Elements of Copywriting: The Essential Guide to Creating Copy That Gets the Results You Want

by Gary Blake, Robert W. Bly

In the tradition of The Elements of Style, here is a concise handbook of the principles and practice of writing effective ads, brochures, and every other type of copy intended to persuade. It covers writing headlines and body copy as well as increasing readership and response, and goes on to provide copy guidelines for print ads, direct mail, brochures, catalogs, press releases, electronic messages, and more.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1997

Reviews

[Sunny]

Decent reference. I didn't realize how dated this is when I picked this up, though. It was split into sections in the second part (Press releases/kits, brochures, catalogs) and then subheadings within so that was helpful. Pretty repetitive but if you read on just one topic like the ones mentioned above, I guess that wouldn't be the case.

So I would recommend not reading it straight through. Just pick what you need or glance at the index.

[Mark]

A classic Bob Bly....

[Sekarlangit]

It's good, but old, or it's old but good? I pick the latter. If you want to get to know pretty basic information about copywriting, then this book will guide you from A to Z.

[Elizabeth ‘Andy’ Terrall]

Very practical. Great start to writing for marketing.

[Paula]

Even though this was published in 1997, the information is still relevant today. The book is well organized and I love how everything is in numbered headings. It was easy to read through and very informative. While I wouldn't be writing copy for each of the forms that this book writes about, I learned a great deal from each chapter.