It Started With A Talk Radio Guest

Mary Higgins Clark was one of Aunt Stephanie's favorite authors. Agnolia decided to stop at YOURidea Bookstore to see if the SignedEditions collection might have a book signed by Mary Higgins Clark.

When she got to the bookstore Agnolia asked Janine Weins, the owner, if they had any books signed by Mary Higgins Clark. Janine said, "Yes!" and showed Agnolia several titles signed by Ms. Clark, and even one book, Deck the Halls, which had been signed by both Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark.

Agnolia spent a few minutes looking at books signed by Belva Plain, Tom Robbins, Cokie Roberts and other well known authors, before selecting a signed first edition of Before I Say Good-Bye.

Curious as to how a small bookstore in New Hampshire could have so many books signed by famous authors, Agnolia turned to Janine and said, "How did you get started selling signed books?"

Janine, who was very enthusiastic about the store's unique and valuable collection of autographed books said, I got the idea of selling signed books more than 10 years ago, but I didn't started SignedEditions until 1999.

When I started the bookstore in 1989, I did my own radio ads. I sound like Julia Child, which some people found intriguing. The owner of the local talk radio station asked me if I would do a morning interview program, Twin State Journal. I said "Yes!".

Finding guests who had something interesting to talk about for an hour was not always easy. I soon learned that authors were good interviewees. In the process of writing they spent months thinking about a particular subject. They had eliminated the boring uninteresting content while pursuing and developing the more appealing and unusual issues.

One of the first prominent authors I interviewed was Ernest Hebert. At the time he had written, The Dogs of March. Customers called; they wanted signed copies of his book. Since then I have interviewed many authors. I always ask them to sign their books for our customers. Recently I interviewed Ernest Hebert about his nationally acclaimed best seller, The Old American.

In the summer of 1999, when asked to develop a boutique shop for a specialty web mall, I realized after some head scratching that signed books were appropriate for a specialty web site.

During the fall of 1999 the specialty web mall sputtered and died the death of so many dot coms, while the SignedEditions site became increasingly successful. Today, from the website, SignedEditions.net, we sell books signed by nearly 300 authors and ship books across the country and foreign countries including Australia, Malaysia, Denmark and Britain.

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