This is a far more accurate reproduction than the express courier signature tablets. It really is a kin of remote arm. What the courts will say, I can’t begin to know

I, too, think this is cool - once installed in bookstores around the world the author “tour” can reach even the smallest book shop. But I worry what this may mean for the organizers of BEA.

Author autographing sessions are one of the true wonders of BEA. The “Traditional” autographing area is a huge expanse encompassing 35 tables and 35 100-foot-long roped-off queues to manage the hoards of autograph-hungry show attendees. For three days a constant stream of authors rotate through those tables every half- or full hour, while backstage pallet-loads of books are stacked like the final warehouse scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Meanwhile, at booths throughout the convention center, hundreds more authors are on hand for in-booth autographing events.

One aspect of Book Expo is that the power publishers can burnish their own images by trotting out some of the biggest and hottest names available for personal appearances and autograph sessions, up to and including Presidents of the United States. Naturally, this generates gobs of publicity for BEA and glory for the publishers themselves. While there’s no doubt that many of the authors of those seven-figure-advance blockbusters (and the no-advance self-published) will still be willing show up in person at BEA to help those books along, there will be many other authors that may just choose to stay home, munch bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese on bagel, and autograph in their underpants. There will inevitably be another readjustment in the balance of power between author and publisher, both for good and bad.

Technology has already made the “virtual guest” a widespread phenomenon, with loads of radio and TV interviews (right on up to the Larry King show) taking place while the host in one studio and the guests are in other studios or at home, thanks to the worldwide communications revolution. I’m sure the tendency will only grow. However, when this phenomenon extends to traditional personal appearances, I think we lose some of the benefit of “being there,” the person-to-person contact that is so important for social animals such as ourselves.

A network radio host sent me e-mail Thursday, inviting me onto his show at 10:20pm Friday night (I guess his original guest bowed out). I e-mailed him back, gave him my cell phone number, and everything was set. Friday night his producer phoned me, and I went on the air for 45 minutes from a promenade in front of my hotel on the New Jersey bank of the Hudson, just across the river from the Javits Center. The breeze was delightful, the view of Midtown more spectacular than anything achievable in a studio, and neither the host nor his audience had a clue I was anywhere interesting (or pleasant). Ain’t technology grand?

Still, I’m delighted that I was able to shake Arthur (Europe on $5 a Day) Frommer’s hand on Saturday, and to hand *him* a copy of my book. All the digital interaction in the world won’t replace that, and it won’t replace all the face time I had during the course of BEA with booksellers, librarians, my publishing colleagues, service providers, et. al. You can stare straight into the camera’s “eye,” but it won’t replace true eye-to-eye contact.

So, like so many technological advances, I’m going to embrace this one with some reservations. I’ll delight in the fact that it will allow me to “be” in more places than I could possibly accomplish in any other way, and I’ll be sure to resist the urge to do everything in my pajamas. I’m a travel publisher, gosh darn it, and there are some experiences that can only be had when you really, truly, travel.

Dave Marx
PassPorter Travel Press
http://www.passporter.com

P.S. - Will this significantly hurt FedEx? Probably not. Only the courts and legislatures can determine whether mechanically-made autographs will be legally binding. For now, we’re still in a world where faxed signatures are sufficient for many business purposes, but those must nearly always be followed-up by hard-copy originals.