..Bibliography 87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C c/c V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C V-- ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C c/r V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R V-- ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R r/c V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-C V-- ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R r/r V---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R V-- 87rL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-R--9----+ M--LQ-P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R .N:48 ..N: was 84 when previous section was single-column @ 100% .M:1 ..dh:--------------- ..dm:1 ..pb ..xl:4 ..xr:18 ..X:12 ..XB:7 .L:99 ..L:66 .IF:Index6.man .KF:Content6.MAN ..$$Z:MI$$, $$Day$$, , $$D Mon Year$$ 87rL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-R--9----+ .HL:How to Edit Your Club's Newsletter...page $$$ .HL:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  .HR:Appendix A: Bibliography...page $$$ .HR:________________________________________________________________________________________________________  87cL---+----1----+----2----+----3----+@10-4----+----5----+----6----+----7----+----8----+-C--9----+ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿAPPENDIX A ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿBooks I have Read or Usedÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ .K:Books I Have Read or Used ---L--P-----1----+----2----T----3----+@10-4-R HOW TO EDIT YOUR NEWSLETTER, Mark Beach I can recommend this one; it's terse, easy to read, and full of useful information. I inveigh against his suggestion that blurbs are particularly good for lifting quotes out of context and slapping them into the middle of the work they were lifted from. This is a pernicious habit and disrupts the article they are slapped over. On the other hand, notice what he actually does with blurbs in his book: He uses them to decorate his discussions with relevant quotes from other people, and keeps them to the edges and corners where they don't interrupt what he is saying. You can use a quote lifted out of context if you put it between items, not smack in the middle of one. The Albany Times-Union uses this to good effect with their "Quote of the Day": they print an intriguing remark in large type on page two, then tell you where you can find the context. PUBLISHING NEWSLETTERS, Howard Penn Hudson  Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1982. Beach recommends this book, and the author's newsletter, "The Newsletter on Newsletters", but I read it mainly because it was available. Penn assumes that you mean to make a living with your newsletter, so a great deal of the material is irrelevant (though interesting) and most of what is relevant is available in Beach's book. I was startled to find, in a book so recent, that he daydreams of the day when professionals will be able to use equipment no better than the toys I'm going to discard as soon as my new system comes on line. I have a feeling that I'd better expand the sections on what I'd do if typesetting weren't so expensive and time-consuming; some people are already using laser printers to type their grocery lists. DICTIONARIES Dictionaries present a problem. We stand in as much awe of them as our ancestors did when they were forced to "chuse a dictator" to lead them out of the orthographic chaos that resulted when the number of people who could read and write began to exceed the number of people who could keep in touch with each other _ but the makers of dictionaries have abdicated their responsibility to guide us in the way we should go. They content themselves with recording what we do, and shudder at the thought of telling anyone that what he does is wrong. This means that if you haven't got house-room for the Oxford English Dictionary and want a dictionary that will attempt to save you from sounding like an illiterate, you may have to settle for a dictionary that lists "airplane" as a new-fangled variant of "aeroplane." This is not as big a problem as it would seem to be, for legitimate new words seldom cause any difficulty; they were news when they first appeared and you already know them. Anyhow, it takes so long to compile a reference book that any dictionary must be several years out of date when it's first set into type. The obsolete dictionary most often recommended is the second edition of the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary. Do not confuse this with the third edition, which is infuriatingly reticent: it not only conceals all opinions concerning whether a word might be "substandard," "colloquial," "bookish," or the like, the editors are stingy with simple facts. As if that were not enough, it often reads as though someone had decreed that no definition, however long, should be allowed to contain more than one sentence. I got my copy of Webster II for fifty cents; I imagine that any still left on the market are priced as collector's items. Do not turn your nose up at a copy with a missing cover or a few wrinkled pages, if the text is complete. Collectors pay very little for "reading copies," and you'll feel more comfortable using a pre-battered copy than you would while thumbing through a priceless antique. Old books are sometimes made of paper tough enough that you can iron out wrinkles. Don't use steam. I have seen advertisements for a "compact edition" of the OED that claims to compress the entire opus into a single volume that one person can lift. I have not seen a copy of this book, but one reviewer suggested that one buy a stronger magnifying glass than the one that comes with it. A spelling-and-hyphenation dictionary is handy to keep beside the keyboard. A very large number of words can be listed in a small book by leaving out everything but the words themselves. Be sure, though, that the one you buy distinguishes homonyms and other words that can be mistaken for one another. I found Barron's "A Pocket Guide to Correct Spelling" almost useless because it did not, and because it included few inflected forms and no proper nouns. Laurel's "Instant Spelling Dictionary" doesn't have these faults, and includes appendices giving quick answers to other questions that may come up while you are typing. When selecting a spelling book, look up "principle" and "principal". If it tells you which is which, you've probably found a good dictionary. OXFORD AMERICAN DICTIONARY Unlike its illustrious parent, this is a paperback desk dictionary small enough to use like a speller. It's a bare-bones dictionary designed to settle doubts while you are typing and give you a quick answer when you encounter an unfamiliar word while reading. It would, no doubt, also be useful to a Briton reading American prose. No attempt is made to indicate the history of a word, but the forword includes an interesting account of the history of the OAD and the OED from which it is derived. OAD is the only modern dictionary I've encountered which attempts to tell you how a word is used; in addition to telling you what a word means, it warns you when using it implies contempt, suggests that you are speaking offhand, etc. There