People tell us that reading is good, and it’s true. It’s one of the best ways to learn new things. When it comes to learning copywriting, there are so many books out there that can help you improve.
But is it good to read multiple books on copywriting? Is there such a thing as reading too many?
We all see those posts on social media and motivational speeches on YouTube telling us we should spend our time learning new skills and doing other productive things like reading books instead of doing supposedly unproductive things like watching TV or playing video games.
Let me answer that question by telling you a story.
Back when I was working with a business coach to help me start my first blog, she recommended a podcast to me to listen to called “The Successful Mind” by David Neagle, who is a great business and mindset coach. After I listened to the first episode, I was hooked. I would listen to episode after episode whenever I could. Before I go to bed, during my commute to work, while I exercised, you name it. It felt good to finish a podcast episode, learn something new, and move on to the next episode. You get a nice dopamine rush.
Well, the same thing happened to me when I first got into copywriting. I read many different books like…
How to Write Copy That Sells by Ray Edwards
The Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams
The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman
I was learning a lot about copywriting, which is great, but the problem was I wasn’t implementing a lot of the principles the books taught me. And what would happen was I’d finish one book, put it on my shelf, never touch it again and let it collect dust, pick up another book, and it cycles.
Then one day, I listened to a video uploaded by a highly-respected email copywriter talking about why he doesn’t tolerate junkies in his business. In other words, people who just consume information and not implement any of it, just like how I was.
After listening to that video multiple times helped me realize that just buying a bunch of books and reading them is a waste of money. Even though it feels like you’re accomplishing things by reading them, it doesn’t matter if you don’t put any of the information to use.
That’s when I actively started to change my ways.
I took the one best copywriting book and I started reading it over and over. At the same time, I started to implement the information I was re-reading.
That’s when my daily emailing began.
So what was the point of sharing all this?
To help you understand that no matter how much you read, it’s worthless if you do nothing with the information.
So if you’re going to pick an email copywriting book to read, I suggest with great bias that you pick up How to Become an Email Titan.
It’s a short read, but still teaches you all the fundamentals you need to know to write great email copy.
You can get the sample chapters of the book here.