Appendix A: Surveys

1. Fiction Writers

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a PhD student in the Communications program at McGill University. My main interest is in how artists are using emerging media, in this case, the Internet. To help me in my research, I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to fill out the attached questionnaire and return it to me.

This is a purely academic questionnaire; the results will not be used for commercial purposes. If you would like to see the results of this research, please let me know. I may be part of a project at McGill to put Doctoral dissertations on the Web, in which case I will be happy to forward you the URL. If this does not work out, I will email you the chapter which is relevant to what you are doing. ALSO: I must apologize, in advance, if any of the questions are answered on a page on your Web site; since the survey is going to a large number of people, I had to make it as broad and general as possible.

If you have any questions about the questionnaire or my research in general, please feel free to send me an email message with your queries. Otherwise, I look forward to receiving your response to this questionnaire.

Ira Nayman

QUESTIONS

1) What is your writing background?

2) Has your writing been published in traditional print media (books, magazines, journals, etc.)?
2a) If so, where?

3) Where did you get the idea to publish your writing on the WWW? (Ie: friends, saw other Web pages with writing on them, book or magazine, other)
3a) Why did you decide to publish your writing on the WWW?
3b) In your experience, what, if any, are the advantages of the WWW over traditional print media?
3c) What, if any, are the disadvantages?

4) What sort of feedback has your fiction gotten?
4a) What is your sense of the people who read your page?
4b) If possible, could you supply me with a (small, please) sampling of the responses to your fiction on the Web?

5) Where do you access the Internet from? (Ie: home, school, work, some combination of the three, other)
5a) How else do you use your computer? (Ie: word processing, game playing, other)

6) If I feel the need to clarify anything you have said, would you be willing to answer one or two follow-up questions?

2. Zine writers

To Whom It May Concern,

If you have any questions about my the questionnaire or my research in general, please feel free to send me an email message with your queries. Otherwise, please respond within the next two weeks (that is, by [DATE]). I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Ira Nayman

QUESTIONS

1) What is your writing background?

2) Has your writing been published in traditional print media (books, magazines, journals, etc.)?
2a) If so, where?

4) How did you find out about the e-zine?
4a) Have you published fiction on your own Web page as well as in an ezine?
4b) If so, what are the advantages of publishing in both places?
4c) What are the disadvantages?
4c) If not, what are the advanatages of not publishing on your own page?
4d) What are the disadvantages?
4e) Has your fiction been published in more than one ezine?
4f) If so, could you briefly outline where and when?

5) What sort of feedback has your fiction gotten?
5a) What is your sense of the people who read your page?

6) Where do you access the Internet from? (Ie: home, school, work, some combination of the three, other)
6a) How else do you use your computer? (Ie: word processing, game playing, other)

7) If I feel the need to clarify anything you have said, would you be willing to answer one or two follow-up questions?

3. Zine editors

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a PhD student in the Communications program at McGill University. My main interest is in how artists are using emerging media, in this case, the Internet. To help me in my dissertation research, I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to fill out the attached questionnaire and return it to me.

Ira Nayman

QUESTIONS

1) What is your publishing background?

2) Have you worked in traditional print media (books, magazines, journals, etc.)?
2a) If so, where, and in what capacity?

3) How long has your electronic publication been in existence?
3a) Could you give a brief history of your publication (how it started, how it has developed, grown, etc.)?
3b) How often do you publish? (Is time even a factor any more, when you can add pieces of writing at any time?)
3c) How have you tried to publicize the publication?

4) Do you pay writers?
4a) If so, how much?
4b) If not, do you plan to?
4c) Do you compensate your writers in any other way?

5) What is your submission policy?
5a) Specifically, what sort of material are you looking for?
5b) In what format must it be submitted? (Ie: do you accept paper submissions?)

6) What criteria do you use to decide what fiction to accept for publication?
6a) How many people typically edit a story before it is published?
6b) How much of your work with others at the ezine is conducted online?

7) Why did you decide to publish your electronic magazine on the WWW?
7a) In your experience, what, if any, are the advantages of the WWW over traditional print media?

