What Reading Non-Fiction Has Taught Me About Copywriting

I read a lot of non-fiction. My personal booklist is dominated by the genre and I’m very eclectic in my choices. I just finished Carol Off’s excellent At a Loss for Words and have moved onto Gulp by Mary Roach, a book about the alimentary canal that is interesting, informative and, in the author’s own words, occasionally icky. (It’s also pretty damn funny. Who knew you could laugh out loud at a book that discusses human digestion?)

Non-fiction books are lengthy, delve into a topic in the most minute detail, and have a reputation for being somewhat boring. In short, they are not everyone’s jam. I get it. But in my many years of reading non-fiction, I have learned a lot about structure and content, much of it relevant to the role of copywriter.

Herein, four valuable lessons from the world of non-fiction that apply to copywriting. (A list of the books I talk about follows the article.)

Lesson One: No topic is too offbeat.

Even if you feel like you are the only person on the planet interested in a given subject, I guarantee you are not. Someone somewhere is going to dig it; you just have to find your people.

Consider a quirky little book I found at a library sale: Mr. Langshaw’s Square Piano, which recounts the history of a very particular musical instrument and its impact on the wider culture, or a slim volume called The Philosophy of Curry, which is not a cookbook but a “new perspective” on a specific ingredient.

Both hew to very specific interests and stem from their respective authors’ fascination with the topic at hand. The moral of the story: if you are passionate about something, don’t hold back. Write what you love, share it and you just might find yourself connecting with people you haven’t met before who have a vested interest in what you have to say (and sell).

Lesson Two: It’s not just what you say, but how you say it.

Fungi. Seashells. The colour blue. People have written entire books about each of those subjects and they are among some of the best non-fiction I’ve read. The key? The writers know their audience and write in a tone and language that works for them.

Once you know who you are trying to reach, you can then decide how to convey your message in a way that resonates with them. For example, in Blue, the writer talks at length about the physics and chemistry behind the colour blue, very technical topics that could be as dry as dirt. But he writes in a conversational style with lots of personal anecdotes that make the whole topic accessible and extremely engaging.

And that is the goal of copywriting: attracting an interested audience with content that speaks to them and compels them to visit your website and stay a while, all while burnishing your bona fides as a subject matter expert.

Lesson Three: Always show your work.

All works of non-fiction have extensive endnotes and bibliographies that not only provide credit for the sources used but also show the author’s work in finding and evaluating the information they share in the book. How detailed are these sections? Consider The Editor, which I recently read: 60 of its 316 pages are devoted to permissions, credits and notes.

Credit should always be given for any sources–written materials, photos, illustrations, videos–because it is the right thing to do. But citations of sources also reflect well on you as a business, showing your attention to detail, willingness to do research for the benefit of your audience, and the credibility of your content.

Lesson Four: Hook ‘em with a good title.

The title of any book carries a lot of weight. (Cover art matters too, of course. There’s a reason people talk about judging a book by its cover, but the words used in a title are equally important–where images can be arresting but vague, a title makes clear what the book is about.)

In the world of non-fiction, a title that stops people in their tracks and piques their curiosity is especially critical, since a lot of people assume non-fiction is, to put it charitably, a little on the dull side.

Case in point. I was doing some editing recently and came upon a book entitled Flowers of Fire. I had not seen the cover and knew nothing more than the title but that alone motivated me to find out more. The alliteration, the word “fire”, the contrast between the delicacy of flowers and intensity of fire–I had to know what this book was about. (The feminist movement in South Korea, if you are interested, and I am. I have since ordered the book and will be reading it soon.)

Copywriting in an online environment might not require something so dramatic, but it does need a title that draws people in before they scroll onto the next thing.

Here is another example. Imagine if the fungi book I referenced earlier were called “All About Fungi” instead of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Future. That title is intriguing and hints at greater depths. It’s not just fungi, but a whole entangled web of connected organisms that may have an impact on our future.

OK, maybe that still wouldn’t grab everyone’s attention, but you get the idea–a compelling title gets noticed and, in the context of online information, just might be enough to motivate a click and an introduction to your business.