What's in a name? ...seriously.

I'm not setting this in stone, but based on my current paradigm of thought, you will never be arbitrarily buying my signature. My autograph? Sure. But not my signature.

It's that subtle difference between the words that makes all the difference. My signature is just that; my name scribbled by me onto a piece of paper. It is just as valuable and significant (oftentimes less so) than the paper it was written on. My autograph, on the other hand, is something entirely different. An autograph is a personalization; a memento of our meeting. It is evidence that we have in some way, even on a quasi-real level, interacted.

Let me explain where this little rant is coming from. First, I do not look down on people who sell their autographs to the masses. I don't personally get it, but maybe some rewiring of logic will one day change my mind. One of my absolute favorite and inspiring authors, Anne Rice, made a post about selling her autographed books. She literally signed 10,000 books and shipped them off to be sold at Target stores across the globe. Why!? What's the point of that?

It used to be that you would get a celebrity's autograph as evidence that you met them. It was a big deal and gave you bragging rights, and yes, it became very valuable. But how valuable is a signed book that I picked up at Target? How sentimental is it? How is it any different from any other book I might purchase there? Quite simply, it's not. It means nothing to me and it means less to the person who signed it.

Don't misunderstand; I'm not opposed to signing books. I would be flattered and humbled if someone were to ask me to sign a copy of my book. I will not, however, be mailing out autographed copies to people who are little more than an address on a PayPal invoice.

I'm not a damn trading card. I'm a person who would very much like to meet you and hear your thoughts on my writing. If you want my autograph, great! Swing on by central Wisconsin and come get one. Heck, while we're chatting, maybe I'll ask for your autograph.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. Thanks to this fancy new thing called the internet, I'm able to connect with people in all kinds of new ways. There are some people who, while I may have never actually met in person, I feel we know each other well enough that it still counts. My editor, Kathy absolutely qualifies. The guys at Ironbelly Studios who created my cover art will certainly get signed copies. These are people that I've actually spoken to (even if it was just text).

Now maybe it's something as simple as supply and demand, and that's fine. People want a product and you provide it for a cost. Yay capitalism. Personally, I'd like it to mean something more. It's just my signature. It was never worth anything before, and that's exactly what it's worth now. Us meeting, however, well that's priceless... or $4.99