Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

No, you’re not crazy. You heard correctly. Despite our attempts to maintain an air of secrecy, word’s gotten out. Information has been leaked to the public. Unconfirmed rumors about a robot working for Wordclay have been making headlines.

I’m here not only to substantiate the story, but to introduce the robot that’s stolen all our hearts here at mission control as well.

It’s all true! Due to a freak accident in our IT laboratories, as some of the Wordclay techs were perfecting our online publishing wizards with some servos they obtained from NASA, lightning struck the modern sculpture out front, electrified the building and shorted-out our publishing server. When the storm abated and the lights came back on, to our surprise we found Wordbot, perked by a bookshelf, completely self-aware, reading.

When asked about his sudden and unexpected appearance, Wordbot commented:

“Search me. Without warning, I was just there, and I had the uncontrollable urge to read anything I could get my metallic paws on. I found this bookshelf and went to work. I learned a few languages in the few hours I was awake, which is the reason I’m able to communicate with you now. I guess you could say I was born to help Wordclay.”

Over subsequent weeks, enduring many skeptical professionals, slowly but surely, we all started to warm to our new publishing friend. Of course, we’re still working out the legality of his rights, i.e. whether Wordclay owns the rights to him as you would your book publishing through us, or Wordbot being of sound, independent mind has the right to leave and exercise his creativity at will. For the time being at least, he enjoys working for Wordclay and reading the classics in his free time, and we enjoy having him around.

In fact, after my friends and I bumped into him at the Wordclay Genre Lounge as he was getting coffee, I asked Wordbot to join our blogging team as well, an invitation which he promptly accepted. Why he was in a coffee shop, since robots don’t need coffee, is a question I decided to save for another afternoon. He was with a few friends though, and there’s no law against having a mug of motor oil instead of coffee.

So please give Wordbot a warm welcome and be sure to look for him in the coming weeks. He’s genuine and charming, but he’s slightly sensitive about the way he speaks – you could call it mechanical. Either way, I’m sure you’ll come to love him the same way all us here at Wordclay have.

Look for him on Myspace and other social networks as well. He’ll be updating you of his travels, I’m sure. He’s like a kid in a candy store when it comes to reading and writing.

But allow me to be the first to say: Greetings from Earth, Wordbot, and welcome aboard.

This is Justin Dimos, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.