# Advice for talking to author?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-for-talking-to-author/512407>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 2, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-for-talking-to-author/512407 "2009-10-02T23:32:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-for-talking-to-author/512407/1 "2009-10-02T23:32:08Z")

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I’m going to my first book signing tomorrow night, Sue Monk Kidd. I’ll be getting my mom her (and her daughter’s) new book for her birthday next week.

I’m sure it will be a zoo and they’ll be moving the line as quickly as possible, but is there anything I should say besides, “Could you make it out to Kathy?” I don’t need to be memorable or make a connection with the author, but she’s really meant a lot to my mom and if there’s any way to convey that without sounding canned, I’d love to. I guess sounding canned is fine too.

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**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-for-talking-to-author/512407/2 "2009-10-02T23:35:11Z")

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I’ve been to a couple of those, and they’re basically an assembly line…have the book open to the page the author is going to sign, you have a few seconds to chat while the author scribbles his name, then move along, move along. I would tell her how much your mom enjoys her books and that she’ll be so thrilled to get an autographed copy.

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-for-talking-to-author/512407/3 "2009-10-03T13:06:27Z")

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I’ll move this over to Cafe Society to see if anyone there has addl. advice.

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**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-for-talking-to-author/512407/4 "2009-10-03T14:45:29Z")

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My experience is that if you have a truly short question that would only require a truly short answer, the author can answer it. Also, if you can say something genuinely interesting and short that connects the two of you (like “Hey, you probably have forgotten this, but I was your date to the senior prom”), you can get away with it.