Margaret Atwood’s invention of a remote book-signing machine — first reported in the January issue of Q&Q and later picked up by The Globe and Mail and The Guardian, among others — is now starting to draw reaction from other authors. And so far the watchword is “skeptical.”

U.K. star Neil Gaiman writes on his online blog: “The way I see it, the whole point of a signing is to be able to say hello to the people who buy the books and for them to say hello to you, and for them to know that you picked up that book and scribbled something illegible on it.” And on his own blog, U.S. author Neal Pollack agrees: “I got into this business to write first and foremost, but also to be part of some sort of community of people who share my enthusiasms and interests. That’s not going to happen if I’m signing books remotely from home with the help of a robot that, by Asimov’s fifth law of robot proxy, is ultimately bound to betray me.”

Related links:
Read Neil Gaiman’s comments on the Atwood invention
Read Neal Pollack’s comments
Read the Q&Q story