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Cuno on writing

Long sells, but don’t 
make it too long


Long Copy Versus L-O-N-G Copy

If you pour sap straight from the sugar maple tree onto your pancakes, you’ll regret it. But boil 35 gallons down to one, and you’ll have maple syrup to die for.

It’s like good copywriting. 

Anyone who measures the effectiveness of writing for a living knows that long copy outsells short. But there’s long, and then there’s l-o-n-g. Self-indulgent rambling sells nothing.

When I write copy, I print and pore over it, red pen in hand, until it resembles a battlefield. Then I revise, reprint, and re-pore. I do this four or five times before I’m happy. As a result, the copy ends up short, punchy—and right.

I just wrote a newsletter article. After putting it through the above-described process, I was in love with all 1,650 words that remained. Then I dumped it into the layout. Oops. 1,310 words too long. Cutting another 80 percent of my beloved words hurt like the dickens. Besides, I was tired. But when I finished, I had to concede that the remaining 20 percent truly wielded power.

The ability to excise all you can without sacrificing meaning, tone or content is a gift. Covet it. Like syrup, the more you boil down copy, the tastier it gets.

—Steve Cuno
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