I have participated in Book Signings both large and small, mostly lively, sometimes sedate... The largest have taken place at a festival or library, the smallest - or perhaps I should say sparsest - was at a venue that had failed to advertise my presence in advance. Oh dear.
Signings can take many guises, from the formal to the informal. At festivals, they usually follow an interview/panel discussion and questions, after which you will be guided to an author table where copies of your book/s will be stacked, ready for eager readers to snap up. If you happen to be in a bookshop, then the main business is the Signing and you will settle down and wait for customers - or wander about and engage with them. Hopefully extra books will have been ordered so you don't run out if a vast crowd arrives. By the way, always check there will be a chair! I have ended up hopping from foot to foot for lengthy periods behind a small table. For me, the most interesting part is never simply the physical signing and selling, but the chance to meet and talk to existing and potential readers.
At the more informal end of the scale are the Signings that form part of a Book Club event. These are delightful occasions, sometimes preceded by food and wine which adds to the ambience and enlivens the discussion. The participants have usually read one or all of my books and so our chats are always rich and fascinating.
While, as the author, you should be a fount of knowledge about your own book, be prepared for unusual questions or determined dissenters. If you know you are right and they are wrong, but it will be awkward to disagree, I find the best response is to smile and say that perhaps they may be right and you will look into it. The most amusing incident I had - and, for the elderly-ish audience, the most gasp-inducing - was when a gentlemen stood up and asked me whether I wrote the love scenes in one of my novels from experience...
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