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Jonathan Reeve Price

Hot Text: Web Writing that Works 1st Edition

by Lisa Price (Author), Jonathan Price (Author)

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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.

ISBN-10

0735711518
ISBN-13

978-0735711518
Edition

1st
Publisher

New Riders
Publication date

January 11, 2002
Language

English
Dimensions

7.35 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
Print length

528 pages
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Editorial Reviews

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 personalHot 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!"

From the Back Cover

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.

About the Author

We are professional Web writers and editors. We regularly coach other writers, showing how to tailor their prose for e-mail, Web pages, and discussions. We focus on text, not design or tags. If you have to write text that will go up on the Web, we're talking to you. We have written for the Internet for the last seven years, so we talk from real experience¿and affection. We love the spirit of the Net.

We come out of a background in journalism (writing for magazines such as Esquire, Harper's, Reader's Digest, and TV Guide), technical communication (writing and consulting with an A-to-Z of high tech firms), art (conceptual art in New York), TV and radio (dozens of interviews, and our own shows).

Along the way, we've written 24 books for major publishers and hundreds of articles for Web sites. Our consulting clients include such firms as America Online, Apple, Broderbund, Cadence, Canon, Cisco, Coupons.com, Disney's Family.com, Epson, eToys, FileMaker, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard and HP.com, Hitachi, IBM, KBKids.com, Ketchum, Kodak, Los Alamos National Labs, Lotus, Matsushita, Middleberg Euro, Mitsubishi, Nikon, Ogilvy, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Relational, Ricoh, Sprint, Sun, Symantec, Visa, Xerox, and Zycad.

Jonathan has taught writing at New Mexico Tech, New York University, Rutgers, University of New Mexico, and the Extension programs of the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Stanford. Lisa was the Features Editor at KBKids.com from startup days to $80 million merger; she writes a weekly Internet column, ShopTalk, for Coupons.com. She frequently appears on TV and radio.

We live in an adobe house in the woods along the Rio Grande as it flows through New Mexico. Our sons, Ben and Noah, take the Web for granted, but prefer football.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Riders; 1st edition (January 11, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735711518
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735711518
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.35 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,776,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,358 in Web Design (Books)
- #8,688 in Internet & Telecommunications
- #17,852 in Internet & Social Media

Customer Reviews:
15 ratings

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Jonathan Reeve Price

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As a journalist, I've enjoyed getting to know people in the worlds of art, computers, video, and the web.

As a conceptual artist and concrete poet, I absorbed a lot from brave audiences. My artwork has appeared in the Jewish Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Farmington, NM Museum, the Albuquerque Museum, and the David Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University, as well as dozens of galleries in the U.S. and Canada.

As a teacher, I've learned enormously from my students at NYU, Rutgers, the Shakespeare Institute, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UNM, and professional organizations such as the ACM, IEEE, and STC.

And as a writer, I've always gotten a kick out of working collaboratively with other writers.

I live in New Mexico, overlooking the Rio Grande, with two Corgis who chase away balloons during the annual fiesta.

My wife Lisa is a writer, too. We co-authored Hot Text: Web Writing that Works.

My son Ben runs an insurance office here in town, and Noah runs a start-up offering fresh prep food.

Me, I'm busy doing art pieces, fiction, and a bunch of writing about art on the web.

You can learn more about all of us in the books...and our blog:

http://museumzero.blogspot.com/

For even more, please take a look at our web sites:

www.webwritingthatworks.com

museumzero.art

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5

15 global ratings

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1 star		9%

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Top reviews from the United States

