Before you write any piece of copy, you need to figure out if the idea you’re writing about is any good. If your idea sucks ass, your copy will suck ass too. On the flipside: if your idea is good, writing the copy will be much easier, and faster. And chances are, your copy will be […]
Author Archives: GLENN FISHER
He looked at me gone out. Really? You read everything aloud? Even the 10,000-word letters? I was being interviewed for a podcast and we’d got on to my editing process. Yep, I answered. Pretty much. Between you and me, dear reader, sometimes I’m in a rush and won’t get a chance. But I would say nine times […]
This will upset some copywriters. But it will cause other copywriters joy. You see this is a piece about how to write more engagingly. But it’s not entitled 15 Tips For Writing More Engagingly. I dislike those pieces. I dislike them immensely. I see them all over the Internet. On Twitter, on LinkedIn, littering my inbox. 10 Rules […]
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Feb
Feb
It’s 1938… Very bad things are going down in Europe. Anti-Semitism is rife. The Nazi’s are about to annex Austria. And for a little known university graduate, there’s no choice… He needs to get out of the country. Fast. He flees to America. He’s lucky. He gets a graduate place at Columbia University, where he […]
Before we get to into this, some great news… I’m writing today from a hotel room in east London, where I’m looking out over the Tower of London. I made the trip down from my usual northern seaside hideout to attend the shortlist reveal event for the Business Book Awards 2019. My book, The Art of the […]
I’m in the nurse’s office. What do you do, she asks? A writer, I say. She stops. Gives me the look. We’re looking around a house for sale. What do you do, the estate agent asks? A writer, I say. She stops. Gives me the look. A mortgage advisor comes round to value our house. What do you do, he asks? […]
Regular reader Jared wrote in to say: “In Thomas Friedman’s book Thank You for Being Late he talks about the capacity of computer algorithms to write like humans. Friedman gives examples of algorithms writing sports columns or even poems that sound like they were written by humans. Jared goes on to ask: “Is there a danger that […]
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” So wrote old Bill Shakes, the frilly-collared play-dude. I’m not a massive Shakespeare fan, but try as I might, I couldn’t get that quote out of my mind whilst writing up the interview I have to share with you here. You see the ‘rose’ we’re […]
It’s an objection often raised, especially when it comes to longer pieces of copy. If handled badly, it can ruin your work. But get it right and it could be one of the most important tools you employ. I’m talking about repetition. A reader asks an interesting question on this very subject: “Is there a good […]
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Nov
Nov
“All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short…” Those are the words of David Ogilvy, in Ogilvy on Advertising. He was a pretty experienced guy when it came to copywriting… Did a few good things, apparently. Interestingly, Ogilvy went on to suggest one of the reasons behind this idea […]