Paperless Publishing

This timely book gives writers all the practical advice and hard-to-find information they need to fully exploit the enormous potential of electronic publishing. Writers can use this book/disk package to create professional-looking title screens, contents lists, chapters, indexes, and other features; add graphics to their publications; use sounds, animation, and other multimedia features.

Clip art, page composition, graphics: if you can imagine it, chances are someone can sell you a package to make it happen on your pc, desk, or table. But what does one do with one's precious output once it's put out? Haynes answers this and other questions in this "first book to provide all writers with a complete turn-key package to publish over the information highways." Haynes doesn't so much want to tell readers how to create masterpieces in the privacy of their own homes as how to get said masterpieces disseminated and how to protect their intellectual property in the information marketplace. Enthusiastic and upbeat throughout, Haynes offers advice and instruction in the creative and economic phases of the information superhighway environment. Packed with useful advice, this book also features an appendix of up-to-date information on currently available programs. Of course it won't be up-to-date for long, which, as Haynes would be sure to point out, is the big disadvantage with hard-copy publishing. Mike Tribby

British journalist Haynes (Portable Computing, LJ 1/91) adds to the proliferation of electronic publishing books with this entry. Dedicated to "librarians everywhere as they face the challenges and opportunities of a New Age of publishing," this breezy work maintains that new technological developments empower everybody to publish. However, despite its claim to be "a complete turnkey package to publish" electronically, this book serves more as a cheerleader and sporadic guide for potential publishers. The inclusion of an occasional address or software package title gives the illusion of a helpful resource manual, but closer reading reveals superficial paragraphs on a number of loosely connected topics clumped under one of 17 chapter headings. Although it was not available for review, a DOS-and Windows-compatible disk of shareware will be included with the text. A marginal purchase.
Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., Manassas
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.