guidelines db

Bantam has paid approx. 3 million bucks for the new trilogy of prequels to DUNE, Frank Herbert's classic 1965 science fiction novel. The new prequels will begin publishing in 1999 and will be written by Brian Herbert (Frank Herbert's son) and Kevin J. Anderson (author of several X-Files and Star Wars series books), supposedly based on notes and outlines left by the author (who is now dead, in case any of you didn't know). I liked the first Dune book quite a bit, but my enjoyment of the other books decreased with each sequel. I'm curious about the prequels. I've never been keen on reading books of this type, with other authors using another's characters/settings. Curiosity might compel me to try the first prequel, however, especially since the story itself will be based on Herbert's own notes. How do you the rest of you feel about this? And how did you like the movie version of Dune? I confess I wasn't wild about the movie, even if Patrick Stewart was in it. Rumour has it that ABC/Sci-Fi Network is going to be launching a miniseries based on all the previous Dune works. I'm skeptical about this (but will watch it anyway, of course). :-)

My Inkspot Online Guidelines Library needs fodder! The Library will eventually be a searchable database of publisher guidelines for writers. The database has been finished and I've started preliminary testing but need a bunch of pseudo-publisher entries to be added. Please pardon the sometimes kludgy-looking user interface screens...I'm working on that now. But you have a spare moment in the next few days, please do add a pseudo book publishing company or pseudo magazine. Here are the instructions:

Basically, you have to pretend to be a publisher of
a magazine or a book wanting to add your market information
listing to Inkspot.

You should first register at:

http://www.inkspot.com/cgi-bin/guidelines/guide.cgi

1. Go to Publisher Registration.

2. Choose either magazine or book publisher, then press "Register >>"

3. For username, please choose something like "yourlastname1"
or "yourlastname2" etc. so I know you created the listing.
For email address, use libadmin@inkspot.com.
Write down your username and password somewhere for reference.
You can make up everything else. When you're done, press "Continue >>"

4. You'll see a verification of the info. Press "Approve >>"

5. Go back to http://www.inkspot.com/cgi-bin/guidelines/guide.cgi

6. Go down to Edit/Add Listing.

7. Login with the username and password you selected earlier.

8. Choose "Add Listing"

9. Fill out the series of forms and keep hitting "Approve >>" until
you get the message "Listing has been entered".

PLEASE don't spend a lot of time filling out the forms. These listings
are dummy listings only and will be eventually deleted. You don't need
to fill out all the fields.

10. If you have time, feel free to add more publications under
this publisher name.

However, please do not add any dummy listings after the end of this month (i.e. after Nov. 30) since I hope to be going semi-live soon after that (adding real publisher guidelines). Thanks VERY much in advance!!!