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David E. Rogers

Outstanding and comprehensive guide to writing for the Web

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 24, 2002

Verified Purchase

If you're interested in writing for the Web, "Hot Text: Web Writing That Works" by the prolific Jonathan and Lisa Price is the best and most comprehensive guide thus far published.
The book is at its best in the section aptly titled "Write Like a Human Being." Here, you'll find dozens of practical tips and techniques for Web copywriting. From "Shorten That Text" to "Write Menus That Mean Something," the Prices not only tell you how it's done, but demonstrate it in "before and after" samples. And each tip is evaluated in an "Audience Fit" grid that assesses how well it suits various types of site visitors. These five chapters alone (covering nearly 200 pages) are worth the price of the book.
Hot Text is much more than a style guide. Another 150 pages discuss how to write for the various genres found on the Web--help text, FAQs, marketing copy, PR and news releases, 'zines, e-mail newsletters and (yes) Weblogs.
Throughout, the book is extensively supported by a wealth of useful references (many of them available online) and pertinent callout quotations. And just when you think there couldn't be any more good stuff, you'll find helpful information on how to find a job as a Web copywriter.
I have two major quibbles with Hot Text. For a book that emphasizes clarity of expression, it begins on an odd foot. After a brief introduction to some general principles of Web-writing, it jumps into a discussion of object-oriented writing that is bewildering to novices. The normally crisp text slows to a snail's pace as they wax a little too theoretical. Don't get me wrong--this is important stuff, but it is the least successful part of the book.
Second, as an information architect and Web writer, I'm intimately aware of the strong connection between information architecture, user interface, menus and text. Attempting to draw clear boundaries between them is well-nigh impossible.
Unfortunately, the Prices cross those lines too often by assigning IA tasks--for example, menu structuring and user personas--to the copy writer. While I'm certain that many Web writers are indeed saddled with such chores due to budget limitations, IA activities are best left to those with the appropriate training and experience. Yet "information architecture" isn't even included in the index! The Prices' readers would be better served by a chapter or two on the makeup of Web project teams and the central role of collaboration in site development.
Keep these in mind and Hot Text will find itself a well-thumbed addition to your bookshelf.

61 people found this helpful

Helpful

Susanna Hutcheson

One of the better books on online copywriting and usability

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 2, 2003

Verified Purchase

I grow weary of reading the books on this subject. So many are poorly written or have very little to offer. This book is one of the better ones. It combines some useful copywriting advice with usability advice. And the two really do go together. You can't know one without learning the other or you only do half your job as a creative.
I do think, however, that the book is written in a style that is rather confusing and unappealing. I think this comes from the authors trying to be all things to all people.
But this book hits on topics that the lesser books such as Net Words fail to cover. In their zest to get to market and gain new clients, those authors write lots of puff and little meat.
Hot Text offers the meat. So if you only buy one book on online copywriting and usability, make it this one. It doesn't cover everything but it gives you the basic background and the knowledge to do a good job on creating a useful Web site.
This book is suited for beginners or more experienced people who write for the web or would like to. But it is better suited for those with very little experience or who want a reminder of what works and what doesn't.
Those with a lot of experience will quickly do a read-through and pick up a few good ideas and be done with it. But even that is worth the cost of the book.
I highly recommend this book to those people who need the information the most.
Susanna K. Hutcheson
Owner and Executive Copy Director
Powerwriting.com LLC

36 people found this helpful

Helpful

the_jj

Just O.K.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 25, 2007

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.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Brad

Everything You Need under One Roof

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 28, 2006

Verified Purchase

This manual for online writing has it all--and more.

1. Detailed instruction for every conceivable page of Web site content.

2. Super tips and insight on PR content and dealing with editors and publishers.

3. The history of HTML (very cool!)

4. All sorts of useful style tips.

5. How to write your resume.

6. How to get a job.

7. Hundreds of online resources.

The writing (needless to say?)is clear, concise, and conversational. Had the book been written in 2006 instead of 2002, I'm sure the authors would have thrown in much more about blogs. Other than that, the material seems to be up to date.

This book is worth every penny!

9 people found this helpful

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chrispavey

A great guide to how to make your website have impact.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2012

Verified Purchase

I found this a great help in learning to write effectively for the web. As per my website, [...], I've utilised this throughout my subsequent websites. A skill often considered by most as just a given, it is actually not, and requires practice and learning, which this book offers both of..

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TeresaTC24

Bought new, but it was slightly damaged

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 14, 2018

Verified Purchase

The book is slightly damaged on its spine and front cover, but other than that the book had a lot of information about web writing that helped developed my online writing presence.