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Welcome to Author-Direct Signed Books! A new forum category. What should the rules be?

Welcome to Author-Direct signed books, a new forum inspired by Musician-Direct Autograph Sales.

You can start using it now, but let's discuss how to organize it, and rules:

  1. Should all author-direct signed books be discussed here, or should we have separate categories for politics or any others?

  2. Should author-direct books regarding musicians go into Music-Direct Autograph Sales?

  3. What can be discussed? Should the rules be different for politics than other areas?

  4. Should there be rules of how titles are written? Of how images are shown? About links?

    One thing that's important is to post photos of the items being offered, not just links. And don't upload photos as files. Upload photos so they can be viewed in the original post, using the second button from the left in the editing toolbar. Too many people upload them as files even though it says: "PLEASE DON'T POST PHOTOS USING BUTTONS BELOW. Use 2nd button on editing toolbar above."
  5. Anything else?

Feel free to start posting discussions but please do give your opinions here if you have some.

Thanks,

Steve

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I'm very happy to see this extension. It will really help make this forum a better place for collecting. That said, years ago I was fighting for a celebrity direct discussion in the same format. I gave up fighting as I thought I was not being heard.. Could I ask now if this is a possibility? There are many celebrities who have their own pages and sell their autographs direct. Since Halloween is coming up, one example is Robert Englund. There are many celebrities out their with websites that you can buy signed items direct or even send in your own item for a fee... I would love to see another extension of this type of discussion for celebrities.

Another idea that would bring more activity to this site would be a TTM success and failures discussion. I have been itching to get back into collecting through the mail and something like this would be great. Its been a very popular topic since covid especially and im really surprised it isn't really a part of this forum. Steve, could you give any input into these 2 other suggestions? 

So nasty comments gadooshed an entire 3 year old thread? That's wild. Hopefully everyone's ok... I see the product picture request for each new post. I'll do my best on that one but I usually post from a phone so that may take me a bit. Thanks to all who helped make this. Cheers. 

So nasty comments gadooshed an entire 3 year old thread? 

No, that's not it, this has been cooking for a while.

Agree about the pics - rarely is there an actual image of the autograph available anyway so I don't really need to see an image of the book unless it is a deluxe edition of some kind with a nice binding or similar.

I missed all the action so thanks for the update. I still found great use in the old thread for smaller names, and where do you put non muscian signed posters, or photos, etc? I've seen signed liquor or wine bottles, all sorts of signed items other than just books. I may be missing something though, is there a proper place to post for the occasional signed odd ball item or smaller name that's not from a musician?

That certainly is a valid question!

Fun fact: Before reading your comment, I asked myself: "Well what about non-musician celebrities who sign a CD or vinyl?". However, once I spotted the mistake in my thought process... :D

Good job Steve, I been looking forward to this.

As for rules, you asked;

Should all author-direct signed books be discussed here, or should we have separate categories for politics or any others?

Let's keep it simple. "Signed Books" is the category so why not cover all genres? However,  personally, I would not want to see it being used as an additional "Is this autograph real" thread if someone is querying a signature on a book. 

BUT, if there is a question about a new book previously discussed on the thread being authentically signed vs. auto-penned, e.g.  then it would be fine to raise the matter here.

Should author-direct books regarding musicians go into Music-Direct Autograph Sales?


Tough one because this is going to be like herding cats - music fans will probably continue to post in "their" threads for a long time but again,  personally speaking, I would like to know about musician-signed books even if I have never heard of 97% of them before.

What can be discussed? 

Newly issued or forthcoming Signed books.

Perhaps we could have a separate Water Cooler thread for members who want to talk politics or wax lyrical on other subjects.

Should there be rules of how titles are written? Of how images are shown? About links?

My only suggestion would be start the title with the author name.

One thing that's important is to post photos of the items being offered, not just links. And don't upload photos as files.

Usually there will not be an image of the signature in question as most posts will be about forthcoming or newly-released items. Retailer's and even publishers don't show that (often because the book hasn't yet been signed). A picture of the book itself doesn't really serve any purpose. What people want (I believe) is info about how to get one of these so links are the obvious route. 

Just my initial thoughts.

1) Sounds like it's going to be a heck of a challenge trying to moderate offshoot threads for political-related books. Most I see are directly tied to election campaigns and stumping for various candidates of all stripes. Probably easiest to contain it to one thread vs. trying to manage a half-dozen or so at once.

2) It's a big question, and I'm not sure there's an answer. It seems the majority of members of this forum who use the Music-Direct Auto Sales subforum will gravitate there naturally, and it may not be worth fragmenting them with multiple subforums. In my experience, the people who collect music-related signed books are more overzealous/dedicated than those collecting signed books of other types. If they're already gravitating to one place naturally, let them continue to do so. Just my two cents.

3) I echo the other comments that the moderation of political-themed signed books just be consistent. Seemed like there was an interesting discussion taking place about a signature study/possible autopen usage that got derailed when people started sniping at each other about the politics/association of the writer in (current year). Those kinds of discussions aren't helpful to the quality of the thread.

4) I'm presuming that most major digital storefronts that sell signed books are still fair game. I try to keep my own titles consistent, but maybe there needs to be a central resource on how to write shop/store page titles. Obviously, that goes out the window completely if you have a Kate Bush situation where a link pops up and you have a couple minutes at most to make a purchase before it sells out.

Couple of things - I’m all for an author-signed thread but how about we keep all music where it is? This could be called “Author-signed literature, non-music?” Literature would capture written materials such as magazines, books, novels, etc.

I don’t get on social media to read someone’s often hateful and often misinformed political beliefs. It does not belong on social media and definitely not on an autograph forum. Get rid of them.

In my experience, most members who complain about off topic posts are posters I’ve never heard of. In effect, these are most often “members” who rarely, if ever, contribute to the forum other than to complain. Consider the source of these complaints, if you will.

Finally, thanks for all you do. I get a lot of enjoyment and information from this forum.

OK, we have a meeting of the minds here: you guys want everything! ;) 

I'll do my best if you guys pitch in. I'll powwow with Rich since to fine tune things he's run Musician-Direct so well, and then we'll come back to you. In the meantime I'll sent up a few of the groups, subject to change. I'll make the new ones private.

We can't make forums private so if we decide to make Musician-Direct to a group, we'll keep the forum visible but lock it down.

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