this begs the question, why not just sign a shitload of books and then ship them to the stores?

margaret atwood has a pen that signs books from across the room. or across the pond. it sounds pretty fucking stupid to me, but i don't really go for autographed copies of books anyway.

Anxious minutes later, Atwood picked up a pen to autograph her new short story collection, The Tent, for Nigel Newton, chief executive of her British publisher, Bloomsbury. She wrote the words on an electronic pad while chatting to Newton over a video linkup.

A few seconds later in another part of the exhibition center, two spindly metal arms clutching a pen reproduced the words onto Newton's book in Atwood's angular scrawl: "For Nigel, with best wishes, Margaret Atwood."