The Robert Collier Letter Book Paperback – July 30, 2013

The examples are very old, yet they are solid gold.If you are ever looking for an idea about how to craft a new business letter, then look no further for inspiration. This is one of those books I turn to and when I do I think why is this not on my desk all the time? There is so much in there.Old means proven, well established, and stands the test of time. Yes, you will want to change things up and in the end, your version will look nothing like the original. That's ok, you just want to get an idea, take it and run with that is where the value is.

Robert Collier was brilliant. This rendition of his work is poor. No proofreading or attention to formatting whatsoever. What a shame.

Many of the copywriting greats cite this book as one of maybe three foundational, wellspring, headwaters books for the entire industry of direct mail, and probably direct response marketing itself. I have heard Dan Kennedy talk endlessly about him. Gary Halbert puts this book in the first three of his recommended reading (and hand-copying) for aspiring copywriters, and none other than Yanik Silver has put a review of this book on this page. (If you don't know who Yanik Silver is, look him up. He's one of the most successful direct response copywriters working today.)So what should you expect when reading this book?Gary Halbert makes the point repeatedly, in different ways and places, that if your message is true, and good, and contains real value, then you don't need to obsess about the 'quality' of your medium to convey that message. He says essentially "If some guy hands you a crumpled up note that he pulled out of his pocket, and on it it says 'Your wife just gave birth to triplets', you're not going to dismiss this because it came on a crumpled up piece of paper."This point is worth bearing in mind when you order and read this book. The message itself is unparalleled, still accurate after almost 100 years, even though few people are probably selling rain coats via printed sales letters any more. Everything important is in here, and anyone who wants to call themselves a professional copywriter (or in-print salesman to quote Halbert again) should read, and re-read, and then re-read this book.Now, about the editing and typos. The other reviewers are right - they're everywhere and something distractingly so. I think whoever has printed this new version had some scanning software that read and re-typecast the text for this edition, and the software repeatedly injects odd symbols or letter combinations in the text, and puts the spacing of paragraphs and text at odd intervals. Sometimes it's hard to tell where his examples of sales letters end and where his commentary on them begins because there is very little body formatting to suggest it.But you know what?What he is writing about is so important, so valuable, and so helpful that you should STILL buy this book and swallow it whole, maybe even adding your own formatting notes to make sense of it yourself.The Greats are right - this IS one of the best books ever written on copywriting and direct mail, up there with Claude Hopkins "Scientific Advertising".You should just deal with the fact that a crumpled, hand-scrawled note has delivered you the good news about your triplets. If you're too short-sighted to understand that this is in fact how and why good sales letters succeed, then you really don't understand what copy-writing is all about.

Let me be the first to review this excellent book. Yes, it was written in the 1920s and 30s. But so what. So was that other timeless classic (actually two timeless classics) from that other advertising pioneer and GIANT of direct-response marketing who still teaches us today, Claude Hopkins.This reprint of the 1941 Fifth Edition is amazing. Thank you to the publishers, Martino Fine Books. You guys really outdid those bone heads over at that other publishing house who willfully butchered this venerable work with their cheesy and cheap knock-off edition. Your 2018 reprint is a thing of beauty. Every page and every chapter felt like I was sitting behind the wheel of a classic automobile fully restored in every detail to original factory specifications.The book, while being a 'logbook' of the author's most successful work, is actually a full-on 'course of study' in effective direct-mail advertising. No copywriter or marketer or advertiser worth his salt should go without reading it cover to cover. Tremendous education in "behavioral economics" in the direct-mail marketplace of the early 20th century. It still has much to show us (and remind us) about the ABCs of good copywriting.From the opening pages of his preface, Collier reminds you (or perhaps informs you for the very first time) that:"... while products and reasons for buying may vary, human nature remains much the same."Which is why..."... the one essential without which success is impossible in selling, by mail or selling in person, is a thorough understanding of human reactions."And so, for your marketing to work (i.e., bring you customers and make you money), you must always--"Study your READER first, your product second."And so on from there.If you want a really inexpensive and economical but powerful way to educate yourself on the basic principles of effective copywriting and direct-response marketing and advertising--and also enjoy a nostalgic and charming (and insightful) glimpse into the world of American commerce and industry, fashion and literature a hundred years ago--then buy and read this book. Twice.Make sure it's THIS edition. Lots of the original artwork and actual ads are included.

The text is an absolute classic and I've learned a ton from what I've read. However, the layout and typesetting of this volume is atrocious. I read the other reviews before I bought this and so I knew it was going to be a slog. It was. I wish there was a better version of this available (I'm even thinking of publishing it myself if there is enough interest (yes I really think the text is that good). Its just such a shame its been treated this badly by the publishers.

The Robert Collier Letter Book is essential reading for any aspiring copywriter or marketer. I was very excited to see it is back in print.Unfortunately, this edition has clearly been digitally scanned from an old version, and is littered with typos, random carriage returns and poor formatting. I would go as far as to say it is unreadable.No page numbers is also a little annoying.So - great book - but find an older version that has been formatted correctly.If the publishers ever correct these problems I will retract this review.

This is a really poor version, typo's and missing images, sometimes just huge chunks of the pages are simply blank, with text formatted in a single column tight to the right margin. Unreadable and unusable, returned minutes after I received it.

Sim, você ira aprender alguns princípios com este livro, porém pode aprender os mesmos princípios com um livro menos chato e melhor formatar.Leitura sofrida; só continuei lendo por quem recomendou este livro foi ninguém menos que: Gary Halbert.Porém, livro chato. Creio que no tempo de G. Halbert não existia melhores materiais para aprender esses princípios, portanto, ele recomendou este livro.— livro fucking Chato.Se você já sabe identificar uma boa copy, sabe os princípios — não perca tempo com este livro chato.Me desculpa Robert Collier.

This book is great. In the first few chapters, you get a distilled overview of what's really important for your copy. In the later few chapters, you get insights into hugely profitable direct mail campaigns, along with the exact letters that were sent out.I've heard about some other versions of this book being hard to read and poorly formatted. This book is not one of them - the formatting is extremely well done and easy to read.