ONLY ANSWER THIS QUIZ IF YOU ARE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR:

[dragosmcmaster@mastodon.social]

@cstross

Not an author of any kind, but getting strong Artie Fufkin vibes from this poll.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@dragosmcmaster Who?

[dragosmcmaster@mastodon.social]

@cstross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv5FwzRBc_Y

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@dragosmcmaster That's a video. I don't do video (and I don't touch youtube). What's it about?

[dragosmcmaster@mastodon.social]

@cstross

It's a reference to a scene in "This is Spin̈al Tap" in which the band is doing a record signing and nobody shows up. Artie Fufkin is a character played by Paul Schaeffer who is supposed to be promoting the record. The promotion has clearly failed, but not as bad as my attempt at humo[u]r.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@dragosmcmaster Oh, in my case the customers all showed up *months* ago—this is me going on tour to a rainy industrial estate near Dublin to sign the printed books for the kickstarter they all backed.

[softwaretheron@mas.to]

@cstross
Till I saw the comments I wondered if you were posing a hypothetical about Epstein.

[eedly@mindly.social]

@cstross Look (he said, tongue firmly in cheek), I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but this is a lot of the reason my dad wrote about sailboats for a living.

@morix

[spride@mastodon.online]

@cstross I’m a (or was) business book author. My publisher still wanted me to do readings and signings *at my own expense* for a book that netted them about 400 quid, mostly from libraries

[cstross@wandering.shop]

The "signing tour" is a one-stop trip to a rainy industrial estate outside Dublin to sign the RPG rule books people paid for as part of a kickstarter! (They'll be mailed out in due course.)

It's a trip away from home organized by a publisher and I'm signing books for customers, so in my headcanon it's a signing tour.

(Why are you looking at me funny?)

[ross@hachyderm.io]

@cstross Hang on rule books? Did I miss a Laundry RPG?

[yrrsinn@chaos.social]

@cstross @ross TIL the Laundry RPG is a thing and has a 2nd edition https://cubicle7games.com/our-games/the-laundry-roleplaying-game

[antiqueight@mastodon.ie]

@cstross You could make it a multistop tour if you can find books at the airport (if you fly) or in the city center and sign those....

[alisonw@fedimon.uk]

@cstross
Surely a "tour" requires more than one port of call, by definition!

[mrundkvist@archaeo.social]

@cstross
What if the copies you're to sign are all props in an elaborate larp?

[bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot]

@cstross Disappointed to have missed this. I'd have voted "Hell, no!" if that had been an option, although I might have softened my position somewhat if there had been mention of having a Guinness in a Dublin pub after the signing.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@bodhipaksa I won't be staying in Dublin.

[bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot]

@cstross In that case I revert to the "Hell no" option.

How do you keep yourself sane while doing something like that? When I'd signed much smaller quanities than I assume you're signing I've found it incredibly boring.

That sounds like a tough gig. I hope your signing hand doesn't cramp too much.

[argonel@dice.camp]

@cstross @AlisonW agreed, solvable by warehousing the books in 2 separate but adjacent buildings or rooms.

[highlandlawyer@mastodon.social]

@cstross @mrundkvist
The Laundry RPG: The LARP would be appropriately meta. And in Ireland it could be the LARP that once through Tara's halls...