Morrissey will appear in person in Gothenburg, Sweden, to launch his autobiography in what is billed as his one and only book signing.

Fans started queuing on Wednesday morning to make sure they would meet the 54-year old singer, and to buy one of the 1,000 copies of his book that went on sale at 10am on Thursday.

At the front of the queue outside the Akademibokhandeln book store in the city centre was Sigrid, 15, from Karlskrona, whose mother has listened to Morrissey for 26 years. "My teachers think I'm weird," she said, "but they love him too."

News of the debate in the British media over the decision by Penguin, the book's publisher, to issue the autobiography as part of its "Classics" series – which includes Plato and Dickens – has reached Morrissey's Swedish followers, leaving some disgruntled.

"The only media that is giving him shit is in his own country," said one young woman who refused to speak further to the Guardian as a matter of principle.

Fans believe Morrissey has a special connection with Sweden, where he has performed many times. They especially recalled a concert in 2006, when the singer introduced himself as "Sven" and "Sweden Patrick Morrissey".

This queue for Morrissey's book and autograph in central Gothenburg started yesterday a.m. #MorrisseyAutobiography pic.twitter.com/EENwrw8HUe

— David Crouch (@davidgcrouch) October 17, 2013

Asked by Radio Sweden why Morrissey had chosen Gothenburg for his book launch, Maria Hamrefors, the book store's manager, said: "As far as I know, he really likes Sweden and he has some very good and nice fans in Gothenburg and has enjoyed playing concerts there."

"I found him in my teenage years, and he made me who I am," said Emil, 26, a history student from Lund who travelled to Gothenburg to join the queue.

He was clutching his copy of the book with some trepidation. "I want to find out something new about him, about his childhood in Manchester and the breakup of the Smiths. But not too much – I want to keep the mystery, the enigma," he said.

Lyndsey Wilson and her daughter Jordan Reid had driven through the night from Manchester to take an early flight from Stansted. Lyndsey met Jordan's father at a Smiths gig, and Jordan went to her first concert in the womb.

"To be honest we weren't best pleased when we found out he was launching the book here," said Lyndsey. "But if he had done it in Manchester it would have been even more difficult to see him, and cost more money, because there would have been thousands of people, we'd have had to have taken several days off work to queue."

Both were irked at media sniping at Morrissey and Penguin over the book. "I love how he always pisses people off," Jordan said.

Hugo, 24, a train conductor from Gothenburg, said Morrissey's decision to launch his book in the city was to do with it's lively indie music scene and it's working class, industrial culture - rather like Manchester. "It's all doom and gloom here," he said. "And rain."

Gothenburg gears up for Morrissey's only European book signing later today #MorrisseyAutobiography pic.twitter.com/5iJv060pNt

— David Crouch (@davidgcrouch) October 17, 2013

Morrissey fansite True To You, which broke the news that a "last minute disagreement" with Penguin had initially delayed publication of the book, announced the signing on Wednesday.

A statement said: "No additional book signings are planned."

In the book, Morrissey describes his first serious relationship and claims he was once almost kidnapped in Mexico.