Brian Kurtz – Read This or Die (The Lost Swipe Files of Jim Rutz)

Brian Kurtz – Read This or Die (The Lost Swipe Files of Jim Rutz)

Jim Rutz was one of the greatest copywriters of all time.

And he was one of the most colorful characters this business has ever seen as well.

If you are a working or aspiring copywriter, you owe a debt of gratitude to Jim whether you have ever heard of him or not…he was a pioneer in creating win-win royalty arrangements for creative talent that many of you use today in your businesses.

More on that shortly.

And if you are a marketer of any product or service, studying the work of this one-of-a-kind talent will be equivalent to a graduate course in direct response.

When Jim passed away a few years ago, his sister Ginger sent me two enormous boxes of his work and all of the work he admired most.

She entrusted me to know what to do with such treasures…and my plan was to create an educational product for the ages with the working title:

“The Lost Files of Jim Rutz”

Side note: One of the incredibly rewarding things that came about when I decided to create this Jim Rutz product was that three copywriters emerged from my online family—readers of this weekly blog just like you—volunteering to work on this product since they had learned so much from studying Jim their entire careers.

I thank my lucky stars every day that Jim Rutz chose me…

Anyway, now that I can say that this Jim Rutz product is taking shape—it will be an incredible swipe file with supporting material, interviews and lessons—I wanted to share the post I wrote about him after he passed away.

In case you missed it the first time, I want you to understand why I am committed to having his work shared broadly with a new generation of copywriters and marketers.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it…I miss Jim terribly…but he left an awesome legacy and body of work.

Here is the story of the “Copywriter closest to God”—let me know what you think after reading it:

I don’t mean to be disrespectful when I say that organized religion owes its success, at least partially, to great copy.

No matter how many times I brag about my previous company Boardroom selling 3 million copies of The Book of Inside Information in the 1980’s and 1990’s, it will never be the all-time bestseller on the planet.