Eugene Schwartz’s Secret to Copywriting Success

One of my all-time favorite copywriters is the late Eugene Schwartz.

If you’re a copywriter and you’ve never heard of him then save yourself any future embarrassment and read the rest of this post.

He was born in 1927 in Butte, Montana and moved to NYC in 1949 where he became one of the highest-paid copywriters of the 1950s and 60s

Schwartz made millions of dollars for his clients like Rodale Press who once paid him $54,000 for just four hours of work.

I have his book Breakthrough Advertising (which, by the way, still sells for over$100 used) on my shelf within arms length. I reference it often. I’ve read everything I can find about this man and studied his ads, his life and his teachings on copywriting.

And do you want to know what the most important lesson I’ve learned from him is? The real “secret” to success?

You may be offended if I tell you this but here it goes….

“The number one rule of success in anything – marketing, football, chess, etc. — is work.” — Euguene Schwartz

That’s it. Hard work! Sorry if that disappoints you.

But Schwartz said he got better results than most copywriters — including people who were more talented than he was — because he worked harder than they did.

And he did work hard. Schwartz worked every day, including Saturdays and Sundays and said he never had writer’s block.

He created 12 to 15 mailing pieces a year and had an 85% hit ratio (which means 85% of his ads paid out).

So there you go. The true secret to success is not really a secret at all. It’s just hard to do!