The irony of the information revolution is that consumers neither like nor expect long, densely written texts on their computer screens. Long texts addle the eyes; they slow the rapid-fire "interactive" process, steal precious screen space from the animation, video, and multimedia's other, more marketable gewgaws. So we writers needn't be experts so much as filters whose task is to absorb and compress great gobs of information into small, easily digestible, on-screen chunks. Brevity and blandness; these are the elements of the next literary style. Of roughly one thousand "essays" I've "written" for CD-ROM companies here in Seattle over the last year and a half, fewer than forty ran longer than two hundred words...and most were much, much shorter.
-- Paul Roberts, "Virtual Grub Street: Sorrows of a multimedia hack," Harper's Magazine, June 1996
Want to know more about writing for CD-ROMS? Read Paul Roberts' tortured tale of truth in Harper's. Those of you who talked with us about your writing experiences said he really hit a nerve and has other multimedia writers talking.
But if you can cope with the brevity, there are also engaging, even exciting aspects of multimedia writing. And not all writing that appears on CD-ROMS is under 200 words. Part One of New Markets is the result of interviews that science writer Tabitha (Tammy) Powledge and I had with both writers and companies that hire writers for CD-ROMS. Part Two, which will be in the next issue of ScienceWriters, will expand on other multimedia writing and deal with more new markets for freelance science writers.
First of all, if you're considering accepting a writing assignment for a CD company, you should know there is a question about whether CD-ROMS have much of a future. They have heavy competition from interactive Internet magazines and Web pages, and could possibly be replaced in the next few years by a newer technology known as digital video discs or DVD's, which have a much larger storage capacity than CD-ROMS. But don't look for it to happen overnight. "Just because you have a new standard doesn't mean you'll dispossess people of 7,000 software titles" that are on CD's, said Jim Sanders, research director for the Software Publishers Association. Nevertheless, some computer manufacturers are planning to replace the CD slot on new PC's with a DVD slot. Many companies that were producing CD-ROMS have gone out of business, but Sanders says most of the attrition has been in entertainment, which was costly to produce.
Michael Lang, who was executive editor for life sciences at William C. Brown, an Iowa company recently taken over by McGraw-Hill, sees a future for CD-ROMS in education, science and medicine. "I think there are going to be CD's for a long time to come," he said. "There was a thought a few years ago that everything's going to end up on CD-ROMS. That didn't happen. A lot of things we thought would be on CD's have ended up on the Web." But CD's don't have to compete against the Internet, and especially, Web pages, he said. "CD's will be used as software to interact with the Web, download more current information," he suggested. "CD's now will boot up with the Web."
While I expect that Paul Roberts' experience is typical of most writers who are hired to write directly for CD-ROMS, not all writing that appears on CD-ROMS is as short as 200 words. For example, three books I've written for children ages 9 through 12 about different female scientists and the science they do are being put on CD-ROMs. When I was first told that they were going to be put on CD-ROMs, I was afraid that short sections would be pulled out and used. But that was not the case. These are children's length books, so each is only about 3,000 to 3,500 words, and they are put on CDs in their entirety. Words that are in my glossary are underlined in the text so that the reader can click on a word and the definition pops up on the screen. In typical multimedia fashion, the first CD-ROM I viewed that has one of my books on it also has a film of the scientist at work in the wilds of Alaska and another film segment on sea otters and other related material that the user can click on and move to.
Incidentally, my contract, which was made a couple of years ago for writing five books, did not give me royalties for their use in other media. But I've insisted on being paid separately for the three that are going on CDs. Our compromise was that I would be paid to review the CDs at a rate of $50 an hour. It's not a lot of money, but the principle is an important one. And I'm wiser now about contracts.
Of course much longer books than mine have been put on CDs. Textbooks, for example. But multimedia publishers are saying now that just reproducing a textbook on a CD is not a good idea. Their interest is in doing interactive segments.
Science writer Nancy Ross-Flanigan, who started freelancing as a result of the Detroit newspaper strike, said she kept busy full-time for six months working on two CD projects. One "involved writing summaries of textbook chapters, making up multiple-choice quizzes and providing hints and corrective feedback for each question. That turned out to be fun," she said. Her other project "involved reading and abstracting articles (mostly from newspapers and magazines) on science and medicine."
