Book review
Jane Dorner's
'The Internet: A Writer's Guide'
Before I tell you
how I feel about Jane Dorner's 'The Internet: A Writer's Guide'
is, I'd better confess: I'm mentioned in it. Twice. Here's how generous
I'm feeling. On one of the two occasions McDonald becomes misprinted
as Mcdonald, and trAce is included without the capital A in the middle,
but in spite of that I'm prepared to say: Read this book.
The Guide is clearly
and well-organised into sections covering getting connected, e-mail,
the World Wide Web and virtual communities. Then Jane Dorner goes on
to look at new writing opportunities, and ways of electronic publishing,
before briefly tackling some of the issues that cyber-travel brings
in its wake.
Invention occasionally
pokes through - I particularly like her new words 'democrazine' (no,
folks, not a tranquilliser), and '{c}yber-right' for electronic copyright.
But mostly this is a brisk and sensible guide that doesn't mind offering
you its opinion here and there but mostly sticks to facts and reasonable
speculation. She's cool calm and collected about viruses, more relaxed
about the spread of the advertising culture than most Netizens, and
is a bit dismissive of my favourite search engine www.google.com.
Alongside these
minor disagreements are some excellent insights for different kinds
of writers. Because I'm not a journalist, for instance, I was fascinated
by the discussion of 'e-mail interviewing' and how that works. The new-to-all-this-technology
writer will also find the book useful, even if occasionally it's almost
impossible to talk about the new electronic world without assuming some
prior knowledge.
And the links are
terrific. They form Part 2 of the book, and a website in their own right
at www.internetwriter.co.uk,
already updated since publication. Structured along the same lines as
the book, they nevertheless represent a valuable resource in their own
right for anything from search engines to script formats, from web communities
to writers' circles. Order the book on the Internet while you're online,
why don't you?
Alan McDonald,
May 2000
Buy
this book at Amazon.co.uk
and help trAce at no cost to yourself!
Dorner,
Jane: A & C Black, January 2000
"Internet: A writer's guide"
reviewed by Alan McDonald, May 2000 Buy
this book at Amazon.co.uk
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