| Don't expect to see a lot of fancy rhetoric in this book. |
| The letters we've chosen represent every facet of direct mail communication. You'll see letters selling land, vacuum cleaners, siding, steaks, and other prosaic commodities, as well as the highest level of fund raising and business-to-business offers. |
| Rather than apologize for including communications for a Las Vegas casino and an erotic stimulator, we rejoice in the opportunity to make this a representative collection of the most effective and successful direct mail letters ever written, regardless of their subjects. |
| We should also add: regardless of their age. Some of the great letters of the twentieth century were composed 20 to 40 years ago, and we have been lucky enough to capture a few of them. |
| Our personal philosophy is that paragraphs in letters should be indented... that no paragraph should be longer than seven lines... that some reference to the actual offer should appear early on. We have ignored our personal preferences in cases in which we knew a letter had performed well. After all, the purpose of this book is not to project our individual criticism, but rather to supply templates for every kind of persuasive letter-writing. |
| Whenever we could possibly do so, we have named the writer of the letter. Not every letter has this information, and this is for two reasons: First, in some cases we simply were unable to get the name, despite repeated requests. Second, the originators of some letters did not want their identifies disclosed because of competitive conflicts or changes in their professional circumstances. |
| An invitation to the reader who may recognize his or her handiwork, unsung: Let us know who you are and in subsequent editions of this book, you will receive the recognition you certainly deserve. |
| A challenge to those not represented in these pages, who fed they have authored a letter which deserves inclusion: Send us that letter and it may appear in a future edition of this book. |
| An apology to the hundreds or perhaps thousands of talented writers of whose letters we simply have been unaware: To create this book we mailed an invitation to every listed direct response writer and advertising agency. If our invitation did not reach you, blame the post office and the various directories, not us. |
|
