QR codes and free books

So it's April, which means I'm now into official Canadian book release month.  Pretty exciting new territory for me.  I'm also getting busier with this crazy idea to connect with readers using a QR tag.  If you pick up a copy of my book, you'll be able to see a funky looking barcode on the back jacket which, if used in conjunction with a half-decent cell phone will give you a more or less instant connection with me.  I've no idea yet whether this scheme will make much of a difference to readers, but I do have this crazy vision of a very savvy reader, maybe sitting on a streetcar, reading what I have to say about psychology and urban design and then having a sudden urge to chat.  Maybe you're excited.  Maybe you think I'm full of crap.  Maybe you just don't get what I'm trying to say.  So then, when you point your phone at the book and pull the trigger, it's as if you're pointing your phone at me, looking down the sights at me and saying "Hey Ellard!  Get a clue!" or "Ellard!  Yes!  You're right!  I have no IDEA where I am right now and that's important to understand!"  I know.  It's a rookie author pipe dream perhaps.  But if even one or two readers feel that kind of urge to make contact, have a chat, send me a tweet, then we'll have broken a little bit of new ground together, extended what it means to be a book, and we'll have made a very interesting little connection between a physical artifact (the hunk of paper in your hand) and something much more slippery and less simple to define -- the tie between writer and reader.  There's a new web page in the works (sneak preview here but no guarantees it will all work quite yet) and, yes, another notoriously rough YouTube tutorial here).  So get a reader on your phone and then give it a try.  What do you make of this?

First one to crack the simple code and make the appropriate response (if you follow....) wins a free signed book.

Comments

[Ian Foster]

Hi Colin,

Just to let your readers know that I run a QR code website over in the UK.

QR Code news
http://www.qrme.co.uk/qr-code-news.html

QR Code forum
http://www.qrme.co.uk/qr-code-forum.html

QR Codes explained
http://www.qrme.co.uk/qr-code-resources/qr-code-readers.html

QR Code readers
http://www.qrme.co.uk/qr-code-resources/qr-code-readers.html

Regards
Ian

[Punit]

Neat idea