E-books create an interesting situation when it comes to book signings. Since e-books are often less expensive than print books, people are buying more of them (which is good for you, as the author). There are some people who will buy physical books when they are going to see an author in person. Not everyone does this, however. So how do you accommodate people who have bought your eBook but want your autograph for their collection? There are a few solutions.
One popular thing to do is bring something that you can sign for people who have bought your eBook, such as bookplates, bookmarks or matte-finished postcards with an image of the book cover on them. It gives people something that is unique, since people getting their physical books signed probably wouldn’t want anything else with your signature. Some people will want to start a collection with your small, signed giveaways.
Another option that people seem to be fond of is having their actual e-reader signed. For them, you might want to bring a thin permanent marker to your signings. The e-reader becomes a sort of autograph book, and signatures can remind people of exactly who they met simply by turning over their “entire library” in the palm of their hand. One of the main downsides to this, however, is that the signatures might start to rub off over time.
There is an application being developed that sort of combines these two previous ideas but makes them into something that might be even more unique. Autography allows people to take a photograph with an author, who can sign her name or write a message with a stylus. Then the image can be sent to the fan via email and downloaded into the e-book. It makes the eBook into something that was signed. You can read an article about Autography for full details. The only thing that makes this somewhat tricky is that these books can’t be sold as autographed copies if the person collects author signatures in hopes of one day having something worth some money. Autograph collectors, however, are probably buying hard copies of the book anyway.