In an effort to increase holiday sales, which have fallen for the last two seasons, Barnes & Noble is hoping to lure customers into stores this Black Friday with something book lovers cannot download: signed copies.

The chain recruited 100 prominent authors — including Donna Tartt, David Mitchell, Dan Brown, E. L. James, Jeff Kinney, George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton — to each sign roughly 5,000 copies of their latest books. The company will distribute the 500,000 signed books among its more than 650 retail stores.

“Customers get inundated with discounts and offers from every other retailer,” said Mary Amicucci, vice president for adult trade and children’s books at Barnes & Noble. “The goal was to find an exciting reason for people to come to Barnes & Noble early in the morning and get something that they can’t get on any other day of the year.”

Drawing customers into its physical stores has become an urgent priority for Barnes & Noble. The chain has been battered in recent years by competition from Amazon and by a sluggish book market. It has closed more than 20 stores since summer 2013 and will spin off its money-losing Nook division into a separate company next year.