My Signing Strategy: Ask a Question. What's Your Signing Strategy?

I'm just back from a wonderful four days at the American Library Association conference in San Diego #alaac24 and I had the amazing opportunity of signing all three of my 2024 titles, my YA novel A Different Kind of Brave (Duet Books/Interlude/Chicago Review Press), my nonfiction for grades 6-12 The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie (Zest/Lerner), and my picture book Love of the Half-Eaten Peach (Reycraft).

It was a thrill to meet and personalize/sign about 200 books for the librarians attending across the three signings, knowing they would help get my books into the hands of the very readers I wrote them for, but I had a challenge: It's pretty hard for me to talk thoughtfully and at the same time:
1) spell the person's name correctly even when I'm copying it from a post-it note or their name badge
2) write my message, and
3) sign my name!

Me (Lee Wind) signing copies of A Different Kind of Brave at the IPG booth but as you can see I'm so into my conversation with this librarian and their teen I'm not actually writing/signing in their copy of the book... I'm talking with them!

The strategy I've come up with (from paying attention when I've waited in line to get a signed copy of a book from more established children's book creators at events like SCBWI conferences, festivals, and bookstores) is asking the person I'm signing for a question. 

Turns out I can listen carefully and simultaneously focus enough on my signing to actually get the job done accurately. It's embarrassing to inscribe the message "The light in me celebrates the light in me" because I'm so focused on sharing from my heart in response to what they just said. Yes, this actually happened during this signing. Sigh. So because I didn't want to cross out the mistake, I wrote after it:

oops! I mean the light in YOU!

and I showed the librarian my flub and said that perhaps we could think about it like the postage stamp where the plane was printed upside-down, and that it might be worth something someday--we both had a good laugh about it!

The person I'm signing a book for thinking about and answering my question gives me time to sign their book the way I want to, with care and heart. Because what I want to say is The light in me celebrates the light in you!

With librarians I generally ask: "Where are you a librarian?"

If the answer is too brief (and I need more time) I follow up with: "What do you like most about being a librarian there?"

When it's a signing after I've spoken, I generally ask if there's something that surprised them about what I shared, or if there's something still resonating for them from the talk/session.

The bonus of asking a question is that I get to learn about them, and the whole experience of my signing their book becomes even more personalized, and hopefully, special.

What signing strategies do you use? (See how I asked a question there? Let me know in comments!)

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On!
Lee

PS - You can learn more about my 2024 books here. Thanks!