Letter writing today is a profession, an art. Don't take It too much for
granted. Don't just dash off a so-called sales letter and send It out,
hoping It will do an effective job - or hurriedly and thoughtlessly
dictate a routine business letter, satisfied if it just answers another.
There's power in a good letter and not to take advantage of it is an
economic waste. Remember that by their very customs and traditions
people are vitally Interested In letters. Of all the kinds of mail
received, they are invariably opened first, and that's true whether the
address on the envelope is handwritten or typewritten. So, your letter
has a decided advantage to begin with. It is almost certain to be opened
and - shall we say - scanned? Whether it is read, assimilated and acted
upon depends to a large extent on the way you have put your thoughts
together, on the construction of your message. If you want to write
better letters - friendlier, more convincing, more resultful - I believe
the careful reading of this book will help you. It wasn't prepared for
the professional letter writer, but rather for the many thousands of men
and women who perhaps write good letters now, but who could write
outstanding letters with a little of the right kind of study and
application. If I have done a good job, you should be able to apply
immediately the information this book contains to your own individual
problems. I hope sincerely that you can and that in a short while every
one of the letters you turn out will be a sales letter in every sense of
the term, regardless of its primary purpose.
