#10 Canterbury Road

News to an old story

Only because I mentioned this in the past, thought I'd offer the update. The Literary Saloon says it all:

Damn right, we-no-touch-it

So Margaret Atwood's ridiculous 'remote book-signing device', LongPen, is set to be unveiled at the upcoming London Book Fair.

The name of the company she founded to market this thing -- Unotchit (which we kept pronouncing: 'ooh-not-shit' until we saw the helpful pronunciation guide at the website ('You-No-Touch-It')) -- might be what really put us off it, but it seems just too ridiculous for words. (Of course we don't really get (and aren't big fans) of the live-author book signing concept, either .....)

But the grand unveiling is apparently going to be an 'event' -- and presumably there will be tons of press coverage.

Anthony Barnes gets things off to a ... start with Booker winner's robot brainwave may spell the end of the book tour in the Independent on Sunday -- and we certainly are amused by this prediction:

Signed copies of books can be highly sought after and collectable -- but a new generation of remotely produced signatures may have the reverse effect.

Roddy Newlands, expert in modern first editions at London's Bloomsbury Book Auctions, said: "I think if it were to be signed this way, it might actually take something off the value. I would say it could probably cause a depreciation of the price."

posted by amcorrea @ 2/22/2006 01:13:00 AM