The most recommended copywriting books

Howard Gossage was not your typical ad man. He was cut from a different cloth. His love/hate relationship with the profession led to some innovative ad campaigns. He once ran an ad that ended mid-sentence (people were dying to know what happened next). He advertised Finna Gas by offering free balloons - filled with PINK air. He was part troll, part genius. And his style and flair are things I try to emulate with my own work.

You’ll eventually get to a point in your copy career where you feel jaded. Where you’re tired of selling your soul one sentence at a time. When you reach that point, this book will bring you back to life. That’s what it did for me.

A bit dated, but fun.

“Advertising” used to be considered a good field for English majors, because they have “a way with words.” But advertising has morphed. It’s become “marketing” or “public relations” or “publicity”—more about graphics now, than words. Different.

Lord Peter Wimsey however still has “a way with words” in this cozy, so he goes undercover in a London advertising agency to investigate a suspicious death. With PG Wodehouse-like verbal hi-jinks, he ingratiates himself into the copywriting department, composing jingles about cleansers and such.

Silliness ensues. Then an interesting question arises: are there ethics in this business where people are rewarded for telling lies to sell what nobody actually needs? In such a culture, can Peter discover the truth? Can the words of any advertiser be trusted? 

In a world of ever-shortening attention spans, you’ve got a minute (maybe even less) to grab your reader’s attention and hook them. How exactly do you do that? Kevin Rogers lays out a simple four-step framework you can use to sell any product in any market with ease. This book has come in handy time and time again. It always helps me get to the essence of the sales argument I’m trying to construct. I use this framework for this book on my websites, in my sales letters, and even in some of my emails. It’s a timeless formula you’ll lean on for years to come. 

This book was a roller coaster ride. Although I don’t think the word “copywriting” is mentioned a single time throughout, I think it’s one of the best copywriting books ever written. Oren is a master of pitching, usually through presentations. I love the system he lays out in this book and I use it every single day at my email marketing agency. The biggest win I ever got was understanding his concept of the “Flash Roll.” I probably owe at least $500,000 in client work from understanding this 30-second script.

We’re writers before we’re anything else, and over the years I’ve learned from many how-to-write books. I’ll give two recommendations here: One: William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. Justifiably a classic. I’ve gone back to it often and assigned it in writing classes. If you haven’t yet read it, you must. Two: anything by Gary Provost, someone you’ve probably never heard of, but whose books on writing, all of them, give pungent, smart advice on how to write anything better. Brevity, euphony, clarity, surprise, and lots of other elements combine to create prose worth reading. Provost shows us how.

A lot of writers get all hot and bothered over Claude’s other book, Scientific Advertising. But I think it’s somewhat boring and too theoretical. My Life In Advertising is the story of how an unknown copywriter transformed the world of advertising forever and became the most powerful man in print.

Claude wasn’t a conqueror like Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon. But when you read this book, it awakens that same spirit. This man turned himself into a legend. His story-arc is something I became cognizant of, especially as I started to build my business and get my name out there.

This one will teach you about ad writing, sure. But the more important lessons will come from how Claude became somebody in this industry.

Pohl drew heavily on his experience as an advertising copywriter in this, perhaps his most famous novel co-written with C.M. Kornbluth. Although not directly set on a colonized world, it’s easily one of the darkest takes on the subject as the protagonist, a ‘star-class copysmith’ is given the job of selling people on the idea of emigrating to Venus…while carefully avoiding the reality of Venus being barely, if at all, habitable, with nothing to promise but a harsh existence and generations of toil before the planet can be fully terraformed.

Decades old, this book continues to be one of the most important resources for creating and delivering effective messages in marketing. Eugene Schwartz is one of the godfathers of direct advertising whose insights about understanding your customer’s state of awareness have been invaluable to countless marketers and copywriters. The examples he shares may be dated, but the advice remains relevant.

This is definitely one of my all-time favourite romances.

I read it years ago, and the hero, Jack Wolfe, left a lasting impression on me. Flawed, passionate, complex, ambitious, and gorgeous, I crushed after Jack and still do! He sprung to life from the page.

Among copywriting books, this is my favorite: funny, wise, indispensable. Sullivan—an exceptional advertising copywriter, creative director, and, recently, professor—shares his insights about navigating agency life and mastering the copywriter’s craft. He is especially good at how to be more creative and how to keep b.s. out of your ideas and copy (hence his title). A pleasure to read and re-read. He has helped me get past conventional, invisible advertising. I used his book in copywriting classes, and he helped my students find their best ideas. He’ll help you, too.