by Jonathan Price and Lisa Price

New Riders, January, 2002.
Trade Paperback, 507 pages.
ISBN: 0735711518

The opportunities for online copywriting, business writing and freelance writing have been hurt by the recent recession. However, there are still plenty of opportunities online. Companies will continue to need an online presence and some of the Web-only start-ups will succeed. Plus, there will always be new company launches and new websites. Over the past several years more has been learned about effective online written communication. Answers to questions like how much text will people read, what draws the reader's attention, how does the formatting affect what people will read online and many other questions are slowly being answered. Hot Text provides answers to many of these questions. The book also analyzes samples of actual online correspondence and writing to help readers understand what works and what does not. For example, in one section the book's authors discuss email correspondence from an Amazon.com customer support employee. The book also contains scores of ways to make your online text more effective, including examples of the best ways to embed links in your text, tips for making your text sound more positive instead of negative to the reader and instruction and examples for writing website headings and menus. In addition to writing advice, a section covering careers in editing and writing with advice and tips for writing a resume is also included.

Professional web writers and editors Jonathan and Lisa Price (who have worked with clients like America Online, Hewlett-Packard and Disney.com) help readers learn how to write for the Web with easy to follow instruction on writing a variety of content, including FAQs, help sections, email, marketing copy, press releases, resumes and web pages. Even the finer points of online writing are covered, such as writing attention-getting headlines and creating titles for navigation bars. The authors give plenty of helpful examples for readers, including useful before and after examples showing the incorrect or verbose text before it changed to the improved version. Hot Text is packed with instruction and tips for making online content do its job efficiently: to inform and to sell. A must-own book for everyone from web developers to copywriters to freelance editors. Highly Recommended.

Hot Text: Web Writing That Works is available for purchase on Amazon.com

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This review was published in the March, 2002 of The Internet Writing Journal.

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