Random question of the day: when doing book signing events, and you have a disability which results in your hand cramping up into a ball with not-even-extensive bouts of handwriting — and special pens don’t help, it’s the issue of holding a pen or pencil, period — what’s a good solution?
(We’ve already tossed out getting a stamp made with my signature, because that just seemed really tacky.)
P.S. I had the most enjoyable, babbly, sex-geekery coffee with David on Friday. Y’all should read him: good man, that.
April 30th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Sign with only “Thanks, H.C.”
April 30th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Longtime reader, first time poster~you might reconsider the signature stamp. I’m with you on the seeming tacky issue, but which is more important, *really*: seeming tacky, or not having the use of your dominant hand??
I think if it were me, and having a stamp made wasn’t too prohibitive, price-wise, I’d have the stamp made but consider it back-up; see how well you do with the signing, but there you are with an option if things go south.
Besides, you can bestow your sunny personality on people better if you’re not crouched over, signing, cussing inwardly at your cramping hand, right?
;-)
take care, good luck, and *go you*! You rock!
:-)
April 30th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Is drawing any better? I personally would be delighted with a dirty cartoon or something. Maybe you could just sign with “Ooooooooh!” or the old standby, X. Or take a page from Andy Warhol and get your trusty assistants to do it for you.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
What about a thumbprint?
April 30th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Just the stamp with
“h.c xxx” written under it?
Or well, keep lipstick handy and kiss evey book with a big fat MUAH! (can be weird and tiring after 100 of them).
I just bought my copy today off Amazon (well my boyfriend paid for it as I am broke!), can’t wait til it arrives here in London!
Good luck.
Jess
April 30th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I too would reconsider the stamp. I have pretty severe repetitive strain injury on both arms and hands with my dominant right hand having the worst of it so I understand how problematic handwriting, typing, anything you use your hands for, can be. You could really get creative with the stamp–design it, have a few with different messages. Otherwise, even with ergonomic pens, with the volume of writing a book signing requires, you’d probably just have to deal with the discomfort and pain and that doesn’t sound like fun. What exactly is tacky about the possibility of designing some cool stuff and saving your hand some pain?
April 30th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I second the S.W.A.K approach - some good red lipstick, what’s not to like? Maybe a stamp under that?
Got my copy in the mail today - it’ll get to its final destination (my 19-year-old sis) once I’m done with it. Great cover design, great design overall. Not to mention content.
(And the time away was great, by the by - I highly recommend a monastery retreat sometime for everybody who’s willing (or, more aptly, able - situationally and spiritually) to take one.)
Thanks for the great book, Heather.
April 30th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I third the lipstick print idea. Or could you learn to scrawl something resembling a signature with your non-dominant hand?
April 30th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I’ll be your trusty assistant and sign it FOR you.
Hell, I’ll even kiss it for you.
-grin-
My semester is done in about a week and a half and WE WILL SEE EACH OTHER.
Cheers!
April 30th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I used my boob as a stamp once to give a signature. If you aren’t up for lip prints, you could always nipple print. Although it does leave your breast inky for a while which is kind of yucky.
or you could potato stamp like you were 5.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Perhaps if you used a pen with a really really fat middle, or a huge chunk of foam wrapped around it, you wouldn’t be gripping it as much, and then it wouldn’t be as much of an issue? I don’t know, I’m just thinking out loud.
Then you also get to use the big muscles in your arm and shoulder to sign in a bigger hand, rather than trying to write small.
Mmmmm…. put the pen down between signings, so that your hand unclenches?
Oooooh ooooh, I have it! Teacher teacher, call on me!
Sign your name in an ideogram, with a brush, like Chinese / Japanese calligraphy!
Oh yeah, that’s gripping too. Well, think about it …
April 30th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I don’t think the stamp idea is tacky, either, so long as it’s a really nice stamp and expresses your artistry.
Not sure exactly how this would work, but you could try a finger paint type thing?
May 1st, 2007 at 11:55 am
While it may not be your culture, per se, instead of a rubber stamp you might consider getting a proper chop done in stone and some red ink. It would strike me as less tacky, certainly, than a script signature in rubber, and has the benefit of centuries of tradition somewhere on the globe.
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:47 am
Heather:
The book signing events I’ve attended usually involve a reading by the author. Could you change the format of the event so that you do some signing before the event and some after? Or so that it’s more like a cocktail party, where you sign intermittently? That’s assuming, I guess, that resting your hand between signatures will actually help….
And I would second the chop idea before the rubber stamp. Or the very short signature, like a heart symbol followed by “H.C.” (This could also come off as sort of cheesy, so it depends on whether you’re comfortable with that.)
Good luck! I’m hoping you’re coming somewhere close to my town–I would love to come cheer you on!
Jennifer
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Different than a rubber stamp, and a bit more personal (or at least, personal-feeling) is a sticker with your name/signiture on it. We used to do these at work events with 600+ people. We would design bookplates with a blank, white space on them, and send them to the speaker/author before the event. They signed the bookplates at their lesiure, and we slapped the stickers into the books before the event. You could slap the stickers into the books rather than signing them, and that way people would still get the experience of waiting in line to talk to you, and you wouldn’t have to write so much. Also, you could have a signing party with a few friends before the events; if the people at the event don’t SEE you sign your name, they won’t necessarily know it wasn’t you who signed the bookplates.
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:19 am
I’d combine a couple of the ideas above. I think signature stamps do feel impersonal on their own, but if people got a signature stamp *and* a thumbprint that feels much more like they got a piece of you, as well as something that will make sense in future (rather than someone going “hmm what’s with the thumbprint”. I like the sign half before and half after idea as well, if the numbers are not so huge that both would be painful.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:35 am
I like the idea of the nipple print for my bf but thats neither here nor there!
haha
I like the idea of just making it unique in your own personal way. The lips are a cute idea but what shade lipstickwould you use?