Virtual author tour

Mon, Apr 30, 2007

You may recall a while back the Most Excellent author Margaret Atwood performed a virtual signing, which involved a remote machine mimicking her hand movements to sign books while she was geographically elsewhere. Since Margaret is in the top rank of international writers this ability to remotely deal with readers and events is a simple power for her (being a tenth-level wordspinner and therefore gifted with Great Mental Powers), but how about up and coming writers? Well, Chris Dolley (who made use of our offer of free webhosting for writers and artists, I’m glad to see, with a site here) is about to undertake just such an enterprise as he has a book about to come out this summer from top US publisher of SF, Baen:

“To mark the release by Baen of the paperback edition of Resonance on May 22nd I’m organising a virtual book tour with a difference. What’s a virtual book tour? It’s the low carb (footprint) version of the traditional author tour. Instead of jetting around the world signing books and meeting readers the author seeks out volunteers to host an appearance on their blogs or websites.

What does a volunteer host have to do? As little or as much as you’d like. From posting a link and a comment on your blog on May 22nd that Resonance is out … through to joining in the remote signing experiment (more below).

Often volunteers host an author interview. You send me a list of up to four questions before May 19th, I send you the answers and then, on May 22nd, you post the author interview on your blog or website. I’ll keep track of all the host sites and post a list of all the participating sites on my blog.

What’s this remote signing experiment? Some of you may have heard of Margaret Atwood’s remote signing pen – a robotic arm that she’d send to book stores while she stayed at home. A sensor mimicked every movement that Margaret’s arm made and the remote pen signed the books. Brilliant … that is until the wiring became reversed and Margaret spent the next three hours trapped in her living room painting invisible Volkswagens.

But technology has moved on since then. Margaret has a good job with Peugeot and I – as people who’ve seen the virtual tours I’ve hosted for other authors will testify – have two mediums strapped to a quantum computer. And Windows ESP.

The result: an astrally projected author’s hand … Sometimes… Windows ESP is still in beta testing and Doris, one of the mediums, likes to drink. So, if you’d like to join in the remote signing experiment, and you’re not afraid of ectoplasm, get in touch. Will my ghostly hand appear? Will it sign a book, a cheque, behave?

Are there prizes? Everyone hosting an author interview will have their name placed in a virtual hat. An astrally projected hand will then select the lucky winner who will receive a signed copy of Resonance.

And for those hosting a remote signing there will be a prize for the most creative post – as judged by a panel of four dead authors (the astral plane is full of them) The prize being a free ebook from Webscriptions who have books by Heinlein, Bujold, Moon, Stross, Niven, Weber and McCaffrey to name but a few.

What’s Resonance about? It’s an SF mystery novel set in London – the story of two people whose lives appear fragmented across alternate realities and how, together, they hold the key to the future of a billion worlds. It’s published by Baen and was selected by the SFBC as a featured book.

How do I volunteer? Sign up at http://chrisdolley.livejournal.com/82822.html or email me at chris.dolley@worldonline.fr. And don’t worry, the remote signing is Vatican and Goddess approved. No Dark Forces will be invoked to help with the spelling.”