A Tale of Two Book Signings

As a long-time publishing professional, I love a good story. Over the next few days, I'm reading Daniel Silva's The English Girl. I'm a long-term fan of Daniel Silva's writing and have read all of his other books. Former President Bill Clinton has called Gabriel Allon (the lead character of Silva's books) one of his favorite fictional characters. 

Daniel Silva is one of the authors where I'm subscribed to his newsletter and follow his posts on Facebook. He writes one riveting, page-turning thriller a year. Last week he was on the Today Show talking about his new book and other books that he's recommending. His wife, Jamie Gangel, is a Today Show correspondent. 

Several weeks ago I was interested to see Sara Nelson, Editorial Director for Books at Amazon.com on CBS This Morning talking about the must-read books for the summer and the first book that she recommended was The English Girl.

About three years ago, I met Silva at a book signing at the Poison Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona. Like a true fan, I attended his talk about his latest novel and then stood in line to get my book signed.

I've been watching for The English Girl. Daniel Silva goes on tour with his book each time it releases. He goes to specific bookstores where the sales register on the New York Times bestseller list. I expect his book to be near the top of the hardcover fiction bestseller list next week (as it has in past years).

Because I read his newsletter, I noticed in late April or early May when Daniel offered his readers to purchase a signed copy of the forthcoming book. Since I knew I would not be near one of the bookstores on his forthcoming tour, I pre-ordered my book from Barnes and Noble over two months before the release date. Books like Daniel Silva's novels are embargoed—which means the bookseller has strict instructions from the publisher not to release the book prior to the actual street release date.

I was excited to receive my signed copy last week and The English Girl is another page-turner with excellent storytelling. I want to point out the difference in the two signed copies of Daniel Silva's books.

The first signature is personalized to me because I was standing right in front of Daniel at the Poison Pen. It's also on an inside page of the book. Here's that signature:

My second signature came last week in The English Girl. Notice there is no personalization with my name and that instead of an inside page, the signature is bound to the first page of the book. It is a real signature because I can see the pen marks slightly on the back of the page. I'm unsure how they did it but my suspicion is that Daniel Silva signed a number of these pages, then shipped the signed stack back to the printer who “tipped” them into the book for these books. Here's how this signature appears:

Each version of these signings are special to me and I'm a delighted reader of Daniel Silva's books. I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time completing my reading of The English Girl. Because his normal pattern is to write one book a year, I will have months to wait until the next one.