If you’d ask me a a few months ago I’d have said copy was something completely different to what I’d understand it to be now. Copy writing or writing copy is the art of writing a short snappy sentence that lures readers in to looking at your book or product and ultimately with a bit of luck and a trailing wind leads to a sale.

As an author for the last year of my life I’ve spent this time working on writing as many words as possible in order to hit my wordcounts. Creating worlds and explaining them in as much detail as possible in order to fill the pages. So to write short, snappy and intriguing copy, where every last word and character counts is a far cry from what I’ve been learning to write. It’s fair to say that this style of writing is an art form and as a result there are many copy writers out there that charge crazy amounts of money to craft a few well written lines for you.

So as a self published author why is this skill so important?

Well the answer is relatively simple, you’ve spent months and years putting your life and soul into your literary masterpiece and then a quick fifteen minutes throwing down a sloppy synopsis or a poorly written advert copy. Don’t pretend you haven’t been there and done it because I know I have. And the result of this is poor sales, crummy conversion rates and customers that scroll on by. The only two things your customer can see is your cover and your copy and you decide to skimp on it. I bet I can guess why as well; it’s a difficult skill, it’s time consuming and it’s the complete opposite of your usual writing style. But it doesn’t have to be like this. It’s a skill you can learn and if done right will double, triple or even quadruple your sales.

So how can I learn to write copy?

Well there are a few resources that I’ve found invaluable that I’m going to share with you as absolute must reads. Firstly I’d urge you to check out Bryan Cohen’s book How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis: A Step-by-Step System for Enticing New Readers, Selling More Fiction, and Making Your Books Sound GoodThis is gold dust for anyone wanting to write an incredible book description. Use his step by step guide, join his Facebook group and the quality of your book description is guaranteed to improve. Another gem of a resource is Great Leads: The Six Easiest Ways To Start Any Sales MessageGreat Leads: The Six Easiest Ways to Start Any Sales Message by Michael Masterson. This gives you a fantastic introduction into the art of lead generation, I found it eye opening.

In addition to these two fantastic books here are a few things you can do to improve your copy immediately…

-Less is more, cut your words down as much as possible, the shorter the better.
-Use a thesaurus and make every single word ooze with meaning. I use www.wordhippo.com
-Vary short and long sentences.
-Read your copy aloud, does it sound right? -Think of the rhythm of the words.
-End your copy on a cliff hanger. You want people to buy your book? Then wet their appetite.
-Practice, practice practice
-Re-write, re-write and re-write it some more.
-Finish with a BANG!

I hope that this has been of some use to you. Please feel free to send me your copy and I may be able to give you some more ideas. Sometimes a critical eye and a helping hand is all you need!

You can email me here —> andyslinger@andyslinger.com