Why I love Neil Gaiman (apart from his writing)

This is from Neil's website. Apparently author Margaret Atwood has created and patented a machine that will remotely sign a book for a fan, have some interaction from the author and then there would be a tape of the interaction for the fan to take with them. Here's what Neil thinks.

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. (In my case, I doubt there are any two signatures exactly the same.)

Not that signing a book is anything like being kissed (unless of course, you are kissed during a signing), but the Atwood Patented Booksigner seems to make as much sense and promise to be as much fun as a machine that would kiss you on the cheek, thus reproducing a kiss on the cheek from a celebrity you fancy, who's a thousand miles away kissing a screen, which then issues you with a slip of paper informing you that you had just been kissed by the person in question, for, as Ms Atwood puts it, posterity.

I'd rather just not be kissed than walk away with my "You were just AutoKissed by..." slip, just as I'd rather not go on a signing tour than use an Atwood machine. In my opinion it's something that should be personal, intimate, faintly silly and include all the spelling mistakes, the illegible bits and the ink-blots. (Signing that is. Not kissing. Unless you're the sort of kisser who produces ink blots.)


He cares for his readers (this is what he calls the people who enjoy his books; he thinks that the word "fan" is demeaning.) in a way that many authors and actors etc. have no understanding. He cares for us as people. The same way that he is people.

Respect and caring. Sweet.