The Man Behind Words That Sell
Richard Bayan was born and raised in New Brunswick, NJ. He attended the local public schools and served as managing editor of his high school newspaper. After graduating with honors from Rutgers, where he majored in history, Bayan earned a master's in journalism from the University of Illinois.
The young writer cut his professional teeth in New York as an assistant editor of trade magazines like Rubber Age and Container News. He also worked as a staff writer for Time-Life Books until the division relocated to Virginia.
For seven years Bayan served as chief copywriter at Barron's Educational Series, where his work helped energize the company during a period of explosive growth. Then he moved to Day-Timers, still a Pennsylvania Dutch family-run business at the time. His work there as copy chief won six advertising awards in nine competitions while it helped propel the company to big-time revenues and prestige.
In 1999, after 14 years at Day-Timers, Bayan called it quits and leaped into the challenging world of freelance writing and consulting. His clients have ranged from the co-founder of Borders Books to a nonprofit art cinema in Allentown, PA. He also keeps busy with his four websites (including this one).
Bayan has authored four books: Words That Sell (1984; revised 2006) and its sequel, More Words That Sell (2003), a pair of popular reference books for people who write to persuade; The Best in Medical Advertising and Graphics (1989), a lavish collection of prizewinning examples, complete with Bayan’s commentaries; and The Cynic's Dictionary (1994), an acerbic modern successor to The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.
Today Bayan lives with his young son in a 110-year-old former livery stable in Philadelphia. He is a longtime history buff who enjoys collecting early voice recordings and film clips on the Internet.
