The Book

Roger Horberry and Gyles Lingwood, Read Me – 10 Lessons for Writing Great Copy

My Website

I’m currently updating my website – including both images and words. That’s what prompted me to write about how to be a better writer and to grab this book from the shelf.

Essentially, I wanted to write in a more creative, engaging and persuasive way. And this book has been a WMD – a weapon of mass depiction – to help with that.

The Advertising Mind

Roger Horberry is an award winning brand copywriter and Gyles Lingwood, principal lecturer on the Univeristy of Lincoln’s Creative Advertising course.

Their book is written from an advertising perspective. However, one of their key points is that the narrow role of a copywriter in pumping out advertisements has now been expanded into the role of the ‘brandwriter’ who writes for a wider range of projects that may now include:

• Website copy
• Social Media
• Blogging
• Ebooks
• Online Courses
• And, wherever good words are needed

[Tweet “Read Me by Horberry and Lingwood is a wealth of ideas for #copywriters and brandwriters #goodbooks”]

Three Things

Read Me – 10 Lessons for Writing Great Copy is close to my ideal book. It ticks the boxes on the three things that I look for in a great read:

1. It’s a visual delight full of real examples
2. It has useful exercises that make it easy for me to practice and apply what I’ve just read, and
3. It’s overflowing with ideas, insights and inspirations to spark the neurons in our brains.

The Headline

I love the title of the book, Read Me. It’s a beautiful benefit statement. In only two words, Horberry and Lingwood have nailed the precise reason that we write. Beautifully done. A great example of walking the talk! And, there’s more just like that inside…

Contents

Here’s a list of the chapters in Read Me…

• What is copy writing? Er, I mean brandwriting.
• Doing the basics brilliantly
• Memes, memory and sticky lines – great chapter!
• What George Orwell can teach copywriters today
• It’s all about the audience
• Don’t tell stories, sell stories
• What you need to know about Branding
• How to make your sentences sing through figures of speech – this is gold!
• A chapter full of examples
• The seven habits of highly successful copywriters

Why you should Read Me

Anyone in the communications game can learn from this book. This includes bloggers, proposal writers, brand experts, thought leaders, speakers, trainers and of course, writers.

Buy Read Me on Book Depository