Letters That Make Good: A Desk Book for Business Men
A 1913 desk book edited by George William Poole, a Boston form-letter printer, and Jonathan John Buzzell, published by the American Business Book Company.
What it is
A 1913 desk book edited by George William Poole, a Boston form-letter printer, and Jonathan John Buzzell, published by the American Business Book Company. Part I has an introduction and eight short signed monographs by working advertising men, each on one part of a letter: the plan (Carroll Westall), the data (S. Roland Hall), the message (George W. Coleman), the style and the mechanics (George French), the opening (J. George Frederick), the body (W. H. Ingersoll) and the closing (Tim Thrift). Part II, edited by Buzzell, reproduces 306 letters that firms sent in as "The Best Letter I ever Used and Why", photographed on their own letterheads with the typefaces named in the margin. Numbered notes give each letter's purpose and, where the firm shared it, the result, such as 54 orders worth $1,893.31 from an unselected list of 362 names.
Why read it now
The monographs hold up better than most letter manuals of the period because they argue from facts, not tricks. Hall's point that no writer can sell what he has not studied, Coleman's call to get the facts first, and Frederick's attack on shouting openers such as "You're losing a big wad of money every day" all match current practice: specific, relevant information beats verbal cleverness, and a message carries one idea that the opening states. Buzzell's admission that many letters that "read well" failed to pull is the most useful line for a team today, since it is the case for testing over taste. The weak side is the evidence. Firms chose their own letters, results are often missing or vague, and nothing is measured against a control, so the collection shows what firms liked, not what worked. Poole's claim that the average form letter could do two to four times as much is an opinion. Use: build your own Part II. Ask each salesperson for the best message they ever sent and its result, keep it exactly as sent, and add one line on why it worked.
Passages worth keeping
It is my belief that the average form letter can be made to accomplish from two to four times as much as it now does.
يرى المحرر أن الرسالة النموذجية المعتادة تستطيع أن تحقق أضعاف نتيجتها الحالية لو خُطط لها بعناية، وهو رأي لم يقدم عليه قياسًا.
The fallacious idea about the clever writer's ability to write without data is responsible for a great deal of poor work.
مهارة الكاتب لا تغني عن المعلومات، فمن يكتب عن منتج لا يعرفه يخرج كلامًا حسن الصياغة لا يبيع.
The opening sentence of a form letter is the letter.
الجملة الأولى تقرر مصير الرسالة كلها، فإن لم تقل شيئًا لم يقرأ أحد ما بعدها.
To convince and persuade is the function of the body of a letter. It must do the hard work.
الافتتاحية تجذب والخاتمة تحسم، لكن الإقناع الحقيقي يجري في متن الرسالة بالحجج والأدلة.
Many letters that "read well" failed to pull business.
حسن الصياغة لا يضمن النتيجة، فكثير من الرسائل الجميلة لم تجلب أي عمل، والحكم للنتائج لا للذوق.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
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