Saturday, January 12, 2002

Mine Book Is Published!

Dear Esteemed Associates,

It has finally come to pass that my book is published and available at
all the regular places. Now, if you care to buy, I am delighted.

I do want everyone to have a copy, but sadly I am not free to give them
away. My wife for one would criticize me. If you took my course before Fall
2001, then you may download a free copy to your computer to read (or print
out if you choose, in .pdf format. It is what is called a galley proof, and
it is perfect except for a few very minor errors that were corrected (you
probably would not notice). If you took the course Fall 2001, then you
already downloaded this copy.

The free copy you may download from the internet for a limited time.
This downloading process is called "ftp" or file transfer protocol. Expect
this to take at least 25 minutes with a 28.8K modem. You may wish to print
out these instructions.

The book may be downloaded by accessing a special page on the World Wide
Web.

The book is in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. This requires you to have the Adobe

Acrobat Reader. Most computers built within the past few years have the

Acrobat Reader included with the software that came installed on your

computer. If you don't have it or need a newer version, it is free for

download at:

http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

You must copy and paste the web address below into your Web Browser, or

type it in manually. If you are using America Online or CompuServe 2000,

you may have problems, since the files are quite large (over 6 meg). The
browser built

into AOL/CS has limits on the file size. But, you can still follow through

with the process on AOL/CS by using an "external" web

browser. To do so, close AOL and open MSIE or Netscape separately.


Be patient, as these may take a while to load (if you have a dial-up

connection, these may take up to 15-30 minutes). Also,

the files use a lot of RAM, so try to have a minimum number of programs

running in the background. You may find it easiest to download this late at
night or early in the morning to avoid problems with prime time internet
traffic.


The download address for the book:

http://proofs.iuniverse.com/0595199550/0595199550.pdf

Now, for those who wish a real live printed copy of my book, and are willing
to pay, you may go to my website and there I have listed six places you can
buy it online... only WalMart seems to be giving a discount, but they claim
three weeks to ship. The last link is how to buy it directly from me. I
cannot offer a discount either, but if you do buy it from me, I'll happily
autograph your copy.

That address for my website with the book is:

http://www.johnspiers.com/Write.html

This is the first of many books, I am sure!

Happy New Year!

John Spiers