What to read to become a better writer

A question that comes up often in copywriting forums is what books to read to become a better copywriter:

• Best books to read for a beginner in copywriting?
• Is Evaldo's "16 Word Sales Letter" any good? Would you recommend it for a beginner? If not, what are the prereqs?
• What are some books on copywriting you would recommend?
• What resources, videos, books do you use for writing great web landing page copy?
• What is one book or course that helped you become a more persuasive copywriter?
• What's that "one book" that has helped you improve your storytelling aspect in your copy?
• I need to write copy for a website, I don't have money to hire a copywriter, if you could only recommend one book/course to get me up to speed as quickly as possible, let's say in a week, what would it be?

Most of these questions are coming from the right place (if a bit misguided), and I’ll address those in a second. But some ask for courses, videos, or podcasts in addition to or (worse) instead of books. 

I don’t know how else to tell you this: you will not become a better writer just by watching videos or listening to podcasts.* You need to be able to engage with text for VERY long periods of time if you want to pursue copywriting as a career. This isn’t plumbing, or mountain biking, or Google Analytics. Those topics aren’t literally about words, and lend themselves easily to YouTube videos. This is writing, and if you want to be better at it, then you need to actually read about it.

With that out of the way, this question comes up so often that I felt it was prudent to write an article about it that I can link to later. And here’s my big tip:

Read a lot

Copywriting is the applied craft of writing, and to get good at it, you’re going to need to expose yourself to a lot of different kinds of writing. Ad copy, sales page copy, voiceover scripts, landing page copy, sure, but also: novels, poetry, film writing, restaurant reviews, recipes, memoirs, crime thrillers, essays, journalism, romance, fantasy, social media posts, comment sections, community moderation policies, technical manuals, product packaging, comic books, humor articles, and more. There are an uncountable number of ways humans use text to communicate ideas; any and all of them are fodder for your brain.

Being a well-rounded, well-developed writer will lead to far more opportunities over your life than taking the right course or reading the right book will. Our world is in desperate need of more people who understand how communication works, and how to communicate well. Reading is more active than watching, and you’ll be a better writer for it.

With all that said, I do have a few books to recommend. These aren’t “copywriting” books, however—they’re just a sampling of really, really good writing. Read these, read others, and try to write in the style of those authors as you read them.** 

There are also some great books about copywriting out there, some of which I’ve seen recommended often in the kinds of posts I linked to above. I haven't gotten to those books yet, but when I do, I’ll review them here. I’m going to sticky this post on the siderail of my website, and add to it as I have new books to recommend. Consider it a living document.

Books and writers I recommend:

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

This has been my go-to recommendation for literally anyone with any creative ambitions for over a decade. It’s a memoir of Steve Martin’s life from his childhood up to the height of his stand up career, and ends with why he chose to walk away from it. On top of Martin being an excellent writer, it talks about his creative process and life. It’s a genuinely inspiring book. I’ve read it three times. It will make you a better writer, a better artist, and a better person.

On Writing by Stephen King

I listened to this on audiobook last year, and even though I haven’t actually read a ton of his work, it was wonderful to listen to a master talk about his craft. He gets into the writing advice that has worked for him, the advice that hasn’t, and why he loves it. He also gets very personal with his own struggles about writing, life, and raising a family while doing this as a career, which resonated with me personally.

He also offers the best writing advice, period: the best way to get better at writing is to write. Just sit down and start writing.

Deadline Artists: America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns, edited by John Avlon, Jesse Angelo, & Errol Louis

Deadline Artists is a collection of great columns from newspapers across America history, grouped by sports, humor, politics, crime, local news, and more. There are few (if any) guest columnists in here: every single column was written by someone who had a recurring weekly column in an American newspaper. Every writer featured had to produce so many hundred words on their respective beat each week—whether they had something to write about or not. 

