DOGMATIKA.COM

Defending LongPen

20 March 2006

"The first helicopter didn’t work either," she cackles.

Margaret Atwood talks LongPen.
‘‘People thought it was a joke at first,” she smiles. ‘‘There were web logs going around saying ‘Margaret Atwood is pulling our leg’. But the Long Pen does whatever you do. It’s just that the nib of your pen is a longer distance away from your brain than it normally is.”

[..]

‘I’ve been doing the book tours for 40 years,” she says. ‘‘But some people won’t go on them.

“They’re too old, they’re too ill. The rest, you don’t see them because the publishers don’t want to put the money into book tours for them.

‘‘Only 10 per cent of book tours make their money back. It’s hard to launch a new author unless they win a prize or get on a shortlist.”

Signing books by remote control is a cheaper way of having authors reach their public.

Bloomsbury and Virago have invested in the project, and Atwood is confident that despite the teething problems, the Long Pen will become a success.