Write to Sell
I finished Andy Maslen's 'Write to Sell' the other day, and I wanted to see what y'all thought of it.
Mostly, I thought it was pretty good. He's clearly pretty smart (and by this I mean I agree with him a lot). Some of the book was a bit low-level, but the audience is meant to include complete beginners, so that's kind of expected.
That said, there was some stuff in there that I knew but it was really useful to have it codified - in particular his Know-Feel-Commit flow and the different types of benefit.
There was also the idea of power words - the monosyllables that pack a heavy emotional punch. Again, this isn't new stuff, but the simple idea of making a list to refer to had never occured to me (because I is clevers), and it's ideas like this that made the book worth reading.
The one bit I really didn't agree with was his hard line on cliches. Sometimes, yes, you should definitely avoid them, but people love familiarity so sometimes it's better to use a phrase they instantly get and don't have to think about. They're a tool that's good for a certain type of job, so putting them in the same 'never touch' box as nuclear waste seems a bit OTT.
Anyone else who's read Write to Sell, what did you think? Great? Mediocre? Useful only as a source of paper aeroplanes to throw at passers by?
Discuss.
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