From: Andrew Albert J. Ty
I found lines like "Unless you count Saint Paul, book tours
are a recent phenomenon" quite delightful, and Block's
comments about mercenary collectors quite on the money.
Still, he does sound a bit harsh here, and personally, I like
my books signed and with my name on it. In any case: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0417/essay.php
---Thanks, Andrew. This helps explain further the tenor of
the one time I met Block, when he came into the bookstore I
was working in a decade ago, and grimly went about the
business of signing the copies we had of the then new
novel.
Not that, even with limited experience with signings outside
my store
(BoucherCons feel pretty much like SF conventions feel pretty
much like Free Library festivals), I didn't understand
beforehand. Even I, with my first published short story (also
a decade ago), was approached by someone who went out of his
way to be obsequious in asking for a signature, only to drop
the magazine somewhere in the store (perhaps after reading
the story) without buying it. Multiply that by several
thousand annually, and add the even more enervating dealers
with their stacks of copies, and I think he's actually pretty
temperate here...
TM, who never asks for signatures these days, unless the
author/editor asks if I'd like one first.
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