Phil,

I'm a big Bydell fan. And judging by this post, the only one.

Here are the negatives of both - 1) The ads shown are old. 2) All the ads are focused on retail print. Not long copy.

For me, #1 is a "so what". #2 may be a legitimate beef if you want something focused on longer copy sales letter, not print retail ads.

The book will make you want to be a better writer. Bydell is passionate about copy that sells. He wrote the book because he couldn't find a decent sales focused copy book when he was teaching advertising.

The books walks you through his 30 copy stratagems arranged around the AIDCA formula for copy.

The second book, is a massive over-sized version that is a summary of his principles in the book, but detailing ad after ad and doing comparisons of good and bad ads. It is much more a work book.

I've got a client with two of "How to write advertising that sells" books sitting around that they have never once opened and read. Too bad you are not local, I could probably acquire a "reading copy" for ya.

I'm away from my office at the moment, but if you have more questions - ask, I'll get the books in front of me and walk you through them.

You posted this a while ago, so I'd also be interested if you have made a purchase yet and how you liked it.