I Can't Believe I'm Buying This Book: A Commonsense Guide to Successful Internet Dating (Paperback)

by Evan Marc Katz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this Internet dating primer, a self-proclaimed online serial dater demystifies fishing in the electronic sea. Katz, founder of the world's first Internet dating consultant firm, E-Cyrano, assures the uninitiated that Internet dating is the "wave of the present," with over 40 percent of all single adults in America searching for love online. Although Katz admits he's never sustained a relationship for more than seven months, he entertainingly reviews how to present one's self on the Web and prepare for every eventuality-from deciding how long to wait before meeting in person to who should pick up the check. Much of his advice is common sense-write a lively introductory essay, be selective in whom you respond to-but, as Katz notes, common sense often goes the way of the Dodo when it comes to dating.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Indispensible...this is a must read for any online dater." -- Time Magazine, Feb 2, 2004

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 174 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580085717
• ISBN-13: 978-1580085717
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,200 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #65 in

  Books > Health, Mind & Body > Relationships > Dating

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for men or women, April 19, 2004

By	The Poe Toaster (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Five stars doesn't seem like enough.

I've been dating online for just under a year, and what I really like about this book is how it lets the reader know that they're not alone in the trials and tribulations of online dating.

For instance, I used to feel like I was the only one stupid enough to go out with a girl even when I really wasn't all that excited about meeting her. The author assures me that his roommate is the same way. The author does a great job of disarming the reader and assuring the reader that they're not the only ones going through these different nuances of online dating.

Online dating can be rough. Where else can you potentially be talking to six different women through e-mail, four of them on the phone, and get three different dates a week? It can be really rough because you reject and get rejected A LOT more than you would outside of cyberspace, because you do A LOT more interacting with the opposite sex. This book has everything you need to know to enter this arena, and everything you need to know to survive in it once you're there.

Get into online dating without the kind of advice found in this book, and you're going to get butchered alive. Trust me-I got into online dating when I split with my ex, and was totally taken aback when the first few women I wrote to ignored me. Now I know that it happens to everyone. I also didn't have enough experience or knowledge to know what to put in my profile and what to leave out, what to put in a new contact letter and what not to, etc. If I had, I would've had more dates at first and less rejection.

Good book. If you're getting into online dating (which I highly recommend because it's very challenging and very rewarding), you'll need this information and this book is the best place to get it.

One other thing-the author has a great sense of humor and the book is pretty funny in places.

82 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheers for Evan Katz from Someone Who Knows, February 29, 2004

By	Kathryn Lord "Your Romance Coach" (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a CyberRomance Coach, so I try to keep up with the books that are coming out about Internet Dating. I had four come in the mail from Amazon this week. I was not very optimistic about the quality of the four, since most of what is getting printed is pretty bad - very thin on the information department, usually just a rehash of what has already been printed, and poorly written as well.

Imagine my surprise and delight at Evan Marc Katz's "I Can't Believe I'm Buying This Book: A Commonsense Guide to Successful Internet Dating"! My pencil was flying as I underlined Katz's unique points on page after page. I found new stuff in every chapter.

This guy knows what he is talking about. Katz used to be the customer consultant at AmericanSingles and JDate. And it sounds as if he has been at times certifiable as an Internet Dating Junkie. He knows the big dating sites and he knows about profiles - Wow! Does he know profiles! Katz gives the best profile advice I have seen, short of what I do myself. Plus he's funny and writes reasonably well.

Katz has a couple of weak spots - he's young (the cover says he's 31) and while he has been an energetic Online dater, he has yet to meet the love of his life, online or otherwise - though he did fall in love for the first time. He really hasn't got much to add for the over 50 crowd, a huge segment of CyberDaters, other than the good advice he gives for your online presentation and for dating in general. Katz's book is clearly "A Commonsense Guide to Successful Internet Dating" - it's about dating, not necessarily about finding the love of your life. He's great at that, the hands down expert, as far as I am concerned. Katz's answer to everyone's question "Does Internet dating work?" is a clear and unqualified "Yes!" But if you want assurance that you will find the love of your life via the Internet, you will not find it here.

Katz also asserts that he founded the first online dating consulting service E-Cyrano in 2003. He and I need to talk, since I have been online as a CyberRomance coach since 2002. But let's not split hairs - Katz has written a GREAT Internet dating book, and it's going to the top of my Amazon Listmania recommendations. Congratulations, Evan!

And I am not even going to tell you the names of those other books.

75 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I can't believe I bought this book, February 18, 2006

By	Peaches - See all my reviews

I was disappointed by this book. People who are reading all the glowing reviews on here should consider who the reviewers are and should know that this book isn't for everyone. I bought it because I thought it would be useful to get a male perspective on Internet dating. Evan Katz is a likable guy with a self-effacing humor and a breezy, engaging writing style. But women, especially over 35, should know that this book is mostly geared toward guys and giving them advice on how to land dates with attractive women.

Katz seems to have a distorted view of what online dating is like for women. He says that a woman can put a profile up and have literally hundreds of men writing to her the first week. "Suddenly a woman has a mountain of men waiting at her doorstep like the paparazzi outside Brad and Jennifer's mansion." What planet is he on??? That isn't my experience or that of the women I know. There is nothing in this book for us, except maybe that we should set our sights on 60-year-old men, because they are the only ones likely to be interested in us anyway! Katz would have done well to consult some women besides the apparently hot young babes he has dated.

People who are new to online dating will probably get more out of the book than those already in the game. I mean, I already knew you had to put up attractive, smiling photos and write a creative, original profile. Unless you're a man or a woman under 30, save your money.