Copy That

Copywriting is the marketing activity I love best. So I was fascinated to find the great e-marketing guru Seth Godin complaining bitterly in his daily blog about a copy editor who had taken all the life out of his writing.

This was surprising because Seth writes meticulous prose. Reading his blog, you’ll be hard pressed to find grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. The words and sentences hang together and make sense. When he states a fact, he gives a reference. He doesn’t exaggerate. He doesn’t repeat. He avoids clichés like the plague (thanks to William Safire for that one).

Those are the basics. However complying with the ‘rules’ only makes sure your reader isn’t put off from respecting or even reading your work. What separates the good from the average is the evidence of a mind at work. It must be clear that it was written by a real person with their own voice, someone who has an opinion robustly argued or who makes an emotional connection with the reader.

I can only assume that Seth’s copy editor tried to take out of his copy that which makes him so readable- his individual way of speaking and his highly informed view of the world.