Product Description

Attention, Web writers! This book will show you how to craft prose that grabs your guests' attention, changes their attitudes, and convinces them to act. You'll learn how to make your style fast, tight, and scannable. You'll cook up links that people love to click, menus that mean something, and pages of text that search engines rank high. You'll learn how to write great Web help, FAQs, responses to customers, marketing copy, press releases, news articles, e-mail newsletters, Webzine raves, or your own Web resume. Case studies show real-life examples you can follow. No matter what you write on the Web, you'll see how to personalize, build communities, and burst out of the conventional with your own honest style.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #174247 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

From Library Journal
There is no shortage of material on web site usability (see Computer Media, LJ 3/1/02). Hot Text shines in its comprehensive coverage of online writing. One will find information on XML and writing for database-driven sites; creating FAQs, blogs and newsletters, and online r sum s; and becoming a web writer or editor. Although it does not break any new ground, Back to the User is a solid summary of current thought on the "user-centered" approach, covering both writing and design. It largely focuses on business sites, with additional information on e-commerce and branding. Both titles are appropriate for public libraries. Shaping Web Usability, while more academic, also addresses specific issues such as designing for older adults and handheld devices. Recommended for larger public and academic institutions.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Hot Text examines good writing practices and discusses their application to and implementation on the web. -- Dr. Jean A. Pratt, Business Information Systems, Utah State University

Inspiring, authoritative, fun, and personal—Hot Text is an instant classic. -- Rich Coulombre, Principal, The Support Group, Needham, Massachusetts

This is the best web writing book around, with excellent coverage of history, theory, and application. -- Muriel Zimmerman, Coordinator, Programs in Technical Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara

Warm, informative, conversational, inspiring, and honest, this book gave me great ideas and models without feeling like a lecture. -- Colombe Leland, Web writer, newspaper editor, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Why is online writing so bad? Probably because books like this haven't been available until now. Buy it. Read it. -- Seth Godin, Author of Survival is Not Enough, Permission Marketing, and Unleashing the Idea Virus

From the Publisher
A unique book, equally suited for use in the classroom as text, or as a handbook for anyone who communicates with the written word through the web. Jonathan and Lisa Price--who research, teach and practice what they preach--have achieved a prime balance between richly informative, real-world-example-based discussion of clear communication on web sites, and a tone that is the farthest thing from the stereotypical "dry" that comes to mind upon hearing the word "textbook". As Seth Godin, author of Survival Is Not Enough, Permission Marketing, and Unleashing the Idea Virus, put it: "Why is online writing so bad? Probably because books like this haven't been available until now. Buy it. Read it. Try something new--it's got to be better than what we're used to!"

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive and easy to read
I am findng this book to be outstanding. It is not only informing me, but it is also helping me provide data, examples, and "rules" for use in meetings with colleagues who may wish to add content to the corporate website that is not web-frineldy.

A great first choice for any new web content writer!

Just O.K.
I read this book immediately after reading Krug's "Don't Make Me Think," which is fantastic. In comparison, "Hot Text..." was mediocre. Krug's book--although presenting a bigger picture of the world of websites--truly synthesizes the nuts and bolts for writing for the web. "Hot Text" had a lot of what I felt was extraneous information and text (ironic, because really, what writing for the web is about is brevity and conciseness).

If you haven't read Krug's book, "Hot Text" will be a good starting point for you. It contains a lot of information, it also contains some good resources.

I also have to say that I agree with an earlier reviewer--the photographs (which look like poor black & white photocopies) are strange. Example: Chapter 8, Idea 4: Build Chunky Paragraphs! The photograph shows a middle-aged man holding a small bowl or cup up to his mouth. He's looking off-camera; his right hand is by his mouth but I'm not sure why. Maybe he's eating some chunky soup? But what does soup have to do with paragraphs? It's a small detail, these photographs, but they detract from the overall professionalism of the book for me.

not what I expected
I haven't picked it up in a while. When it first arrived I was disappointed, it didn't have the pertinent info I was looking for. It's not anywhere nearby to refer to it. Basically, the "hot text" isn't really there. The outline was dull. The photos were kind of sad. I didn't like the presentation and the content didn't seem to live up to whatever the review was in the Amazon blurb.