Last weekend, I saw an interview with the world's best-selling author, Mickey Spillane. He's been published for 58 years, has sold 140 million books, and is currently the most translated writerin the world.
The article, by Jeffrey M. Anderson, appeared in the San Francisco Examiner and is not available online, so I can't give you a link. But let me share a couple choice quotes that should help you in your copywriting:
Anderson: Why do you write?
Spillane: I write to make money. It's an income-making device. It keeps me eating. I'm not an author; it's a business.
Wow. The guy behind tough-guy detective Mike Hammer novels doesn't talk about the literary life and influences of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Homer; he talks about cold, hard cash.
Just this week I learned that one of my most successful mentoring clients, copywriter Wendy Baldwin, had rewritten a sales Web site and her copy outpulled the previous copy by a factor of 8 to 1.
Eight times more money for the same traffic.
Yep, that's what it's all about.
One more Mickey Spillane quote for you:
Anderson: What's your technique for writing mysteries?
Spillane: I always start with the ending. When you read a book, why do you stick with it? To get to the end. And you hope the end is so good that you hope it justifies all the time you spent reading the thing.
This is a guy who has sold 140 million books. I strongly suspect he might know what he's talking about.
And yeah, it might be worth your while to read his words a second time.
Before you do, a question to ponder:
Do you think the same thing, about beginning with where you want to end up before you start writing, could also apply to copywriting?
~~~~~ Words from a very different writer ~~~~~~
Also this weekend, the sealed ashes of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson were propelled into the air as part of a funeral pyre that included spectacular fireworks.
Here's something Thompson said I would like you to think about:
"You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."
How often do you see copy that leaves you cold? Next time you do, go back and read it a second time. Ask yourself: Did the person who wrote this have even any book-knowledge of what they're writing about?
Or, more to the point, any first-hand knowledge?
A related quotation comes from my good friend and world-renowned keynote speaker/speech coach Patricia Fripp.
Quoting her brother Robert (of King Crimson fame), she says:
"You must master technique in order to abandon it."
Robert was talking about playing guitar. Patricia talks about public speaking.
But I'm talking about copywriting. So many people make no attempt to master the basics before they go off on their own tangent.
And then they wonder why their copy doesn't get them sales...
BTW, you can learn a lot from Ms. Fripp -- Lord knows I have. Subscribe to her free email newsletters at:
http://www.fripp.com/newsletter.html
~~And now for something completely different~~
How about a quote from...
... a COPYWRITER?
Sure, why not:
NOW...AT LAST...THE NEW AMAZING
Gem of genius slowly blazing.
The one man who, without a doubt
Knows what this business is about.
The man who screams, when words are changed,
That all the changers are deranged.
Still, were he quieter or politer,
He wouldn't be a copywriter.
That little piece of verse is by copywriter Draper Daniels, who was working in ad agencies when I was in diapers. And that was a long time ago, when only cloth diapers were available...
If you've ever written copy for a client, who both wants to mess with your copy but also wants to hold you accountable for results, you can definitely relate to the last four lines of the verse.
Want more advertising lore and history of that caliber? It's in a great book called "The Mirror Makers" by Stephen Fox.
Here's a link on amazon for you:
http://www.world-copywriting-institute.com/mirror
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That's it for today. Enjoy the waning days of what has turned out to be a very hot summer for a lot of people.
Cheers,
David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter