James Innes is the Founder and Chief Executive of The CV Centre-the UK's leading CV consultancy and is now widely considered to be one of the UK's leading careers experts. He regularly participates at recruitment fairs and conferences as a sought-after guest speaker, as well as being interviewed on TV and radio. The Cover Letter Book sits alongside James's other careers publishing which include the bestselling The Interview Book, The CV Book and The Interview Question and Answer Book - all published by Pearson.

Part 1: Laying the foundations 1 Why are cover letters so important? 2 Getting the basics right Part 2: Job-hunting letters 3 Speculative letters: your foot in the door 4 Advert-response letters: a winning strategy Part 3: Specialist cover letters 5 Letters of application for specialist sectors Part 4: Digital considerations 6 Applying for jobs online Part 5: The 15 most common cover letter mistakes 7 How to avoid them! Part 6: Other job search letters 8 Application follow-up letters 9 Interview thank-you letters 10 Negotiating an offer 11 Requesting a reference 12 Resignation letters 13 Offer acceptance letters 14 Rejecting an offer 15 Accepting rejection Part 7: Career development letters 16 Pay rise request letters 17 Promotion request letters Part 8: Looking at the whole picture 18 Job hunting 19 CVs 20 LinkedIn 21 Interviews Part 9: My five top tips to make your cover letter stand out 22 How to make your cover letter stand out! Further reading and resources Appendix A: 250 action verbs Appendix B: 50 positive adjectives Appendix C: 222 commonly misspelled words