It has taken me a long time to write this foreword for a simple reason.

I have read goodness knows how many books about copy and even written some.

But I was flabbergasted by Eddie Shleyner’s book. Its style is unlike anything I have come across. And the book is the most comprehensive I can recall. It gives you more sound, simple advice per page than anything I have read. Advice you can put to work immediately, based not on theory but on practice.

And it will save you many hours of mistakes and misery — and accelerate your drive to success to an extraordinary degree.

He shows you how to write, and how not to write, how to think — and how not to think. How to sell stuff nobody wants. How to choose the right words. When to run no copy at all. Even for the ghoulish, copy that persuaded people to kill.

Eddie, like many if not most successful copywriters was a salesman first (David Ogilvy and many others started by selling).

But above all Eddie has gone to immense pains. As far as I can tell he has overlooked nothing that matters. And from his studies he has mined hundreds of gems: practical, but pithy advice about everything — from what constitutes good design to what headlines work best to how to write more naturally.

He reveals the secrets of the best copywriters — people like Gene Schwartz, Dick Benson and Clayton Makepeace. He tells you how to spot winning ideas. What you should know about research, photographs, branding, and ideation. He appreciates the shortcomings of originality and gives you swipe files — ideas to steal or adapt.

To sum up, this book is extraordinarily helpful, informative, clear and concise.

He gives you everything you really need to know about the difference between failure and success in copywriting.

George Bernard Shaw said "All progress depends upon the unreasonable man."

Eddie Shleyner — when it comes to copywriting — is beyond unreasonable.

He's fanatical.

Dig in.

I warrant you will profit from it.

DRAYTON BIRD
London