Cover letter 5000 characters is not enough

[stanislavko]

Hello,

I suggest to enlarge the amount of maximum characters in a cover letter

Thank you.

[petra_r]

5000 characters is way too long for a proposal in 999 out of 1000 cases. Most clients don't have the time or the patience to wade through half a novel per proposal.

Save your and the client's time for the interview process.

[stanislavko]

I get a response(invitation for further discussion from a client) frequently in case of more than 50 other proposals.

If you don't know how to structure your cover letter then don't tell me that 5000 is enough.

Thank you.

[petra_r]

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@Stanislav K wrote:

If you don't know how to structure your cover letter then don't tell me that 5000 is enough.

Thank you.

---

 Well, considering my contract history I'd hazard a guess that I do  know how to structure my cover letters just fine.

If you really want to write a long winded novel, do so in Word and attach it.

[prestonhunter]

5000 characters?

Ugh. As a client, I have hired for over 80 contracts. I have rarely read any cover letters. I certainly am not interested in reading more than 5000 characters.

But if you want to write more than 5000 characters, all you need to do is:

- include an attached file with longer text

- add your additional information to other questions

- include a link in your proposal to a text file on your site that includes the additional text

Using these workarounds, your proposal letter can be as long as you want it to be.

[digiphics]

5000? Dear Lord. Ok, I have landed jobs with a mere 100 words. The old saying "Time is Money" comes into play here, 99.9% of clients will not spend the time to read 5000 words, that takes time out of their day that could be put to use making money or completeing their daily tasks at work. A 5000 word proposal is something you would sit on the back porch with a glass of wine and read "5000 words under the Proposal". Grad the attention of the potential client in your first 3 sentences, then the remainder 6 sentences tell them how you are going to solve their problem and complete the project. No need for 5000 words.

[prestonhunter]

To his credit, the original poster clearly IS finding success as a freelancer on Upwork. He has 100% JSS, has completed 23 jobs and 3,835 hours.

So whatever he is doing seems to be working for him.

Given the fact that he has simple work-arounds available to him for submitting proposal letters of unlimited length, and with the dearth of other clients or freelancers asking for an increase in the possible length of proposal letters.... it seems unlikely that Upwork will make increasing this length a priority.

[eeshwardas]

Thanks for the words Gerald,

5000 does seem a bit much.  Haven't come close to 5000 myself.

From this different perspective on the discussions board, it makes me want to shorten my cover letters quite a bit.