As its title aptly suggests, this book is for technical writers and other professionals who prepare electronic documents for the Internet or for multimedia products. The author succeeds in giving “a resource and a learning tool to the writing professional and the writing novice who are transitioning into the world of multimedia and the information superhighway.”

Musgrave authoritatively gives writers the necessary skills to use the tools associated with the World Wide Web, CD-ROM, and multimedia paperless publishing. Although the emphasis is on the techniques and tools, the author also covers the creative aspects of writing, though not quite adequately. He provides good information on the legal aspects of electronic writing, though this material is only directly relevant to US readers.

The book’s 13 chapters are divided into four parts. Part 1, comprising four chapters, imparts some techniques for writing for electronic media and gives a detailed explanation of terms related to hypertext. The chapter on “Creating Your Own Home Page on the Net” is a good tutorial for the novice.

Part 2, comprising five chapters, will particularly interest freelance writers and publishing entrepreneurs: it presents some new ideas for developing commercial home pages and multimedia catalogs. The chapters on “Storyboarding” and “Web Page Authoring” contain practical advice and will be of lasting value. The chapters on market surveys--particularly on word processing, multimedia, and graphics and animation software--will soon be out of date. Chapter 9 presents some “Productive Ideas” for different groups of readers, including students and “women scribes.” I wonder whether some female readers will view this discussion as biased.

Part 3 consists of two chapters on the legalities of electronic media and the rights of the freelance author in cyberspace. While Americans can use it as a legal reference, complete with citations to US law, other nationals can best use it as background material on the concepts involved, because the law varies. An Indian writer, for example, cannot use this material at all.

Part 4 provides tips to help upcoming “digital scribes” get started in the electronic media, that is, writing fiction or nonfiction for the Internet. The final chapter, “How to Submit Your Work in Cyberspace,” is of immediate value to writers: it contains electronic submission lists, names of newsgroups, and contact information for a variety of electronic publishers. A short reference list and an index complete the book.

An accompanying CD-ROM contains sample VRML and HTML composition software, shareware multimedia software, sample multimedia applications, address labels for publishers and agents, and electronic catalog software in Macintosh and Windows formats. I could not evaluate this disk, since my computer lacks a sound card and multimedia functionality; these functions are essential to gain full value from this book.

The presentation is excellent and concise, and will appeal to aspiring electronic writers. The author may need to bring out a new edition quickly, however, or the book will lose much of its value.