Customer Reviews

Steal This Book!: Million Dollar Sales Letters You Can Legally Steal to Suck in Cash Like a Vacuum on

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

The price of this book is a joke. You can get more and better letters and instruction for FREE just by going to Bencivenga Bullets or Clayton Makepeace on the web, or saving your junk mail. I'm a direct response writer and have made $100k+ a year freelancing for over a decade, and I think it's morally reprehensible to try and get this much money from beginning writers. Author doesn't seem to have even one original idea -- the book's name isn't even original -- Abbie Hoffman famously wrote "Steal this Book" more than 30 years ago. Kilstein isn't interested in helping beginning writers, just in stealing from those trying to learn how to make it in the biz. SHAME ON HARLAN KILSTEIN!!!!!

This book was disappointing and over-priced. First, Harlan Kilstein is not a recognized A-level copywriter. I don't think he is even a recognized B-level copywriter. If you are going to study ads and salesletters and add them to your "swipe file", shouldn't the ads be written by a top professional who has proven their ability by writing controls for the big name publishers? Has Harlan Kilstein ever written a control for Boardroom? Or Philips? Or Agora? Or any other well-known mailer? I don't believe he has, or he would say so in his book and on his web site. Your money would be FAR better spent picking up Clayton Makpeace's "Steal These Secrets Volumes I & II" where you will find actual full color magalogs Makepeace wrote, which mailed in the MILLIONS of pieces. Makepeace is an established and widely recognized A-level copywriter who earns a reported $4,000,000 + per year in royalties from the copy he has written. Now THERE is a copywriter to learn from. Owning both "Steal This Book" by Kilstein, and "Steal These Secrets" by Clayton Makepeace, I can tell you Makepeace's swipe file is 100 times more valuable.

First of all, his sales copy isn't that great. If he claims that these letters have made his clients (and not even himself) millions then it goes to show that any half-a-brain can write a decent sales letter and make money.

This book was over $100 and maybe worth $35 at best. Why? You can collect your own swipe file for free by just saving your "junk" mail.

I analyzed a lot of the copywriting and established that Harlan Kilstein isn't really that great. Some of his grammar is off. He doesn't write a headline or subhead properly. Some of the letters are capitalized while others aren't, ruining the continuity of the piece(s).

I recommend you study Dan Kennedy (The Ultimate Sales Letter) or study Gary Halbert's letters (if you can find them) because those two are the two best copywriters on earth. (Gary Halbert is now deceased as of this year but his copywriting legacy will live on forever.)

Furthermore, it seems that Harlan Kilstein just did copywriting for companies and never took his own risk in doing his own mailings (like I do). Therefore, does he care how the copywriting turns out? Does he give it 100%? And does he really know what the results were when the mailings went out?

He claims that he is giving you million-dollar sales letters but then admits that one (or more) he's written were never mailed. What!? That makes the title sort of deceiving, right?

I do like his book title, though..."Million Dollar Sales Letters You Can Legally Steal to Suck In Cash Like a Vacuum on Steriods."

That would make an excellent headline (in a slightly different variation) for any kind of business opportunity piece.

It is inaccurate, though. Since he wrote those pieces for clients as a "work for hire" situation, you cannot "steal" or plagarize any of the sales letters word-for-word, no matter what he says. Even as the author of the materials, he cannot give the legal go-ahead for just anyone to copy his work because he did it as a work-for-hire for someone else.

Check out Herschell Gordon Lewis and his "swipe file" (or any of his copywriting books) or just collect your junk mail. Within a short time you'll have your own million-dollar sales letter treasure chest.

One last comment: For being a "swipe" file, there aren't that many sales
letters anyway!

Not recommended.

I was really upset when I got this book and found that absolutely none of the "swipe letters" were of any use at all. I can't believe thay I wasted over a hundred bucks on this collection of nonsense! The letters are poorly written and there is no useful instructional information either. Don't believe the positive reviews of this book, they're obviously written by the author. "Steal These Secrets" by Clayton Makepeace is somewhat better - at least it's useful. Do yourself a favor, don't waste your money on Kilstein's awful book.

I'll break this review down into two parts: what I liked about Steal This Book by Harlan Kilstein, and what I did not like.

What I liked: Catchy title, cool graphics on the cover and a few interesting sales letters I'd never seen before.

What I did not like: It's hard to tell who this book was written for, people just getting into the field of advertising copywriting, or experienced pros looking to expand their swipe file. If you are new to the field of copywriting, you may be impressed with the author's authoritative tone and writing style. But if you are new to copywriting there are many other (IMO) better places to start learning, such as Tested Advertising Methods by Caples, Scientific Advertising by Hopkins, and How to Write A Good Advertisement by Schwab. Pick up those three (plus Ogilvy on Advertising) and study them, and you will have gained an excellent education on direct response copywriting. And you can buy all of those books for less than half of Steal This Book.

If you are an experienced copywriter looking to expand your swipe file, I think you will be really disappointed with what you find in this book. The content is weak. The examples provided are just not that well written.

Pros already know the best way to build a top shelf swipe file is to buy a product or two from the big mailers in a specific industry and collect the promotions they send you in a box. This approach allows you to hold each package or sales letter received in your hands, which is a different experience than just seeing a picture of it in a book. Plus you get the added benefit of seeing how winning pieces evolve over time as previous controls are replaced by news ones.

People who don't understand copywriting THINK this isn't a good book.

All the experts know that you can't judge copy by "how it reads" or just because it isn't as flashy as someone else's copy. Proven copy is proven because it brings in money ... and Harlan provides his swipe file for all to see in this book.

There are a lot of bad reviews of this book, but the reason why is because these people ARE NOT the target audience of the copy. For example, I could read copy for bald headed men even though it pulls in MILLIONS of dollars ... but because I have hair, it really would have no affect on me.

Think about it ... I'm very familiar with a couple of his promotions so I know his copy works.

I don't think people fully appreciate what this book is all about. The brilliant concept around this book is that you have the ability to see, documented, successful, million dollar sales letters. And you're invited to swipe the content to create your own sales letter.

It doesn't matter if YOU like them or how they are presented, the fact is BUYERS do like them and respond to them. I wish I could afford to hire Harlan to do sales letters for me, but this offers me a look over his shoulder. I think that is the next best thing!

Many, many successful marketers that I know personally follow Harlan. One dear friend of mine, Armand Morin, has a saying... Success Leaves Traces.

You can see that failures leave traces as well, you can see evidence of that in some of the reviews here. Now you have a chance to Get It! So I encourage you to do just that.

If you do, buy this book and "steal" it's contents... then collect the money.

Harlan has made millions for his clients with these ads. He'll teach you how to do a proper "swipe" so you can use the letters within as a template to crank out cash sucking copy that forces your customers to buy, buy, buy!

Harlan is a master copywriter and knows his stuff. Save yourself the pain and suffering involved in creating your own ads. I've personally "swiped" from these letters and achieved double digit conversions. Why re-create the wheel when Harlan has done all the work for you. (Well, at least most of it. lol)

This book is worth every penny...and frankly it should be sold at twice the price. I've paid 10X the money for swipe files that frankly were not all that good. This one is gold. Buy it now before he wakes up and sells it for much more.

Million Dollar Mike Morgan
Million Dollar Copywriter

WOW this book is truly amazing! THis is a concentrate of powerful sales writing techniques. Thank you for putting it all together in one book. !