Copywriting Books

Here is part of the list of the copywriting books I’ve read, recommended to me by other copywriters. Copywriters have their favorite lists. The books almost everyone recommends are under the first category “Copywriting Books - The Old Classics”

It was recommended to read several of these more than once. The one book I actually really want to read and read again is Breakthrough Advertising - the first one on the list. This will appeal to the marketers out there.

I will read anything from Herschell Gordon Lewis for entertainment.

And my favorite books to refer to are the ones by Drayton Bird and Bob Stone.

My goal was to learn acquire proficiency in all types of copywriting. Starting off with Direct Mail copywriting through to web copy. That’s why this book list is so long.

If your goal is to only do one particular type of copywriting, you should pick the books that fit your needs.

Special note to non-native English speakers:

If English is your second language, you will find Steve Slaunwhite’s book both very easy to read and comprehensive. There are also several other books here that are very easy to read.

But if English is your second language you might want to stay away from the Old Classics, unless your English is very fluent and you have a good grasp of the culture. Or at least start off with the more recent books before reading the older books.

There are several comprehensive how-to books where you can learn all the basics and adapt the principles to your native language.

Copywriting Books - The Old Classics

The Robert Collier Letter Book By Robert Collier
Breakthrough Advertising By Eugene Schwartz
My Life In Advertising & Scientific Advertising By Claude C. Hopkins
Tested Advertising Methods By John Caples
Ogilvy On Advertising By David Ogilvy
How To Write A Good Advertisement By Victor O. Schwab
Confessions Of An Advertising Man By David Ogilvy

Other Old Classic Books Copywriters Read

Reasons Why Advertising By Robert Collier
Intensive Advertising By Robert Collier
How To Make Maximum Money In Minimum Time By Gary Halbert
The First Hundred Million By E. Haldermann-Julius
2001 Greatest Headlines Ever Written By Carl Galetti

More Recent Copywriting Books

Successful Direct Marketing Methods By Bob Stone
Commonsence Direct & Digital Marketing By Drayton Bird
The Everything Guide To Writing Copy By Steve Slaunwhite
The Copywriter’s Handbook By Robert W. Bly
On the Art of Writing Copy By Herschell Gordon Lewis
Million Dollar Mailings By Denny Hatch
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This By Luke Sullivan
The Adweek Copywriting Handbook By Joseph Sugarman
How To Write Sales Letters That Sell By Drayton Bird
Advertising Headlines that Make You Rich By David Garfinkel
The Copy Workshop Workbook 2002 By Bruce Bendinger
2,239 Tested Secrets For Direct Marketing Success By Denny Hatch, Don Jackson
Write To Sell the Ultimate guide To Great Copywriting By Andy Maslen
The Perfect Pitch By Jon Steel
Zen The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert M. Pirsig
Marketing Secrets of a Mail Order Maverick By Joseph Sugarman
The Well-Fed Writer By Peter Bowerman
The Well-Fed Writer Back for Seconds By Peter Bowerman
The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance Writer in Six By Peter Bowerman

The Psychology Of Persuasion

The Psychology Influence Of Persuasion By Robert B. Cialdini
The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking By Kevin Hogan
Get Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got By Jay Abraham
Persuasion The Art Of Getting What You Want By Dave Lakhani
Power and Persuasion By Michael Masterson
Mind Control By JK Ellis
How To Persuade People Who Don’t Want To Be Persuaded By Joel Bauer & Mark Levy
My Voice Will Go With You By Milton H. Erickson & Sidney Rosen
Get Anyone To Do Anything By David J. Lieberman
Irresistible Attraction By Kevin Hogan & Mary Lee Labay
Covert Persuasion By Kevin Hogan & James Speakman
How to Win Friends & Influence People By Dale Carnegie

The Art Of Selling

Questions That Sell By Paul Cherry
Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete and Win When the Stakes Are High By John Sullivan
The Sales Bible By Jeffrey Gittomer
Selling Sucks By Frank J. Rumbauskas Jr.
Magnetic Selling By Robert W. Bly
How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling By Frank Bettger
The Ultimate Sales Letter By Dan S. Kennedy
Advanced Selling Strategies By Brian Tracy
The Platinum Rule For Sales MAstery By Tony Alessandra & Zimmerman & La Lopa
Question Based Selling By Thomas A. Freeze
Selling To Big Companies By Jill Konrath
Getting To VITO By Anthony Parinello
Selling To VITO By Anthony Parinello
Stop Cold Calling Forever!: True Confessions Of A Reformed Serial Cold-Caller By Tony Parinello
Creating A Million Dollar A Year Sales Income By Paul McCord
Lead Generation For The Complex Sale By Brian Carrol
The Customer Driven Company By Richard C. Whiteley
Customer Centered Growth By Richard C. Whiteley & Diane Hessan
Let Your Customers Do The Talking By Michael E. Cafferky
Think Two Products Ahead By Ben Mack
Payback By James P. Andrew & Harold L. Sirkin
Open Innovation By Henry Chesbrough
Open Business Models By Henry Chesbrough
Perfecting Your Pitch: 10 Proven Strategies for Winning the Clients Everyone Wants By Nancy Michaels
No B.S. Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs By Dan Kennedy
No B.S. Time Management By Dan Kennedy
No B.S. Business Success By Dan Kennedy
No B.S. Sales Success By Dan Kennedy

