diff --git a/Feed2Lj.hs b/Feed2Lj.hs
--- a/Feed2Lj.hs
+++ b/Feed2Lj.hs
@@ -3,9 +3,11 @@
 import LjPost
 
 import System.Environment (getArgs)
-import System.Directory (renameFile)
+import System.Directory (renameFile, doesFileExist)
+import System (exitWith, ExitCode(..))
 import Control.Monad (liftM, mapM,ap)
-import Maybe (fromJust, isNothing, isJust)
+import Maybe (fromJust, fromMaybe, isNothing, isJust, maybe)
+import List ((\\))
 import Network.HTTP (urlEncode)
 
 import Text.Regex.Posix ((=~))
@@ -14,6 +16,7 @@
 import Text.Feed.Import (parseFeedString)
 import Text.Feed.Types (Feed, Item)
 import Text.Feed.Query
+import Text.HTML.TagSoup
 
 import IO
 import Codec.Binary.UTF8.String (encodeString)
@@ -34,12 +37,18 @@
      then (first ++ [head rest],tail rest)
      else (first,[])
 
--- remove all html/xml tags, quick and dirty
+-- remove all html/xml tags, use tag text and replace images with their ALT text
 eatTags :: String -> String
 eatTags [] = []
 eatTags s =
-  let (b,t,a) = s =~ "</?[^>]*/?>" :: (String,String,String)
-  in b ++ eatTags a
+  let tags = parseTags s
+      toString t =
+        if (isTagOpenName "img" t)
+          then (fromAttrib "alt" t)++" "
+          else if isTagText t
+            then fromTagText t
+            else ""
+  in  concat $ map toString tags
 
 -- mini template engine
 renderTemplate _ [] = []
@@ -54,42 +63,77 @@
        then b ++ (fromJust val) ++ renderTemplate alist a
        else b ++ t ++ renderTemplate alist a
 
-renderItem :: String -> Item -> String
-renderItem t i =
+renderItem :: (Maybe Int) -> String -> Item -> String
+renderItem n t i =
   let title = ( fromJust . getItemTitle ) i
       link = ( fromJust . getItemLink ) i
       guid = ( fromJust . getItemId ) i
-      summary = ( takeSentences 5 . eatTags . fromJust . getItemSummary) i
+      justFirst Nothing = id
+      justFirst (Just n) = takeSentences n
+      summary = ( justFirst n . eatTags . fromJust . getItemSummary) i
       tags = zip [ "title","link","text" ]
                  [ title, urlEncode link,summary ]
   in renderTemplate tags t
 
 isNotSent sent i = ((snd . fromJust . getItemId) i) `notElem` sent
 
-postItem u p t i = do
-  let message = renderItem t i
+postItem u p t n i = do
+  let message = renderItem n t i
   let subj = fromJust $ getItemTitle i
   r <- postToLj u p subj message
   if isSuccess r
     then putLjKey "url" r
     else putLjKey "errmsg" r
 
+printItem t n i = do
+  let message = renderItem n t i
+  let subj = fromJust $ getItemTitle i
+  putStrLn $ "Subject: " ++ subj
+  putStrLn message
+  putStrLn ""
+
+readFileIfExists f = do
+  t <- doesFileExist f
+  if t then readFile f
+       else return ""
+
+readMaybeInt =  maybe Nothing (\s -> Just (read s::Int))
+
+usage = "usage: feed2lj [--help] [--dry-run] http://example.com/rss.xml"
+
+printUsageAndExitIf c status =
+  if c
+    then do { putStrLn usage ; exitWith status ; }
+    else return ()
+
 main = do
-  url:_ <- getArgs
+  args <- getArgs
+  let opts = [ "--help", "--dry-run" ]
+  let dryrun = "--dry-run" `elem` args
+  printUsageAndExitIf ("--help" `elem` args) ExitSuccess
+
+  let args' = args \\ opts
+  printUsageAndExitIf (length args' == 0) $ ExitFailure 1
+
+  let url= head $ args \\ opts
   (_,rawfeed) <- curlGetString url []
 
   ljuser <- return fromJust `ap` readLjSetting "username"
   ljpass <- return fromJust `ap` readLjSetting "password"
   sentfile <- return fromJust `ap` readLjSetting "sentfile"
   t <- return fromJust `ap` readLjSetting "template"
-  sent_ids <- (return . lines) =<< readFile sentfile
+  nsentences <- return readMaybeInt `ap` readLjSetting "nsentences"
+  sent_ids <- (return . lines) =<< readFileIfExists sentfile
 
   let feed = fromJust $ parseFeedString rawfeed
   let items = feedItems feed
   let newitems = reverse $ filter (isNotSent sent_ids) items
   let new_ids = map ( snd . fromJust . getItemId) newitems
 
-  mapM_ (postItem ljuser ljpass t) newitems
-
-  renameFile sentfile (sentfile ++ "~")
-  writeFile sentfile $ unlines (sent_ids ++ new_ids)
+  if not dryrun
+    then do
+      mapM_ (postItem ljuser ljpass t nsentences) newitems
+      renameFile sentfile (sentfile ++ "~")
+      writeFile sentfile $ unlines (sent_ids ++ new_ids)
+    else do -- debug script and cross-post preview
+      mapM_ (printItem t nsentences) newitems
diff --git a/feed2lj.cabal b/feed2lj.cabal
--- a/feed2lj.cabal
+++ b/feed2lj.cabal
@@ -1,12 +1,10 @@
 name:                feed2lj
-version:             0.0.2
+version:             0.0.3
 synopsis:            Cross-post any RSS/Atom feed to LiveJournal
 description:         A script to cross-post any RSS/Atom Feed to LiveJournal.
                      .
-                     All HTML tags are merely stripped from the original. By
-                     default the script takes only the first 5 sentences of
-                     the original message. You may need to edit source to change
-                     this behaviour.
+                     All HTML tags are merely stripped from the original.
+                     Images are replaced with their ALT attributes.
                      .
                      CONFIGURATION
                      .
@@ -15,6 +13,8 @@
                      message are saved to the file defined by `sentfile`.
                      Additionally, define an HTML `template` of the cross-posted
                      messages as they should appear in LJ.
+                     Option `nsentences`, if defined, specifies how many
+                     sentences of the original message are to be cross-posted.
                      .
                      For example:
                      .
@@ -22,10 +22,14 @@
                           > password=myljpassword
                           > sentfile=/path/to/file/where/crossposted/GUIDs/are/saved
                           > template=<p>%text%</p><p>( <a href="%link%" title="%title%">more</a> )</p>
+                          > nsentences=5
                      .
                      USAGE
                      .
-                          > $ feed2lj http://example.com/rss.xml
+                          > $ feed2lj [--help] [--dry-run] http://example.com/rss.xml
+                     .
+                     Use `--dry-run` option to preview results without actually
+                     posting to LJ.
 
 stability:           experimental
 category:            Web
@@ -53,6 +57,7 @@
                        , old-locale, directory, time
                        , utf8-string, regex-posix
                        , HTTP, curl, feed
+                       , tagsoup >= 0.6
   if flag(nano-md5)
     build-depends:  nano-md5
     cpp-options:    -DNANOMD5