Beyond being an excellent way to expose yourself to a wide variety of writing (Where else are you going to see Ben Franklin, Hunter S. Thompson, Maureen Dowd, Dave Barry, and Mark Twain together?), it’s also Mr. King’s advice put to practice: it didn’t matter if they had something to write about, each of these writers had a deadline, and therefore, had to just write.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

I’m currently reading this. I picked it up for my summer beach read after years of loving his food and travel shows. While I always knew he had a unique voice and was an undeniable authority on cuisine, I had no idea what an incredible writer he was. This is the kind of writing that will start to reorder the thoughts in your head. I don’t often hear a voice in my head when I read, but I do with him—and it’s his voice. (It probably helps that I've listened to multiple hours of travel shows narrated by him.)

While he obviously rose to prominence as a food expert, it’s not his writing about food that captivates. It’s his writing about people: the line cooks, the waiters, the busboys, the captains. The diners, tourists, and families that eat in restaurants. Food is about people, and Bourdain knew that.

I can already see his style seeping into my own work, and my own work becoming better for it. Which, to be very clear, is something you should never ever be ashamed of. Good writers lift from better writers; the best writers commit outright theft.

Other writers I’ve read recently that I thoroughly enjoy, and recommend for you:

• Isaac Asimov: I had only known his short stories (read The Last Question right now if you haven’t yet) until a year or two ago, when I decided to read the first three Foundation books before watching the AppleTV adaptation. He showed me that good stories can be almost entirely dialogue—an area I’ve always struggled in.
• Hamilton Nolan of How Things Work: A great, current labor writer with a very good newsletter, How Things Work. His recent piece, The End of Liberal Institutionalism, is a must-read for anyone worried about the United States’ state of affairs as of July 2024. I got into freelancing because I refused to allow my labor to be exploited any longer by full time agency work, and I find myself aligned with a lot of what he writes about. You’ll probably see a lot of his influence in this newsletter as it goes on.
• Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day: An internet nerd’s internet nerd. I met Ryan briefly when I was at BuzzFeed years ago, and have followed his work ever since. He covers the internet, essentially, and his coverage has informed my content strategy significantly. My own thoughts on platform-first content marketing (in short: it is bad) are largely based on his hub-and-spoke model. Credit where it’s due!
• Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket: Journalism’s in a bad place right now, but Marisa’s been on the cutting edge of indie journalism for a while, both in breaking stories and in figuring out how independent journalism could and should work. She’s a good writer, and more than that, she’s at the forefront of figuring out what being an independent writer looks like in the 21st century. I want her to succeed.

I’ll add more to this as I think of stuff, or perhaps this will become a recurring series! For now, I’m going to leave you with this:

Please note that none of these are books about copywriting. King’s is close, but it’s about writing as a whole, as opposed to copywriting specifically. In the course of researching and writing this issue, I've come across a few highly-recommended books about copywriting, advertising, and marketing that I want to check out, but as of publication, I have never once read a book about copywriting and I’ve made this work as an independent for 8 years now. 

Writing is a lifelong... companion? practice? journey? It's a lot of things, but it's with you for your entire life. Just read as many different kinds of writing as you can. You never know if something in a sports column or restaurant review is going to give you the spark you need to crack a project you've been working on.

Don’t worry about reading “the right books.” 

Just read.

*I’ll make a small exception for audiobooks here. Like I said, I listened to Stephen King read his book On Writing and it still tickled the writing part of my brain. However, don’t rely on audiobooks solely. You need to get your brain used to engaging with text if you want to do this professionally, and reading will always be the best way to do that.

**It’s no coincidence that the best food writing I’ve ever done in my life was done while I was reading George RR Martin. That man loves to write about food.

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Welcome back to The Bottom. I don't have a ton to share this week! My bar's a bit dry and I'm mostly knee-deep in client work and potty training. I'm taking my wife out to a v special dinner at a mozzarella bar from chef Robbie Felice this Friday, and his other restaurants (notably Osteria Crescendo) have absolutely excellent bars, so maybe I'll have them make me something fancy.