Wait on Line for a Blondie autograph? "Don't bother, we got plenty" says Barnes & Noble

Back in the old days when a book was in your two hands, and not an ePUB file on your "hand held device," a big deal was an AUTOGRAPHED COPY.

Guess what. It doesn't seem that people care that much about autographs anymore. Most celebrities say that when they're accosted by fans, it's: "Can I take a SELFIE WITH YOU?"

Of course it's easy to Photoshop yourself with a celebrity, but still, TAKING A SELFIE is what people want from a star encounter, not an autograph. And now...people don't want to own REAL books. A Kindle version will do. So...

It's a bit rare to find long lines of people waiting outside Barnes & Noble, eager to get a signed book. Especially when the celebrity is NOT going to pose for selfies and is NOT going to sign any "sell this on eBay" stuff other than THE BOOK.

Gee, it looks like Barnes & Noble didn't have big lines for quite a lot of authors. Or did they just ask the authors to sign a hundred more copies to try and MOVE the books? Either way, LOTS of autographed copies are for sale.

If you check eBay, there's more proof that the glamour of the autographed book has faded. After a celebrity does a signing, a bunch of dealers put their items on eBay. There are few takers for double the price. There are still few takers when the dealers try to get rid of these things at list price.

The digital age has done plenty of damage to copyright owners, to photographers trying to make a buck, to how people socialize, and yes, to how people want to enjoy their movies, TV shows and BOOKS. The answer with movies, TV shows and BOOKS is via download, via streaming, and whenever possible, FREE thanks to bloggers, forums and torrent sites.

I was actually thinking of standing on line for Debbie Harry's book, but another thing about book signings is...they are unpleasant. The point is "keep the line moving," and rightly so. Glomming a celebrity in 3D for a few seconds, and seeing the book signed, really doesn't compensate for the hours involved in transit and standing on line. Not unless you REALLY wanted the book.

In this case, I know I wouldn't have time to say, "Remember the "Blondie Nudes" that premiered in my magazine, ROCKET...or the interview I did with you in OUI?" In fact, she didn't mention her nude modeling in the book at all. Not a surprise. When I interviewed her for OUI, she shrugged off the nude pix that appeared in ROCKET, and the other nude pix that men's mags managed to get.

Then again, rape, according to her book, was not a big deal either. She briefly recounts a thug who looked like Jimi Hendrix, who pushed his way into the apartment she shared with her boyfriend. He stole everything he could carry, and raped her. But as she writes, the rape was not as painful as losing the guitars: