Just Slightly Contrarian: This Ain't Literature You're Writing

But I do care about writers of fundraising letters and packages, many of whom consider themselves to be stylistic wordsmiths.

“That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?” they say.

The truth is, the ones who give up that nonsense early in their career usually are successful. The ones who continue to be wordsmiths struggle, if they survive at all, and just never understand why their carefully crafted letters fall short when compared with letters from sloppy writers who don’t know the difference between the singular and the plural.