App allows authors to hold eBook signings for Kindles and iPads

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:49 PM on 19th April 2011

With the rise of the eBook and demise of the High Street bookstore, author book signings had been at risk of going into decline.

But a new electronic book app is offering readers the chance to get their virtual books signed by their favourite authors without them having to resort to writing on the outside of their Kindle or iPad cases.

The Autography application allows fans to have the signature of their favourite writers added to the inside page of their eBooks.

Signed: Authors can add signatures to the inside page of fan's eBooks

Readers will be able to have their eBooks signed from anywhere in the world and the app also lets them have a photograph of them and the author added to the page.

Book fans can pose for a photograph with the author, which could be taken on a digital camera or iPad. The author then can use a stylus to write a message and their autograph beneath the photo.

The signed photo is then sent to the book fan by e-mail and can be downloaded into their eBook.

The Florida-based technology company that designed the application said that it can be used for traditional signings at bookstores, but can also be done on the move.

Virtual signing: Stars such as Susan Boyle have traditionally had to go to bookstores to hold book signings

The makers said that the app could be used to hold book signings in coffee shops, hospitals or anywhere in the world.

Authors can also hold book signings during radio interviews, by allowing them to sign callers’ book remotely.

It allows authors who have traditionally shunned national book tours due to the costs and time can now interact with readers in real time through streaming video from their own home.

The autographed eBooks can also be easily replaced if a treasured signed book is lost, stolen or the eReader is upgraded.

The relentless march of the eBook has been led by Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad.

Figures released last week showed that eBooks have become the single bestselling category in American publishing for the first time.

The report from the Association of American Publishers said that eBook sales in February were $90.3m, making digital book the largest single format in the U.S. for the first time.

America’s eBooks enjoyed a 202.3 per cent growth in sales in February, compared with the same time last year, helped a boom in book eBook buying from people given eReaders for Christmas.

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