Jennifer. J. Chow

How Do You Sign Your Emails?

I’ve been messing around with my email signature lately. Sometimes I get signature envy when I scroll to the bottom of people’s emails and see how much effort they put into personalizing the end of their messages. I’m honestly in awe of others who offer excellent quotes (maybe some Lasso-isms for Lisa?)

I don’t know what quote I would choose. Growing up, we even had this encyclopedic book of quotations—and they all sounded impressive to me! I also respect those who can make up customized quotes. For example, my literary agency, BookEnds printed a sticker with this quote: “To Write or Not to Write? There is no question.” (At least I think they made up the saying.)

Sticker from BookEnds Literary Agency with quote: "To Write or Not to Write? There is no question."

I don’t think I’d be able to craft a beautiful quote. I’d probably try to mimic Forrest Gump but end up with something like, “Life is like a…fortune cookie: crunchy and wrapped around a hidden message.”

No, I’d rather keep my email signature short and simple. As an author, though, I know I need to include social media and website links. And advertise my next book. I’m not a graphic designer at all, so I begged to copy my author buddy’s signature (thank you to the generous Denise Williams for allowing me to do so).  

I tweaked the image and info, and I swear everything was going smoothly for a little while. But then I somehow lost the cover art. I don’t even know when it happened because, sadly, I never pay any attention to my own email signature.

I finally caught the error and fixed it. That wasn’t the end, though. I knew I had to change it some more to add in my new volunteer position. I’m now officially Vice President of Sisters in Crime. Shameless plug: Join this amazing community of people who love reading, writing, and supporting crime fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense!

Here is my new fancy email signature. Hope it lasts!

How do you personalize your signature—or not?

38 thoughts on “How Do You Sign Your Emails?”

  2. Jen, that’s gorgeous! I personalize my signature in a funny way. I share the names of my series and then award stuff. But then… my friend had a caricaturist at her daughter’s bat mitzvah eight years ago and I got one done of me. I don’t know how I found it again, but I made a JPEG of it, my web designer added color to the dress, and now it’s added to my signature. Sometimes I delete the signature because the JPEG adds a lot of MBs to an email and it can stall in the funnel. But I just had my graphics guy adjust the hair color to my current look and now I’m using the caricature on a logo for my new book series, the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries!

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  3. I love your signature! Mine is just my name, “Mystery Author,” and my website address. I set it up years ago and never really think about it, although it’s probably time for a refresh.

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  6. Cute, Jen.

    Like Mark, I have a very boring email signature for work, completely adhering to corporate standards. But I have to say my author signature isn’t much better. Name, website, social media, titles of most recent books and, when appropriate, date of upcoming book. That’s it. No pictures. Oh well.

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  7. My author signature is seriously lacking, I fear. Which brings me to my own question: does anyone really read them? Or click on them? Just wondering.

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  8. That’s adorbs, Jen! I had to go look at mine as a reminder ….

    Becky Clark, author
    Website • Amazon • Facebook • Goodreads • BookBub

    Subscribe to Becky’s So Seldom It’s Shameful news for info about books, authors, sales and giveaways.

    Becky Clark pens a funny, clever page turner of a mystery and I can’t wait for the next one in this terrific new series!”―Jenn McKinlay, bestselling author of the Library Lover’s Mysteries

    Winner of the Colorado Authors League award for EIGHT WEEKS TO A COMPLETE NOVEL: WRITE FASTER, WRITE BETTER, BE MORE ORGANIZED

    And then above that there’s a purple stylized signature that signs each email. I track clicks, so I know I get newsletter subscribers and website clicks. It’s kinda long, but for people who ignore such things, they don’t notice, and people who click go ahead and click. I welcome both types … I have a big umbrella!

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  9. Yours looks wonderful, Jen, and thank you/congrats again for stepping up to serve as VP!

    My work signature has name, position, school, etc. My writer email has the name of both series and a website link. My other email has nothing. I don’t know what that says. 🙂

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  10. Mine is pretty short (partly because SinC, MWA, and other list-serves mandate only 2 lines of signature info when using the service, and I’m too lazy to make more than one signature line). But I do love yours–and others that have colors and graphics!

    And yes, thank you for stepping up to be our fearless vice-leader (soon to be LEADER!) for Sisters in Crime!

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  11. Jen, your new sig is awesome. And *you* are awesome–thank you again for becoming our Sinc Madam VP. I love short & sweet sigs with convenient links. And thanks, Jen, I’ll have to pick out just the right Lasso quote! Maybe just “Believe,” ha.

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  12. FAB signature, Jen!! And many thanks for your SINC leadership. ❤

    Confession: I didn't have an email signature for bookish things until a year ago. When I finally got my act together, it was (well, IS) pretty boring: a quick list o' books, social links, and a blurb. I was excited to finally have something in that lonely area below my name!

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    1. I feel like there is a way to jazz up and modify the iPhone signature. Sent from your “snazzy” iPhone or something more exciting than that…

      And SO GREAT that you have the Chicks website on there!

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