Get That Book Signed Before It’s Published

The late pop novelist Jacqueline Susann is usually credited with the concept of an author autographing as many books as possible. At the time, signed books supposedly couldn’t be returned by the store to the publisher; they had to be kept until sold.

Susann, whose “Valley of the Dolls” is still one of the top-selling novels of all time, realized that adding her signature to a book wouldn’t make it better but might make it more valued. It was a form of personal contact, a way to encourage the idea that the book was written for one special reader - the one holding it.

Although bookstores can now return signed books to the publisher for full credit, very few novelists these days don’t do multiple book-signings. At peak periods, like this month, writers embark on multi-city and often multi-country tours, usually groaning in despair, realizing the only thing worse is no tour at all. Ivan Doig, a novelist whose work often is set in Montana, calculated a few years ago that he would end up signing about a quarter of the 20,000 copies of the first printing of his latest book. Other writers who have endured long signing treks would say the same.

The trend has just reached its inevitable end point. James Ellroy, the self-styled mad dog of modern fiction, has signed every single copy of “My Dark Places,” his new book about his mother’s murder.

His publisher, Knopf, says that amounted to 50,000 copies. Ellroy, who now lives in Kansas, signed about 4,000 blank sheets a day for two weeks. The sheets were bound into the books this past weekend. This guy must have a severe case of writer’s cramp.

Usually, a book becomes more valuable when it is signed or, even better, inscribed by the author. For instance, a copy of Bob Dole campaign spokesman John Buckley’s novel “Family Politics,” warmly inscribed to columnist Michael Kinsley, was on sale for $10 at the Goodwill book sale last weekend; without Buckley’s personalized touch, it would have been $3.50 at most.

But with “My Dark Places,” the truly valuable copy will be an unsigned one. Assuming even one such copy exists.