Kindlegraph is now Authorgraph!

In August, I posted about the very cool Kindlegraph, a site that lets authors autograph Kindle books for their fans. At the time, it was only compatible with Kindle devices but now *drum roll* not only does it have a new name – Authorgraph – but, in their own words:

…readers can now receive digital inscriptions from their favorite authors regardless of which digital reading app or device they use…

How cool is that? So, if you want your digital book signed, go check out http://www.authorgraph.com and see if the author has signed up already (thousands have, including yours truly!) and if they haven’t, why not send them a note and say “hey, this is cool!”?

The only downside is that, at the moment, the only way to register a book is to enter an Amazon ASIN, but I imagine that will change in the future.

Other improvements include an easier request process and a new author widget that you can add to your blog or website! If you’re logged in you can get it here: http://www.authorgraph.com/tools  – and unlike most sites it has a WordPress version – yippee! Here’s what it looks like:

Kindlegraph: Yes Virginia, You Can Get Ebooks Signed, So Long As You Have A Kindle

Lest anyone think I am knocking Kindlegraph’s excellent idea, I’m not. The idea of being able to personalize a signature for an ebook is an intriguing idea, so of course I signed up.

How does it work? As a reader, you go to Kindelgraph.com and search for your favorite authors. The site boasts that there are 3,500 of them, and there’s probably more. If your author is there, it will shoe their name in the search results, then click it for a list of autograph-able books.  Kindlegraph will then send the author a notification and they can log on and sign away.

As an author you first need to register, which is very easy, and then enter the ASIN (found on your book’s amazon page) for each book you’d like to add to their database. Once a book is added, you will get a “test request” from the site’s admin for the first book that allows you to practice your signature and such (more on that in a moment)

On the request page there is space to write a personal message with two fonts to choose from; handwriting and typewriter, and then a second input box for your signature. You can actually use your mouse (stylus, finger, whatever your setup is) to sign your signature, like so:

Or you can “adopt a signature”, which uses that handwritten font again. Once you’ve drawn your signature, kindlegraph saves it, and you never need to do it again, though I have been because when you sign a real book no two signatures look identical, each is one of a kind, and I don’t see why e-signatures should be any different. But then I am kind of a lunatic.

What if you or your readers have a Nook or a Kobo or something else? So far I have been unable to locate any sites that supply signatures to these devices, however, I am keeping my eyes open. If I run across one I’ll be sure to share it and if you know of one I’d love it if you’d let me know.

UPDATE: this also works with Kindle apps on cellphones, tablets etc. The reader just provides the email address associated with the items Amazon account. (Thanks Tara Wood for the info!)

What do you think of ebook signatures? Good idea, or waste of time?