Two years ago, I picked up the Globe and Mail newspaper and read about how Margaret Atwood had invented the ‘Long Pen’ – a remote autographing machine so authors didn’t have to leave their homes to sign books. I thought it was a joke, so did the Globe and Mail and lots of other people. It wasn’t.
Earlier this year, I was wandering around the London Book Fair and there she was. Magaret Atwood was manning the Long Pen booth, flogging her product, and I actually used the machine. I signed a square glass surface built into one machine and a few yards away my signature was replicated by a robotic arm on to a piece of paper.
I thought it was very clever but it seems to me that the Long Pen would have many other applications aside from author signings – sports stars signing contracts with their new team, mega-bucks international business deals etc.
The Canadian Press reports how the Long Pen is now being trialled in some shops.
I would be embarrassed to see my name associated in any way with the Long Pen.
Wait a minute.
[...] However smitten I might be with technology, however high I’m prepared to fly the flag of the early adopters, I must admit I do have my blind spots. Exhibit A: the LongPenâ„¢. When Margaret Atwood, brilliant writer and peerless creator of dystopian worlds (including a chilling one wrought by genomics), said she had developed a device that would let authors sign autographs remotely, lots of folks thought it was a joke. [...]
Great site. Thanks… :)
One more comment on the LongPen and Margaret Atwood’s book signing fiasco with it. Alas, there is a much older technology with a more foolproof result–the bookplate.
The signed bookplate does not permit the reader to chat with the author, but it gets the author’s signature into the hands of the book buyer much more efficiently, and allows a dedication as well as an authorial signature.
It has the added advantage of permitting the book buyer to present the book as a personalized gift.
I am promoting a plan for authors to create and mail adhesive-backed bookplates, at their own expense, as a way of encouraging the sale of signed books. Check out how it works at;
http://www.booksigningonline.blogspot.com
Jack McLaughlin