Science writer Valerie J. Brown wrote text limited to 400 words but which was often 200 words or less for a CD-ROM that also had sound, pictures, and moving pictures. The CD, designed for high-school and middle-school use, "had hot text which could lead to other related information," she said. That's the exciting aspect of writing for interactive multimedia. Chris Curran, who has been working on a university-based CD-ROM project thinks the medium is a good way to attract students' attention. "The objective of our CD-ROMS is to provide a basic understanding of biology, and students need to be involved in the learning process," she said. "They're much more likely to run a simulation on a CD-
ROM than to answer the questions at the end of a textbook chapter."
To sum up, here are some tips:
Recently I raised an issue on the NASW Freelance listserv that drew a lot of responses. Stephen Hart had asked me once, in an e-mail message that was about several things, if I thought NASW should get involved in collecting data on contract policies and fees. I said I didn't see why we shouldn't, which means we probably should. I was reminded of this exchange when Dan Carlinsky, the great Contracts Watch czar of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) contacted me to ask if I had any recent information about how freelance writers are being treated who write for the science section of The New York Times. So I posed the question: Should NASW begin getting contract and payment information from freelance science writers and directly from publishers? The big majority of you who responded said yes, enthusiastically, and many of you volunteered to help with
the effort. The upshot is that our great president, Laurie Garrett, took the ball and ran with it, backing us up and suggesting we get enough statistically valid data to know who is the enemy. See Laurie's President's Letter in this issue for more details.
I'm delighted we're embarking on this project. Joel Shurkin, chair of the NASW freelance committee, is also enthusiastically behind this, as well he better be because it falls on his shoulders to plan how we're going to carry this out. So thanks, Joel and Laurie and all of you who responded to the query. See how easy it is to get something done?
As you know, there are a number of issues involved in this project. One that was hotly debated on the freelance talknet was whether to share information we get about fees paid to writers with the public at large or whether to post it for members only. There was pretty general agreement that information we get about contracts should be shared with other writers' organizations or even posted publicly. At this time, neither Joel nor Laurie nor I know exactly how we'll go about this. But the good news is that we will. And that's really thanks to all of you who showed an interest. The three of us welcome your continuing ideas and support on this.
After nearly four years of writing this column, I've decided it's time to pass the torch to someone else. For the last three years in particular, I've been involved in heavy-duty volunteer professional activities that were important and rewarding, but not monetarily so. Frankly, I need to create more time for writing that will help me buy a house, pay the car repair bills, and pay the vet (with three aging dogs and a cat, I spend more each year in veterinary bills than I do for my own health insurance.) I also yearn to make more time for the important things -- daily walks with Pierre, Misty, and Pupsy, checking the mailbox each morning before the mail arrives to be sure the cricket who spends the night there gets out safely; putting out water and food for the birds and squirrels; and, if I can interest
a sponsor, spending four hours a day observing squirrel behavior to write about one of my longtime fascinations -- everybody's backyard pet. Also, I just think four years is long enough for anyone to do this kind of column. There are so many of you who could contribute new ideas and information to this forum, and I hope you will.
When I began this column, I suggested that you think of it as a place to schmooze, exchange views and share information. Now we're doing that daily on the NASW listserv for freelance writers. While the need for a freelance writers column has changed somewhat, I still think this can remain a valuable forum for focusing on issues and writing about new opportunities and trends. I'm delighted that it will not end when I leave. I asked members of the NASW freelance committee to consider rotating turns doing the column. Of the two who said yes, one, Tammy Powledge, who -- as noted earlier -- collaborated on the New Markets section of this column, volunteered to do the column on a regular basis. And so she will, beginning with the Spring 1997 issue. Have fun, Tammy!
I'll talk with you all one more time in our next issue, when we publish Part Two of New Job Markets. Please get in touch with me if you have experiences to share in interactive writing on the Internet, Web pages, cable television, or other new markets for science writers. Working with you and for you has been a privilege and a real pleasure.
Mary Knudson can be reached by email: Mary@nasw.org or 71614.3114@compuserve.com; phone: 301-495-9379; fax: 301-495-0319. Tammy Powledge can be reached at tel: 301-373-5466; fax: 301-373-3788; email: tam@worldnet.att.net.