In 1960, the Famous Writers School opened its doors and followed in the profitable footsteps of its business twin, the Famous Artists School.
In the year 2000, American Writers and Artists Institute or AWAI, first cast its wide net in the biz-op market. I remember my mailbox was pelted for several years with AWAI’s magalogs. One of its mainstay headlines was something like: “Last year I went through a bitter divorce. I needed time to laugh…time to cry…and time to make millions writing simple sales letters.”
I don’t remember seeing a biz-op offer in magalog form before them. They still seem to be going strong though I’ve wandered off their list.
So what did the Famous Writers School and AWAI both have in common?
They were following a well established business model in the writer’s market developed by the Newspaper Institute of America in 1926.
Pretty authoritative sounding name…isn’t it?
Actually, that seems to be one of the keys of making this type of business take off. It’s doubtful the numerous versions of the above ad would have run for 34 years had they been called Ajax Direct, Inc.
And since this is a mail order business, location is hardly important. Newspaper Institute of America was run out of an office at 1 Park Avenue in New York but they could have likely succeeded in the sunny yet rough and tumble stretch of Delray Beach, Florida that’s home to AWAI today.
Interestingly, AWAI has combined the best of the names of these three entities: Famous Artists School, Famous Writers School and Newspaper Institute of America.
The success of this little N.I.A. ad demonstrated the depth of this market for years to come.
“To People Who Want to Write But Can’t Get Started” is still a potent headline. It efficiently translates to a multitude of areas, like:”To People Who Want to Blog But Can’t Get Started.”
Here is the heart of the ad.
Newspaper Institute of America offers a free writing aptitude test. Its object is to discover new recruits for the army of men and women who add to their income by fiction and article writing. The writing aptitude test is a simple but expert analysis of your latent ability, your powers of observation, imagination, dramatic instinct, etc. All applicants do not pass this test. Those who do are qualified to take the famous NIA course based on the practical training given by big metropolitan dailies.
Like it’s predecessor, the Famous Artists School, it’s doubtful the N.I.A ever “rejected” a respondent to their ad. That qualifier, however, turned the ad into one of the best lead generation ads ever published.
Hi Lawrence,
Swiping Successful Business Models seems to be the norm doesn’t it, I have heard over again the term I’d rather be a rich copier than a broke original thinker.
and another popular term that gets thrown around is the good old “why reinvent the wheel.”
A high profile seminar speaker here in Australia has basically made his fortunes by copying the legendary Dan Kennedy.
But at the end of the day it all comes down to Action.
With it success is but a pipe dream.
I am a “graduate” of NIA, the only training I ever had in writing. I was a good photographer and after a series of front page pictures in the Philadelphia Bulletin, an editor there enrolled me in NIA “since you’re always at these events you just as well report as take pictures.” He said that at that time there were six experienced New York City editors on NIA’s staff. That was back in the early 1950’s and I was just out of highschool. I finished the program while serving as a U.S. Army photographer. I have made a decent living by writing since then both in newspapers and public relations where I spent 20 years as a PR supervisor for a Fortune 500 company. Not a bad career based on a “correspondence school.” NIA was a great business, run by people who knew what they were selling.
I don’t know if anyone was ever rejected by the NIA, but I can tell you this course was no bird. The person to whom I was linked knew what he was doing and accepted no junk. I had a few extensive rewrites to get it right.
I never was employed as a writer but many situations needed the function of someone who could write direct, understandable prose and the final edited product became my responsibility. Luckily my training made it much easier for me.
I have never regretted taking this training and I am sorry for current “graduates” of the public system who will never know the joy of being able to express themselves eloquently when circumstances warrant.
Thanks, Shane. You’ve given me more firsthand info about the NIA than I’ve ever gotten before.
Took the course in ’84 and got my first publishing job with a local paper. Haven’t stopped writing since and have two novels published. Glad to hear NIA is still around.
Hi L. Jaye, thanks for sharing your experience and post NIA C.V.!