The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters Paperback – Illustrated, December 11, 2006

Without understanding the basics of persuasion you’ll never convince others buy what you are promoting or selling. Creating copy that sells is a skill that can become an art form. This book can be the your guide as you build skill into profitable art that sells.

It isn't very often that a non-fiction book excites me. Each month I read at least one book on the profession of writing or related topics, and they're all useful - even the bad ones. But every once in a while I read a book that gets my adrenaline going and my mind racing. A book that provides me with that "Ah ha!" moment. One that changes the way I think about a subject dramatically, and for the better.For example, Peter Bowman's "Well Fed Writer" book took my ability to understand freelance writing and what people need to a whole new level. It immediately led to my Permaculture Magazine article, which in turn taught me that I don't really want to write magazine articles for a living, along with a lot of other useful ideas. Kelly Enger's book "Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets for Freelance Success" was another such book, and led to some great contracts and a reputation that gets better with each new client.Sales, however, has always been my weak point. I couldn't sell pocket warmers to Eskimos. I've had to rely on my portfolio and testimonials to secure clients, as well as a solid web presence that no one much reads, but which validates me to prospective clients. But selling myself? I've never been able to do it well. However, I recently stumbled across a book that had a profound effect on me. In the first five chapters, something just gelled in my mind. I was suddenly flooded with ideas, and excited about possibilities, the way only a handful of books have done before.THIS is that book. At almost $13 for the Kindle edition, you can bet I did a lot of reading up on it before I bought it. I had it in my Wish List for a few months, and would look at it on Amazon every week or so, debating it. I bought it a while back when I was a bit flush, but I didn't read it right away. I was in-progress on two other professional books and a fiction trilogy, so it took a while to get to it.And when I did finally get around to reading it, by the start of the 5th chapter I knew I should have read this thing a long time ago. What a difference it could have made when I attempted long-form sales sites! Or when I put my old freelancing web site together (now long dead).If you have any need for direct response sales, even peripherally like I do, I can't say it enough: "Buy this book."

This book is Truly Amazing. I'm not a copywriter. Never intend to be one. I'm in the speaking/training business, and I needed some material that would teach me how to write successful copy. Since I have to do my own marketing, I needed something that would help me right away. Plus, I didn't want to lose any more money buying books to teach me about copy writing that simply DID NOT WORK. I have bought a couple that were a total loss of my money. I won't mention the names of the books because I don't want to offend anyone. But I will say this about this book (and by the way, this is my FIRST review for any book I've bought), if you're looking for a method that is VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND, FOLLOWS A LOGICAL PROCESS THAT WORKS, and is GUARANTEED TO GET YOU RESULTS, then you owe it to yourself to BUY THIS BOOK.I just wish I knew about this book BEFORE I wasted my money on the other books I bought. Joseph's methods are so POWERFUL, I even use them when I'm speaking. I keep my audiences SPELLBOUND. They hang to EVERY WORD I say. Now, just imagine... if people give me their attention to a 45-60 minute speech, can you see what it will do for your copy? People respond the way I want them to respond as a result of the methods I'm using from Joseph Sugarman.I'm VERY GRATEFUL I bought this book. You'll be GRATEFUL too. Buy it!

If you are interested in learning copywriting, I would only say do one thing before reading this book; read it only AFTER you have read something else to get you started. Either Bowerman's "Well-fed Writer", Bly's "Secrets of a Freelance Writer" Slaunwhite's "Start and Run a Copywriting Business" or Meanwell's "The Wealthy Writer." Any one of these books will give you a solid foundation to build upon.THE ADWEEK COPYWRITING BOOK by Joe Sugarman is a "must read". I believe, however, you will gain more value from this incredible book if you use this as somewhat of a "second phase" of your copywriting education. That's not to say Sugarman's book is difficult to understand. It's not. There are just some other things you need to learn and understand first.This book is brilliantly laid out in a step-by-step, easy to follow format with wide margins for lots of notes. Sugarman takes you through the process of actually writing copy from beginning to end. The emphasis here is on print advertising, but the relation and application to any other form of copywriting is easily discernable. The brief final section of the book even covers writing for other types of media.Sugarman is a great teacher. This book pulls largely from the training seminar Sugarman taught for many years. Only you get the $2,000 seminar for the price of a book. What a deal!

I have read dozens of books on Internet Marketing by some of the top names in that milieu. None of them added the value to our web site that Sugarman's book did. It is one thing to have a nice looking web site, with strong SEO, PPC campaigns, analytics etc. etc. and it is quite another to have content that resonates with your prospects and converts.If you only have time to read one book to help get your web site performing at a higher level this is the book you need to study and implement. You will be richly rewarded for doing so.

Sugarman's system is easy to understand and devoid of jargon. Just reading his commentary, stories, and the numerous example ads in the book helps create the base from which to write compelling copy.