If you’re just getting into copy, chances are you have a huge list of recommended books that keeps growing. You’re probably overwhelmed and can’t decide which one to start with.
You end up reading none.
Let’s remedy that now.
Pick any one book from the ones given below – and start.
There is no “perfect order”
There is no “perfect book to start with which covers everything”
There is no “this book seems boring/too advanced let me look for another one”
Some stuff will make sense from the beginning, some will need to be reiterated. It happens.
Don’t ASK any more questions. Just start reading.
And finish what you start.
– Scientific Advertising by Claude C Hopkins
– The Adweek copywriting handbook by Joe Sugarman
– Great leads by Michael Masterson
– Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman
– Ultimate sales letter by Dan Kennedy
– The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert
If you like what’s in these, copywriting is a good choice for you. You can then consider investing in a course to learn some modern techniques and get some clients. (My recommendation – Tej Dosa’s 6-figure promotions)
What NOT to do:
DO NOT keep reading book after book and procrastinating on the real work – which is getting out into the real world, getting clients and actually generating results with your new skill.
5 books are SUFFICIENT to get you the lay of the land – I would go and start pitching clients immediately.
Here’s a quick snippet of what I did:
(I earn 6 figures a year and work ~4 hours a day)
- Signed up to Tej Dosa’s free email list
- Read Boron Letters THOROUGHLY (Infact, I wrote an article about the boron letters)
- Read Cashvertising and Great Leads
- Started doing outreach on twitter – found someone who agreed to let me write copy for his product in exchange for a testimonial
- The sales page I wrote made 6 figures+ (You can see proof of this on my Twitter header)
- With my newfound confidence, got Tej’s course and mentorship. Learned more and started doing outreach. Made my landing page on Carrd. Got a Google Workspace email address. Started cold emailing people.
- Nothing happened for 2 months.
- And just when I was about to give up and try something else, I signed a client for his sales page. $1200 paid in full, upfront – without a single sales call.
- Quit everything else and went all in. Got more clients, networked on Twitter, got better at what I do, started charging more, partnered with cool people, and launched my own offers.
I am sharing this to remind you – there are a lot of steps ahead of you on your copywriting journey. Do not get stuck on the first one because you’re too scared to get real-world feedback and reading books feels like progress.
Reading is GREAT, yes – but it is not progress until you implement it.
Hope this helps.
Ash