“Brent,” my imaginary fan says, “I wanted to come to your signing and get something signed by you, but I’m a technophile! That smell of paper so many readers love? Hate it. Oh, and I don’t want you to sign the back of my e-reader–though I know you’ve done that. I’m a bit OCD, and can’t stand to get my tech dirty!”
Me: “You could just buy in digital for your own pleasure, and buy it in hard cover to get signed.”
Imaginary fan: “But I’m poor!”
Me: “You have a $139 e-reader. Wait, you’re reading on the $829 Wi-Fi and Cellular-enabled new iPad, aren’t you?”
Imaginary fan: “Why do you think I’m poor? It’s soo shiny!”
Me: “Ah, tech-induced poverty. I can sympathize. Lemme see what I can do.”
Enterprising guy that I am, I DO have a solution for you. It isn’t elegant, I’m afraid, but that’s what it is to push the frontier: sometimes you’re holding that Conestoga wagon together with duct tape before you try to ford the Snake River. (How many times can Aunt Bess get cholera on one trip?)
The following will allow you to import my personalized digital signature into your e-reader (unless you have a touch-enabled Sony Reader). Basically, I’ll sign my iPad to you as if I were signing paper, we’ll do a few steps, and that “signed page” will show up on your e-reader (when you click it) for all time. Or at least until your battery runs out. Caveat: this pdf will NOT be attached to a book’s file. You won’t open the first page of The Blinding Knife, see my signature, and then turn the page and see page one. It’s a separate file. (As I said, not the most elegant solution, but a solution.)
Step 0: Look at how many steps there are below, and say, “Heck with this, I’ll just buy the book in digital for my own pleasure, and in hard cover to get signed the next time Brent goes on book tour!” *innocent look*
(Click on your e-reader to jump-down) Kindle | Nook | Sony | Kobo | iBooks
Kindle:
For the Send-to-Kindle Service:
1. Find your Kindle email address:
2. On your Kindle, from your Kindle Home screen, select Menu.
3. Select Settings.
4. Select “Device Options” to find your Send-to-Kindle email. (Should look like [yourname]@kindle.com
5. Authorize emails from your own email address:
6. From your computer, visit Manage Your Kindle on Amazon.com and sign in with your Amazon account e-mail address and password.
7. Select “Personal Document Settings” from the left side menu.
8. Under the heading “Approved Personal Document E-mail List,” select “Add a new approved e-mail address.”
9. Enter your personal e-mail address and click “Add Address.”
10. Email the attached bookplate PDF to your Kindle email (the [yourname]@kindle.com address).
11. The bookplate should download within a few minutes.
Download the PDF via your USB connection:
1. Download the bookplate to your computer.
2. Connect your Kindle device to your computer using the USB cable.
3. Once connected to a computer, your Kindle device will appear in the same location as external USB drives usually appear. (For Windows users, this is typically in the “Computer” or “My Computer” menu. For Mac users, the drive will appear on the desktop.)
4. Open the Kindle drive. You will see several folders inside, one of which will be named “documents.” This is the folder you will move the downloaded file into.
5. Locate the downloaded file and copy it into the documents folder. You can generally copy files by clicking and dragging the file to the folder.
6. Safely eject your Kindle device from your computer and unplug the USB cable. Your content will appear on the Home screen.
Nook:
1. Open your email and download the PDF to your computer.
2. Connect your Nook to the computer with your USB cable.
3. Find the PDF on your desktop or file browser.
4. Find the My Documents folder in My Nook (open the Nook icon and navigate to the My Documents folder).
5. Drag and drop the PDF file from the desktop or file browser into the Nook’s My Documents folder.
Sony Reader:
1. Download the PDF from your personal email to your computer.
2. Connect your Sony Reader to your computer via your USB cable.
3. Launch your Sony Reader software.
4. In the Reader software, click on “File” in the upper lefthand corner.
5.Click “Import Files” on the menu that appears.
6. In the dialogue box that appears, navigate to the location of the saved PDF.
7. Select the PDF file and click Open. The PDF will now be in your library.
8. In the Sony Reader Library, click and drag the PDF file to the left side of the screen to the “Sony Reader” heading. The file will now be uploaded to your Sony Reader.
Kobo:
Using drag-and-drop
1. Connect your eReader to your computer using the USB cable.
2. On your eReader select Manage Library.
3. Press the center of the Navigation pad.
4. Open Finder (on a Macintosh computer) or Explorer (on a Windows computer), and look for a KOBOeReader icon. This may be listed as a hard drive or as a removable storage device.
5. In another Finder or Explorer window, locate the files you want to transfer.
6. Drag these files to the KOBOeReader icon.
7. You can now eject your eReader and read your documents.
Using an SD card
1. Insert the SD card with the PDF files on it into your eReader’s SD card slot.
2. Turn on your eReader.
3. Wait for your eReader to process the content.
4. Find the documents under Documents.
iBooks:
1. On the iOS Device you want to install the signed digital bookplate open Mail.
2. Select the email from CAPSLOCK (Brent’s assistant).
3. Tap & hold on the attachment to bring up a list of options.
4. Select iBooks.
5. File is imported into iBooks right along with all of your purchased books.
6. Since this PDF isn’t purchased through Apple’s Bookstore it will not be saved to the user’s cloud. If the user ever has to wipe their device or need to re-import the PDF simply do not delete the e-mail. It can be re-imported as needed.
Watch this video if you’d like to see how it’s done! (Thanks Steve!) Upload to iBooks