2 weird books I bought to be a better copywriter

It’s dumping rain in downtown Portland last night as I shuffle under the neon lights — and into Powell’s City of Books — with my wife.

Powell’s, if you haven’t heard of it, is the largest used and new bookstore in the world.

It’s four stories tall, an entire city block wide, and is home to roughly 1 million books.

As I enter, I immediately trot over to a self-serve computer.

I know exactly what I’m looking for: Copywriting books. Any and all.

Unfortunately, the return on my query isn’t very fruitful.

“Only 5 books on copywriting?” I mutter loudly. The kiosk manager rolls their eyes.

Regardless, I snap a photo of the book list and set out to track down 'em down.

The first three I come across are all about brand copy, “award winning” copy, and … cutesy-copy.

Not my game.

The other two copywriting books were different editions of the Bob Bly copywriting manual that I never read in the early days of my career.

It looked like a great book, but it wasn’t quite what I was after.

I wanted new ideas I had never heard of before … or at least something to spark my copywriting inspiration.

So … did I get ANY books while I was at Powell’s last night?

Two.

The first: Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know by Ben Bowlin, With Matt Frederick and Noel Brown.

This is all about the proliferation of conspiracy theories in the United States and how they originated.

The purchase was interest-motivated on my part, but I can see myself picking up some storytelling techniques as well as fodder for emails and other copy from this one.

(Just check out any VSL on ClickBank and you’ll understand why conspiracies and secrets can be so powerful.)

The second: Jeffery Gitomer’s Little Green Book of Getting Your Way.

I have to be honest — the cover of this book pulled me in. It’s made of green cloth and looks more like a repair manual than a book on persuasion in sales and marketing.

But that’s what it is.

And although I tend to shy away from books of this nature (they often seem a little one-dimensional) I figured I could pull out some interesting ideas to try in my writing.

There’s even a section on writing persuasively.

Case in point: Sometimes I think there’s more to learn from books that are copywriting adjacent, — or even completely unrelated — rather than books strictly focused on copywriting.

Don’t keep reading the cookbook when you just need a kick of salt and lemon instead.

For more copywriting-adjacent stories, sign up for my daily emails here.

David Patrick