Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• The Brazilian tax code has been compiled into one of the world’s largest books. 
• Over 50% of adults have not finished a book in the past year. Given what’s going on, I can’t blame them.
• Booky Call is being called “an app that’s like Tinder for Book lovers”, but it’s really just a book discovery app. 
• Bryan Cohen thinks you should send more newsletters, not fewer. 
• How to market your book without social media. 

P.S. A couple weeks back I wrote a note to a friend who was having trouble deciding what to put in their ad. The note covered a very basic marketing lesson (picking the type of message you want to convey), and I liked it so much that I saved it so I could reuse it here.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re working on an ad, a FB post, a blurb, a bookmark, or a Kickstarter campaign, the first step is to pick a message, and then write copy to convey that message.

Some of the options include:

• Our company/group/product exists
• Here’s why you will like our product/event (or, here’s what happens in my book)
• I can solve this problem you have
• You should take action X, and here’s why

When confronted with having to create an ad, a lot of first-time marketers will chose the “exist” option (sometimes they even forget to explain what they are). This is not a great choice because it leaves the audience thinking “so what?” because the marketer hasn’t really explained why the audience should care.

The second option is a better choice, although it doesn’t work everywhere. If, for example, you are supporting a cause, announcing a Kickstarter, or setting up a landing page, you should really go for the fourth option.

My preferred type of ad for my freelancer business is the third one. This would also be good for anyone pitching a service or a non-fiction book.