is an index to words with these "usage notes" in the back. The only other appendix is a chart for converting metric units to English measures. THE NON-LITERARY ASPECTS OF SCIENCE FICTION by Algis Budrys gives a behind-the-scenes look at publishing that will interest any editor who also writes, and is also a good example of a chapbook. Available from Chris Drumm, Books; P.O. Box 445; Polk City, Iowa 50226. $1.25 postpaid, according to Catalog 42, April 1990. THE HARBRACE HANDBOOK I'm afraid I can't comment on grammar books. My freshman-English teacher made me buy a copy of the Harbrace College Handbook, 3rd Edition and I've never felt the need to consult any other. Indeed, a new book would not be as useful to me: grammar does not change, at least not fast enough that you could notice. About the only grammatical change since Shakespeare's day was the atrophy of the second person singular from intimate-condescending to poetic- archaic; otherwise, difficulties in understanding Elizabethan speech lie almost entirely in vocabulary and obsolete customs. What does change is the principles "to which instructors commonly refer in marking student papers." My old handbook gives emphasis to questions which are likely to perplex people of my generation; I have to be warned against misusing "fix" and "swell," but "thirdly" and "interface" do not tempt me.  2 THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White You do not consult this book, you read it, from beginning to end, at least once a year. And yes, that scrawny pamphlet is the real thing. Strunk's title for it was "the little book." THE FANTASTICALLY FUNDAMENTALLY FUNCTIONAL GUIDE TO FANDOM* FOR FANZINE READERS & CONTRIBUTORS (*Vol. One), by Susan M. Garrett. ¼1989. Available from the author, Susan M. Garrett, 14B Terrace Court, Toms River, New Jersey 08753. Typeset, 57 7"x8«" pages. TFFFGtFfFR&S is an etiquette book. One obvious rule of etiquette that I never thought of before reading this book is that when you order something from an amateur publisher, you must always enclose a S.A.S.E.; that way you'll get a response even if the editor is stony broke or has both arms in traction. (You should, whether the recipient is pro or fan, write your reason for sending a S.A.S.E. in the lower left corner of the address side. S.A.S.E.s do not always stay with their cover letters.) THE FANTASTICALLY FUNDAMENTALLY FUNCTIONAL GUIDE TO FANDOM* FOR EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS (*Vol. Two), by Susan M. Garrett. ¼1990. Available from the author, see above. Volume Two is three booklets the size of Volume One. "Editors and Publishers" has less emphasis on etiquette and more on how to do it. Garrett appears to believe that the English language has already lost the distinction between singular and plural. (The distinction is on the way out, but dual number still has a bit of its tail in the door; it's going to be a while before singular takes its leave.) I also found the persistent use of "adhere" as a transitive verb, in one brief passage, distracting. Overall, the prose is clear and there are fewer typos than one would expect; many a prozine would blush to compare typo level. Illustrations are used where they are needed, and not used where they aren't needed. If you take an interest in editing or publishing and want to go on to more elaborate productions, the Functional Guide should be your next step. Vol. IIA tells you how to write guidelines for your contributors (and for yourself!), how to find contributors and readers, and how to lay out. Pasteup and type selection are scanted, but much space is devoted to printing methods and binding. Vol. IIB covers submissions and contents, contributors' payment, and pricing and production costs. Vol. IIC has chapters on dealing with printers, advertising, selling, LOCs, adzines (specifically, zine listings), used zine sales and auction by mail, copyright law and fandom, and a few words of caution. NEWSLETTERS FROM THE DESKTOP: DESIGNING EFFECTIVE PUBLICATIONS WITH YOUR COMPUTER, Roger C. Parker  Ventana Press, 1990 If you want to get out a slick and impressive newsletter, this book will be of material help whether you have a computer or not. DESKTOP is addressed to people who never considered editing before acquiring a desktop publisher, so it consists mostly of fundamentals that apply to everybody; comments such as "use your computer's box-drawing feature" are few and far between. A word of warning: absolutely everything a fancy system can do is possible with simpler tools _ so if you don't have a laser printer and do tend to get gung-ho about new ideas, I'd recommend that you not read this book until you have a hands-on concept of just how much work it is to paste in twenty teeny slips of paper. Some niceties are worth extra effort and some aren't. I appreciate Parker's attitude towards white space: other books I have read advocate leaving lots of white space; Parker advocates using lots of white space. There is a world of difference between white space that's working and white space that's just lying around. One useful concept I got from DESKTOP is the idea of thinking of my layout as a large number of columns too narrow to use one at a time, so that one can make a newsletter in which no two pages are alike and yet all match. I had been using this idea when I made my table of contents two half columns, made the cover photo occupy a column and a half, or typed the list of Century participants in four columns any two of which added up to one of my two-column columns. Making the idea explicit inspires other thoughts: one column in the center with a half- column on each side, a column-and-a-half of large type with half a column of ornament or illustration, a centered column-wide graphic with the two columns wrapped around it, . . . Another thing I learned from this book is that nowadays a blank or lightly-filled strip down the left of each page is as essential to elegance as intricate borders were in medieval times. This style has been around for a long time, but did not become essential until after computers destroyed the cachet of right- justification. I wonder if I'll live long enough to see the next fashion? Perhaps the extravagance of using paper when you could transmit naked data will become the mark of high-class publications. An intriguing term: "scholar's margins," a variation of the above in which the blank strip alternates left and right: a narrow column is left blank between the text and the outside margin, as if to provide space for notes. It is permitted, of course, to provide a few notes yourself _ Parker suggests italic type. If the work really is scholarly, this is a readable alternative to footnotes. POCKET PAL: A GRAPHIC ARTS PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, International Paper Company Everything you should have wanted to know about paper but were too ignorant to ask: printing history and practice, how to choose ink, type and typesetting, copy preparation, graphic arts and photography, stripping and imposition, binding, graphic arts terms, papers. If you've ever wondered why we call it twenty-pound bond, or why fifty-pound offset isn't any thicker, you need to read this book.