8b) What, if any, are the disadvantages?
8c) Are there any other differences worth mentioning?

9) What sort of feedback has your publication gotten?
9a) What is your sense of the people who read your publication?
9b) If possible, could you supply me with a (small, please) sampling of the responses to your fiction on the Web?

10) Are you planning on making money from your electronic magazine?
10a) If so, how (subscriptions, advertising, other)?

11) If I feel the need to clarify anything you say, would you be willing to answer one or two follow-up questions?

4. Hypertext writers

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a PhD student in the Communications program at McGill University. My main interest is in how artists are using emerging media, in this case, the Internet. To help me in my research, I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a few moments to fill out the attached questionnaire and return it to me.

If you have any questions about my the questionnaire or my research in general, please feel free to send me an email message with your queries. Otherwise, I look forward to receiving your response to my questionnaire.

Ira Nayman

QUESTIONS

1) What is your writing background?

2) Have you written traditional prose fiction?
2a) Has your writing been published in traditional print media (books, magazines, journals, etc.)?
2b) If so, where?

3) Where did you get the idea to publish your writing on the WWW? (Ie: friends, saw other Web pages with writing on them, book or magazine, course, other)
3a) Why did you decide to publish your writing on the WWW?
3b) In your experience, what, if any, are the advantages of the WWW over traditional other media (ie: CD-ROM)?
3c) What, if any, are the disadvantages?

4) Why did you decide to write in hypertext?
4a) In your experience, what, if any, are the advantages of hypertext over traditional prose?
4b) What, if any, are the disadvantages?
4c) Do you also write linear fiction?
4d) If so, what, in your experience, are the main differences between the two?

5) Do you start with the structure of your work, or start writing chunks and then develop the structure?
5a) How do you decide which chunks to hyperlink?
5b) How do you decide when a work is complete?
5c) What other considerations guide you in your creative process?

6) Have you used a hypertext authoring tool other than HTML (Ie: Hypercard or Storyspace?)
6a) If so, how do you feel HTML compares to the other system?
6b) What do you find works well about HTML?
6c) What aspects of HTML do you find don't work well?

7) As a hypertext author, do you feel you lose some control over your work?
7a) If so, does this affect how you go about creating hypertext stories?

8) What sort of feedback has your fiction gotten?
8a) What is your sense of the people who read your work?
8b) If possible, could you supply me with a (small, please) sampling of the responses to your fiction on the Web?

9) Where do you access the Internet from? (Ie: home, school, work, some combination of the three, other)
9a) How else do you use your computer? (Ie: word processing, game playing, other)

10) Can you recommend any other WWW sites which contain hypertext fiction?

11) If I feel the need to clarify anything you have said, would you be willing to answer one or two follow-up questions?

5. Collaborative Fiction Writers

To Whom It May Concern,

Ira Nayman

QUESTIONS

1) What is your writing background?

2) Have you written traditional prose fiction?
2a) Has your writing been published in traditional print media (books, magazines, journals, etc.)?
2b) If so, where?

3) Where did you get the idea to publish your writing on the WWW? (Ie: friends, saw other Web pages with writing on them, book or magazine, course, other)
3a) Why did you decide to put your writing on the WWW?
3b) In your experience, what, if any, are the advantages of the WWW over traditional other media (ie: CD-ROM)?
3c) What, if any, are the disadvantages?

4) Why did you decide to add to a collaborative work?
4a) In your experience, what, if any, are the advantages of collaborative fiction over traditional prose?
4b) What, if any, are the disadvantages?
4c) Do you also write traditional fiction?
4d) If so, what, in your experience, are the main differences between the two?

5) As a collaborative author, do you feel you lose some control over your work?
5a) If so, does this affect how you write?

6) Where do you access the Internet from? (Ie: home, school, work, some combination of the three, other)
6a) How else do you use your computer? (Ie: word processing, game playing, other)

7) If I feel the need to clarify anything you have said, would you be willing to answer one or two follow-up questions?