A Brief Introduction To This Collection

As big as this collection looks, it is only a fraction of the work I have produced over the years. Many of my manuscripts are lost forever -- either in crashed computers, on obsolete software (remember when floppy disks really were floppy?), or sitting in a moldy banker's box in a forgotten attic corner of some place I used to live.

Fortunately, I have managed to hold onto an impressive stash of samples, both of mailed letters and published magazine ads. That is the source of the material in this collection. It includes most of my recent stuff, plus ALL of the letters that have attained some measure of fame among direct response professionals.

It pleases me no end that -- just as I once pored over the gorgeous copy of Gary Benzivenga and Jim Rutz as a rookie freelancer -- writers and marketers now closely study my letters and hoard them like treasure. (In fact, several pieces appear here only because colleagues sent me copies from their own swipe files of my stuff.)

It's the kind of fame that only comes when you suddenly realize you are no longer the young guy on the scene anymore. You're now the wizened old guru. Ah, well. Beats the alternative.

So let's have no bitching about little glitches in the reproductions here. It's a miracle some of this stuff has survived at all. (I know writers who have kept zero samples of their work.) A few of the letters have crumples and folds that show up as annoying lines; others are copies of copies of copies, and not perfect specimens of clear typography. All color graphics show up as gray.

These glitches are irrelevant. It is the words you're after. That's where the gold lies. The winners in this collection brought in (and many continue to bring in) multiple-millions in sales. Some of these pieces have mailed for years without a single word change. Others are brought back out of retirement every year or so and mailed to all the new names that have accumulated on hot lists since the previous mailing. Still others are reformatted to run in top publications (like Golf Digest, Men's Journal, Black Belt, Penthouse and Investor's Business Daily.)

This is timeless material. These pieces are part of the seamless continuum of great salesmanship that has worked without pause since the dawn of civilization.

I did my best to include a decent cross-section of the many products I've written about -- from the diet market, the financial market, the sex market and others -- but the best examples are most often from my work with "The Boys". These are my longtime

California clients who have never once resisted mailing a letter or ad I've written, no matter how outrageous or new the idea was.

That's why there are so many pieces here about golf, self-defense and bodybuilding. The Boys -- Bob Pierce, Dr. Russ Horine, Leo Costa, Jr., and Dr. Mike O'Leary -- are smart, savvy entrepreneurs and absolute "dream" clients who have ventured into some truly fascinating markets. They've been my laboratory for eleven wonderful years, and I want to publicly thank them for trusting me, even when I came up with off-the-wall concepts that frightened them. You guys are gold.

*Most writers never get the leash taken off*, and spend their careers slaving away for clients who think it's a good idea to have their wife, or drinking buddy, or majoring-in-English Lit granddaughter critique your copy. And make every silly change that pops into their sales-challenged head.

When I work for big corporations, my copy almost NEVER goes out the way I write it. Too many bean counters get their paws on the manuscript. Too many V.P.s feel they have to piss on the project to justify their job. Too many lawyers say "no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that." Too many idiots without a drop of salesman's blood in their veins insist that a committee can create good advertising.

It's infuriating... and it murders the ads.

That's what makes this collection of "entrepreneurial" letters so important. The winners here are concepts that have been born in the fever of great salesmanship... and allowed to go out in the world to thrive or die on their own merits. If there's any genius here, it is the science of direct response advertising, as used by gutsy entrepreneurs. I write the way I write because that's what works. I know it works, because the results are measurable.

Most of the material you are about to see here are home runs -- copy that brought home the bacon. There are one or two duds included, because part of knowing what's good is understanding what's not so good. Failure is a huge advantage to suffer through, if you take the lesson to heart.

You'll soon see that the concept is the important thing. The well-chosen word or phrase. The story behind the ad. The compelling offer. It doesn't matter what product, business or service you're selling -- there's a way to twist almost any of these concepts around to make it work for you.

If you're smart, you'll read this collection through the filter of your own needs. How, for example, a particular headline can be altered to fit your business, or how you can parlay a similar concept to your house list, or how a certain power word can turn your own ho-hum ad into a sensation that pinches your reader on the ass.

What you now hold in your hands is a roiling cauldron of brilliant ideas, words, concepts and techniques. Many of them are old as dirt, many have been lifted from other sources, many are my own brainstorms. But, thanks to some great clients, I've been able to test them all in the real world. No guesswork here, no theory or ideology. These are letters that actually got mailed... and ads that actually ran in publications.

When they worked, the orders came in thick and heavy and everyone earned a fortune.

When they bombed, we knew it immediately. And went to Plan B.

So, enjoy yourself here. I would have killed to get my hands on such a collection of material from a proven writer when I was starting out. It would have shortcut my path to success by... oh... at least ten years. That's a sobering thought.

I think I'll go grab a beer, sit back, and reflect on life. It's been one helluva ride...

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P.S. Remember... you can reach me with questions, comments, testimonials (always looking for testimonials), offers and ideas at: [email protected].

The dedication

I want to dedicate this collection to my father, Ed Carlton. He never lost faith in me, even when I was screwing up royally. His unconditional love and support has been the greatest gift of my life. Thanks, Pop.