To Nancy—
One of the greatest pleasures at [the university] has been your company. Hope you like the book.
Jack Simmons
So reads the inscription my friend Jack wrote to me at the launch of his novel Three Dashes Bitters. I’m blessed to have several friends who have published books lately, and their inscriptions to me warm my heart.
My friend (and fellow Lake Union author) Judy Fogarty, writes,
To Nancy, with love, admiration, and thanks for helping me make Breaking and Holding the story it is today.
Fellow Savannah author Mark Murphy inscribed his novel The Shadow Man this way: From one Savannah writer to another. Thanks for welcoming me into the fraternity.
When inscribing books to friends and fellow writers, it’s often easy to come up with the right words to put on the title page. Typically, we compose words of thanks, affection, or both, as Christina Kelly did when she inscribed her novel, Good Karma, for me: Nancy, thanks for your help and your friendship! XOXO!
However, when inscribing a book to someone I don’t know well, or at all, it’s a little more difficult to come up with a spontaneous, creative, inviting inscription. But I want to. I have a feeling that if I write something creative and unique, something more than I hope you enjoy the read, my words will inspire the buyer/reader to hold on to the book—and maybe read my next novel.
South Carolina author Cassandra King, knowing I am also a writer, inscribed a novel to me when she spoke at the Macon Writer’s Club Breakfast: To Nancy, who should have won the Nobel Prize by now. To date that’s my favorite inscription.
So last month as I prepared for a book signing at E. Shaver Bookseller, I reached out to my community of Lake Union authors to ask how they inscribe books to others. Some responded that they needed some tips also, but others replied that they have some standard inscriptions that work well for any occasion or reader.
Emily Carpenter, author of The Weight of Lies, waxes humorous with this line: Always, always tell the truth! While historical fiction writer Jodi Daynard (author of The Midwife series) writes, Enjoy your trip to the 18th century! Peggy Lapman, on the other hand, published The Promise Kitchen and the forthcoming The Welcome-Home Diner, which she describes as southern and food-centric, so she typically scribbles, Good cookin’! Good readin’! Good lovin’!
I still haven’t thought of the one creative line that will work for me at every book signing, but I did manage to think of some that would get me through the day:
- To Savannah tourists, I wrote, I hope you enjoy your visit to the city. Thank you for making my book one of your vacation memories.
- To local readers whom I didn’t know, I found out a little bit about them and then wrote, It was such a pleasure meeting and talking to you. I hope you enjoy the book. It’s not very creative, but it is more personal.
- When friends and colleagues bought my book, I had no trouble thinking of an inscription: Here’s to good friends and great reads. Hope you enjoy this one!
If you’re a writer who depends on a creative inscription, or if you’ve recently purchased a book in which the author either made you chuckle or warmed your heart with a signature, please share it with me, either by posting on Facebook or tweeting it to me (@NancyBrandon4). I’d love to learn what other others write on title pages. And to fellow authors, this 2015 article from the Chicago Tribune might serve as a primer.
