In a message dated 4/29/2004 4:00:03 AM Eastern Daylight
Time,
owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca writes:
> Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 10:55:33 -0400
> From: Todd Mason <
Todd.Mason@tvguide.com>
> Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS: Lawrence Block rants about
signature-hungry book c ollectors...: Ty
>
> From: Andrew Albert J. Ty
>
> I found lines like "Unless you count Saint Paul,
book tours are a recent
> phenomenon" quite delightful, and Block's comments
about mercenary
> collectors quite on the money. Still, he does sound
a bit harsh here, and
> personally, I like my books signed and with my name
on it. In any case:
> http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0417/essay.php
>
> - ---Thanks, Andrew. This helps explain further the
tenor of the one time I
> met Block, when he came into the bookstore I was
working in a decade ago,
> and grimly went about the business of signing the
copies we had of the then
> new novel.
>
> Not that, even with limited experience with signings
outside my store
> (BoucherCons feel pretty much like SF conventions
feel pretty much like Free
> Library festivals), I didn't understand beforehand.
Even I, with my first
> published short story (also a decade ago), was
approached by someone who
> went out of his way to be obsequious in asking for a
signature, only to drop
> the magazine somewhere in the store (perhaps after
reading the story)
> without buying it. Multiply that by several thousand
annually, and add the
> even more enervating dealers with their stacks of
copies,
> and I think he's
> actually pretty temperate here...
I agree with Todd that Block is making some reasonable
points. Twenty years ago there wasn't much
commercial/collectible interest in mystery fiction and
mystery writers, especially those attending their first
Bouchercon, were surprised and flattered to be asked to sign
anything. Someone one day may do a study on this but I recall
that Mysterious Press began publishing limited, signed
editions in (I think) the late 1970s and that may have been
the beginning.
The first time I recall what I considered bad form was when
John D. MacDonald was a guest at the New York Bouchercon that
I believe Otto Penzler co-chaired. I was surprised and
embarrassed when a well-known individual turned up in the
line with an over-flowing cardboard box of JDM hardbacks,
paperbacks, magazine appearances, etc. It bothered me even
more that he was just a head of me and I had to watch poor
JDM scrawl his name on every item before I could get my one
book signed. Thank goodness that item limits and such soon
became standard.
Through the years Lawrence Block has signed a good many books
for me and has always been most gracious. The books were
generally his latest or something relatively obscure, which
always seemed to interest him. I've had the same experience
with Westlake, Evan Hunter, Charles McCarry and others who
seem to enjoy seeing an oddity from long ago.
I haven't asked Block to sign anything in years because it no
longer seemed worth the effort. Not being in it for the
money, how many signed Blocks does one guy need?
Richard Moore
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