

Do you use Autography or Authorgraph? Or do you have recommendations for other tools?

Miral Sattar is founder and CEO of BiblioCrunch, an award-winning author services marketplace that matches authors with quality, award-winning professionals to get new books and apps to market. She has worked in the media industry for 11 years, most recently at TIME where she launched several digital initiatives including an iPad and mobile site, mobile apps, a video and podcast channel, blogs, and SEO strategy. Her writing has been featured in TIME, CNN, NY Daily News, among other media publications. She has a MS in Publishing (Digital + Print Media) from NYU and a BS from Columbia University in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. You can follow Miral on Twitter @miralsattar or @bibliocrunch.