Grammer Revisions

Grammatically Correct By Anne Stilman
Eats, Shoots & Leaves By Lynn Truss
The Elements Of Style By William Strunk and E.B. White
Woe Is I By Patricia T. O’Connor
Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose By Karen Elizabeth Gordon

To Stimulate Creativity

Cracking Creativity By Michalko
A Technique For Producing Ideas By James Webb Young
How To Get Ideas By Jack Foster
A Whack On The Side Of The Head By Roger Von Oech
Expect The Unexpected Or You Won’t Find It By Roger Von Oech
How Would You Move Mount Fuji? By William Poundstone
Fish! By Stephen Lundin
Improv Wisdom By Patricia Ryan Madson
The Mozart Effect By Don Campbell
Flow By Csikszantmihaly
How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci By Michael Gelb
Mindfulness By Langer
The Wisdom Of Crowds By James Surowiecki

The Art Of Metaphors & Story

Metaphors We Live By By George Lakoff & Mark Johnson
Metaphorically Selling By Anne Miller
The Story Factor By Annette Simmons
Follow the Story By James B. Stewart

Fun With Words & Writing

Synonym Finder By J. I. Rodale
Random House Word Menu By Stephen D. Glazier
More Words That Sell By Richard Bayan
Words That Sell By Richard Bayan
Getting The Words Right By Theodore A. Rees Cheney
Phrases That Sell: The Ultimate Phrase Finder to Help You Promote Your Products, Services, and Ideas By Richard Bayan
Cruel and Unusual Puns By Don Hauptman
On Writing Well By William Zinsser
On Writing, A Memoir Of The Craft By Stephen King
Bird By Bird By Anne Lamott
The First Five Pages By Noah Lukeman
Hypnotic Writing By Joe Vitale
Writing Nonfiction: Turning Thoughts Into Books By Dan Poynter
The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers By John Gardner
Simple & Direct By Jacques Barzun
The Dictionary Of Concise Writing By Robert Hartwell Fiske
The Dimwit’s Dictionary By Robert Hartwell Fiske
Journal To The Self By Kathleen Adams
The New Diary By Tristine Rainer
Damn Why Didn’t I Write That By Marc McCutcheon
Miss Thistlebottom’s Hobgoblins The Careful Writer’s Guide to the Taboos, Bugbears, And Outmoded Rules of English Usage By Theodore M. Berstein
Cruel and Unusual Puns By Don Hauptman
Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing” By Claire Kehrwald Cook
The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life By Steve Leveen

Books To Inspire Your Writing Voice

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do By Studs Terkel
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character By Richard Phillips Feynman
Telling Lies for Fun & Profit By Lawrence Block

Business Marketing

Business To Business Direct Marketing By Robert W. Bly
The Fundamentals of Business-To-Business: Sales and Marketing (Relié) By John Coe
Email Marketing By the Num8ers By Chris Baggott with Ali Sales
Trade Show And Event Marketing By Ruth Stevens
Copywriting That Sells High Tech By Janice M. KingThe New Rules Of Marketing & PR By David Meerman Scott
The Ultimate Marketing Plan By Dan S. Kennedy
Word Of Mouth Marketing By Andy Sernovitz
Business Cards, the Art Of Saying Hello By Mike Dorrian and Liz Farrelly
Talk Is Cheap: Promoting Your Business Through Word of Mouth Advertising By Godfrey Harris
Give Your Elevator Speech A Lift By Lorraine Howell

White Paper Copywriting

Writing White Papers By Michael A. Stelzner
The White Paper Marketing Handbook By Robert W. Bly

Speech Copywriting

Asap: The Fastest Way to Create a Memorable Speech By William Mooney
Speechmaker’s Bible: A Complete Guide To The Lost Art Of Speech-making By Cassell Illustrated
Writing Effective Speeches By Ehrlich, Henry

Speaking

The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Rules Every Leaders Needs to Know
The Oxford Union Guide To Speaking In Public By Dr. Dominic Hughes & Benedict Phillips
…and Death Come Third By Andy Lopata & Peter Roper
Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln By Humes
Voice Power By Grant & Williams
How To Say It At Work By Jack Griffin
10 Simple Secrets Of The World’s Greatest Business Communicators By Carmine Gallo
Fierce Conversations By Susan Scott
Tongu Fu By Sam Horn
The Voice of Authority: 10 Communication Rules Every Leaders Needs to Know” By Dianna Booher

Web Copywriting