[cyncooper]

Yeah, right. She's just afraid of being booed and/or Freeped.

My theories are (in no particular order):

The receiving line idea keeps the peons moving along with little chance of a "scene" being caused, in case a member of the VRWC gets in.

She is not about to put in the effort to put pen to paper for a bunch of nobodies, or

She's afraid her real signature will be analyzed for personality traits and results would not be pretty.

[Paul Atreides]

I'll bet that they are having trouble getting people interested in the book. I wouldn't doubt that a lot of the people who show up are paid to be there.

[sweetliberty]

"The receiving line idea keeps the peons moving along with little chance of a "scene" being caused, in case a member of the VRWC gets in."

I vote for number one. They have a deep paranoia over those who can expose embarass them. I witnessed that at the FReep we did of XXX42 at a campaign event prior to the 2002 election. Although it was a public event for which people had tickets to attend, some were thrown out and threatened with arrest when it was discovered they were members of the evil Republican party. These people tolerate no dissension in their own ranks. They certainly can't risk having "the enemy" around.

[giotto]

One reason she wants no cameras is because (this is my theory) the line of customers waiting to shake her hand will be the same people over and over, to make it look like everyone loves her. Part of the $8 million is being used to buy copies of her own book to make it a bestseller, and to insure that most of the people who attend the "booksignings" are loyal (paid) sycophants.