I like that I get announcements about new an innovative ideas and one just popped up in my inbox today. Margaret Atwood is a well known author who developed a revolutionary idea and put it into action.
Drum roll please . . . She developed software and hardware that enables authors to sign books from thousands of miles away. I know, it sounds like it is straight out of science fiction but if you think about how surgery can be done with the doctor in charge in another country, it doesn't seem so far fetched.
From what I understand, the author can be in England and the fans in New York. The invention called "LongPen" uses video conferencing and the internet to bring authors and fans together. Fans place an object they want signed on a special machine with a pen attached, the author signs a special tablet they have at home and like a miracle, the pen duplicates the signature!
During the signing, the author and fan see and interact over a webcam where they can make eye contact and converse. The trials seem to be successful with fans saying it's less intimidating to be out of the author's immediate presence.
As a big sci-fi fan, this whole idea brings to mind a Star Trek episode where one world was dying off because the people interacted over the computer only. There was one teenage boy and girl left and the crew's mission was to find a way to get them off the computer and interacting with each other. Is signing from miles away the next step towards this future? Probably not but it's fun to speculate about!
The "LongPen" will be premiered at BEA this year with several authors staying home and saving all that airplane fuel (and ticket, admission and lodging costs) to show the book industry how the device works. I look forward to hearing more about what fans think! You never know, this may be the next step in publicity!
To find out more about "LongPen", go to http://www.longpen.com/lp-welcome.html.
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