This book covers mainly the topics direct mail (mail package, letter, response form ec.). It also covers topics like brochures, print ads and catalogs. But there are also some additional chapters on the radio ads and the internet (aka online media). The later one was highly stimulating and provoked a partial redo of the website I build as part of my work as a centermanager....

Write on Target is filled with sound ideas and guidelines for direct marketing creatives. Frankly, I wish I had this information when I was starting out. It definitely belongs in every marketing library and right next to the computer of every copywriter!

Write On Target: The Direct Marketer's Copywriting Handbook by Donna Baier Stein and Floyd Kemske will give you an excellent understanding of what direct marketing copy is and isn't, how to write good copy, and how to tell good copy from bad.

I really liked it because it has lots of sound, practical advice, tips, and checklists. It also has many examples of real campaigns covering all types of direct marketing copy from letters and brochures to the hot topic of writing for online media such as Web sites. Many examples are reproduced from the originals, showing parts of the package with graphics. It always gets my creative juices flowing when I read what the really greats in the industry are writing.

Even though I'm an experienced copywriter, going back for a "refresher course" is always helpful. For the person just starting out or with a couple of years' experience . . . this book is a must! It's also very valuable for anyone who has to hire copywriters, teach cop! ywriting, or approve copy.

Although Floyd Kemske jokes about being an obscure novelist, it is truly a shame that his pioneering books about downsizing, corporate cold-bloodedness and wacky HR policies are not more widely known. "Human Resources" possesses enough wit to entertain and challenge as it draws the reader into the ultimate in predatory workplaces. Lovers of Dilbert and corporate skeptics will enjoy the acid penned approach and even some HR types will smile at his depiction of an anti-personnel department. Kemske is somewhat of an acquired taste, but he is well worth your time.

This is the second novel by Floyd Kemske I've read (Lifetime Employment being the first).

Kemske's voice is a mixture of cool and detached perspective, with a little...something that quietly says, "all is not quite right." Reading Kemske is like reading a Kubrick film. Comparison to J.G. Ballard and Christopher Fowler also come easily.

Giving the story away, this is easily the best vampire novel I've ever read. I recommend this and Lifetime Employment very highly.

For me, Talleyrand is one of the most fascinating characters in history, as changing as the weather, more venal than today's politicians and as intelligent and perceptive as Aristotle. One might liken him to a Bill Clinton without either the populism or the personal magnetism. By and large, Talleyrand is treated with contempt by both his contemporaries (Napoleon described him as a silk stocking full of number two) and historians, with a few exceptions (Wellington considered him the most consistent, effective and far-sighted proponent of France's interests at the Congress of Vienna and afterwards). Nonetheless he is a figure of the first importance in history and a participant or nearby witness to the key events for two generations of European history. What Kemske's novel does best is to acquaint the reader with Talleyrand's background, his motivations and his justifications (not always persuasive ones). To that extent, it is an exceptional piece of historical fiction and a bit of fun to read as well.

This is an outstanding historical novel and is one of the best of its genre. Mr. Kemske captures the essence of Prince Talleyrand and distills it into a novel of manageable length. Few works of non-fiction about Talleyrand exist. Much of "The Ruin of Kasch" by Roberto Calasso is about him, as is the excellent "Congress of Vienna" by Sir Harold Nicolson. This is an excellent complement to those two works of non-fiction. See how Prince Talleyrand preserved France from spoilation by its enemies from within and without. This is a classy book, as classy as its subject.

Sitting at my local bookstore on Labor Day, I was looking for anything to read. Sure enough, this book grabbed my attention, maily because of the title.

If there is one thing that I can say about LABOR DAY, it reads extremely fast, as I finished it in one sitting. Having never heard of Floyd Kemske, I was surprised to find out that this is actually the fourth novel in a series.

LABOR DAY is about a union president who has to oppose an organized stand by his very own office staff. There are many plot twists, and a few tangled love interests to keep your interest throughout the quick read.

The writing is fairly crisp, and well-planned. Kemske's use of irony is seditious to say the least, but it helps the storyline move along reasonably well. Overall, LABOR DAY was good, light reading.

Although Kemske calls his novel a "corporate nightmare," it's also a sci-fi novel. Literary critics often consider old genre ideas as fresh, new, and original when they first appear in a non-genre "literary novel." So it is in this case.

THE VIRTUAL BOSS's theme was old in sci-fi circles by the 1950s. A computer runs an office, and takes over with a mind of its own. THE VIRTUAL BOSS will remind many of the HAL 9000 in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, or COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT.

Kemske's computer is less interested in exploring space than in efficient office management. The result is an enjoyable book on modern cubicle culture.

Not a great prophetic book. Written in the early 1990s, Kemske predicted a future of high unemployment and 12-hour workdays. He failed to foresee the economic boom of the late 1990s, or the empowerment the internet brought to individuals. But there's still some good social commentary in this book.

A good book for those who enjoy reading about office politics and management and cublicle culture.

This is a scary book. This is a scary and well told tale. The underlying conceit is nearly science fiction but all too current and all too plausible to be just science fiction. Instead, call it a reality check. Computers are underestimated. They are ubiquitous. To those of us who know them, they can be scary. Floyd Kemske understands their prime directive and weaves a wonderful yarn. Let us wish it was only science fiction.

If you're a Dilbert fan, you'll love this book. While reading this book, I found myself laughing and crying at the same time. Since I was once a corporate slave myself, so many of the situations in this book were real to me. Consider if someone actually created a computerized manager for you. This manager did not have the power to hire or fire you and could only cajole you into being more productive. That's what this book is about. The "Virtual Boss" is like an Eliza program gone horribly wrong. This was one of those books where I was stopping every page or so and reading the jokes aloud to whoever would listen. Great fun.