Lewis provides bold and creative solutions to creating copy for any occasion - including traditional and online advertising campaigns, corporate usage, news reporting, fund-raising, and general correspondence. Throughout the book, Lewis presents actual printed magazine advertisements that demonstrate various methods of communicating - his insightful critiques of them will help readers to structure, clarify, and polish up their own work.

Lewis has mastered the art of writing and so will his readers who apply the contents of this book. Specific instruction includes choosing and using words, exercising care in selecting words, manufacturing words for impact, creating effective sentence structure, producing motivational copy, writing guarantees, and targeting specific audiences. His short course on grammar and usage will help readers improve their writing skills. They will see immediate results.

This book will cater to the writing needs of many, including Web developers and online businesses. They will find this book particularly useful for creating professional-grade Website copy, e-marketing newsletters, and e-mail correspondence. This book would make a great writing class instructional guide. This book is essential reading!

6 of 7 found the following review helpful:


Worth rereading - and reading once again  Apr 28, 2001 By Experienced seminar leader
I took this book off my shelf to write a blurb for a bibliography and in flipping through it, realized just how much I learned from Herschell Gordon Lewis about the subtle nuances of writing copy. He understands the power of words like few other marketing experts I know. I highly recommend this and all of his other books on writing copy.

12 of 18 found the following review helpful:


On the Art of Blowing Your Own Horn  Aug 01, 2000 By M. Bianco
Instead of offering copywriters solid suggestions or advice based on experience, Lewis instead gambles that he will reach similarly jaded, sarcastic and negative readers who are eager to ride alongside him on his high horse.The author seems more interested in listening to his own embittered critique of others' work than in instructing readers with real information.

I disagree strongly with most every advertisement he holds up as an example of ineffective copy writing and/or visual communication.It is almost as if Lewis belives his zealous slashing of others' work can replace helpful examples. It is unfortunate that a book like this gets published with such a promising title. Lewis doesn't even come close to providing any sort of tangible help for copywriters who want to increase their repertoire or get another professional perspective.


The Art of Writing Copy  Jan 19, 2008 By George E. Zorgo Jr. "Value Guy"
This book was single handedly responsible for taking my copy writing from good to much better.
Herschell Gordon Lewis has written the benchmark of copy writing with this volume. His writing about our writing is so practical, you'll be asking yourself "Why didn't I think of that?"
Buy this book. Read it. Practice its lessons. Improve your copy writing.
Will move you forward years beyond your experience.


6 of 10 found the following review helpful:


Again, a winner book on copy and ads  May 01, 2000 By James Buch PhD
Again, Herschell Gordon Lewis has written a great teaching volume on copy and ads.

In just the first four chapters, I ended up writing three new approaches to sell my wares. And, there are twenty three (23) or nearly Two Dozen more chapters for inspiration.

As an engineer turned merchant, the biggest drawback to the works of H G Lewis is his assumption that the reader actually understands the English language. This is sometimes a shock to an engineer who defines a sentence simply as : " It starts with a big letter, and ends with a period." Reading these works actually improves my understanding of my native tongue.

The examples used are quite up to date. Lots of visuals are presented for one to relate the ideas.

I specifically appreciate seeing the many examples of High Tech (modest budget) ads which he has selected as examples of Hucksterism. Clever guys substiting cleverness for understanding - a deadly combination.

I look forward to making money from reading this work.

Oh, it is also just plain fun to read as well.

James D Buch PhD - too old, too educated and too experienced for today's Aerospace High Tech (read more easily, salary too high and harder to manage than some less expensive young kid.