One of the ways in which dead tree books (i.e., books printed on paper) continued to hold an advantage over e-books was in personalization options. We've said before that the digital bits that make up an e-book make for pristine copies, free from the ravages of dirty fingers, margin scribblers and chronic page tearers. The downside of this protection from book vandals has been the side effect of preventing authors from personalizing copies of their work for readers. Short of having an author scrawl their signature on the back of your e-reader (trust me, I've seen it done), there was little joy in lining up at a book signing for e-book owners. There have been several attempts at bridging the digital divide, but most to date have been specific to a particular e-reader platform (direct stylus input via Sony Reader Touch and Palm eReader, for example) or too kludgy to catch on.
Autography is making considerable noise as a real contender to finally level the playing field between paper and pixels. Developed by author Tom Waters, Autography lets an author sit down with an iPad and a stylus to write a personal message and autograph, along with a photo. The process goes like this:
- Author optionally poses for photo with fan (taken with iPad2 camera) or synched via Bluetooth for original iPad and an external camera.
- Author uses stylus and iPad to write personalized message and a signature for fan on a blank page associated with the e-book title.
- Fan provides an e-mail address.
- The autographed page is e-mailed to fan, along with a link to download the photo.
- The autograph (and photo) are inserted behind the title page on the fan's e-book.
- Outside of the time it takes to write the message, once the author taps the button on their iPad, the personalized e-book page shows up in the fan's e-mail in under three minutes.
The initial version of Autography was purely a written feature, but with the iPad2's built in camera and the popularity of social media sites, the option for a photo op seems like a wise choice. It's one thing to brag on your Facebook wall that you met "Author X" and had them sign your e-book; you earn a lot more points by backing up your boast with a photo.
As an added bonus, writers are not obliged to go on long distance promotional tours in order to autograph e-books for their fans. Autography may be used remotely. Although the photo with the author option would not be available, the author can just as easily sign personalized autographs and e-mail them off from home as he or she can while sitting behind a table in a bookstore.