How to Nabokov Your Copy

As I wrote on the Copywriting Gems page: “There is a TON of bad advice out there about how to write high-performing copy. And things seem to be getting worse, not better.” One of the solutions is to put down the copywriting books. Pick up some novels instead.

Reading fiction is a gateway to high-performing direct response copy.
You get to study those moments when someone describes a feeling or thought you know you’ve had but never knew how to express. It makes the abstract concrete. And in doing so, it makes it true. It is hard to say no to the truth. Which is useful when your job is to sell.

The key to telling the truth, to making the abstract concrete, is specificity.

It is the small, specific and sensory details that are most powerful.

There are many kings of this skill, but the emperor – and your tour guide today – is Vladimir Nabokov.

I’ve chosen Nabokov because you can make the case that he is the greatest writer of all time. So there’s that. He was public about his savage opinions of other writers, which is funny. He also studied butterflies, which is peculiar. Critics have said the time he spent obsessing over their intricacies gave him an appetite for the precision and detail that makes his writing so clean and bright.

In this memo, you’ll see how real-world sales copy can be “Nabokov-ed” – rewritten with sensory flourishes, playful touches, and pure originality – to capture attention and get people to fondle their credit cards.

Five Ways to Nabokov Your Copy

First a quick warning:

Let’s not muddle things. Direct response copywriting is not art but craft. Art is for creatives. Direct response is for sellers. My mentor Shane Hunter puts it like this:

“The difference between art & direct response is ego, but it’s not how you think it is. With art, it goes inspiration, artist, audience. With direct response, it goes to the audience, inspiration, artist. In one, the audience comes first. The other? Audience comes last.”

Nabokov was an artist. His inspiration came first. When you sell, the audience comes first. The audience is the hero and you are the support character.

So let Nabokov teach you the many boons of specific writing. But don’t make your writing so specific that it becomes pretentious. Keep the spotlight on the audience.

1. Make Words Sensory

Nabokov was obsessed with the sensory effect of words. And it wasn’t just a fascination, it was a condition.

He had synesthesia, which is when your brain connects and mixes senses together. People can see colors when they hear music, or taste flavors when they read words.

From his memoir, Speak, Memory:

“The long ‘a’ of the English alphabet… has for me the tint of weathered wood, but a French ‘a’ evokes polished ebony. This black group also includes hard ‘g’ (vulcanized rubber) and ‘r’ (a sooty rag being ripped). Oatmeal ‘n’, noodle-limp ‘l’, and the ivory-backed hand mirror of ‘o’ take care of the white side.”

The deeper someone’s sensory experience, the stronger the connection.

And from Copywriting Gems:

Nabokov Your Copy: Swap out generic claims for sensory specifics.

2. Storytelling as Sleight of Hand

History shows us people will pay for a good story. The easier a story is to remember, the truer it becomes. And the truer it is, the more people will buy it. It’s why we have parables. And popcorn.

In his novel Pale Fire, Nabokov constructs a story within a story: a poem by John Shade and a delusional commentary by Charles Kinbote. The commentary battles the poem for pole position, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. This “false bottom” structure means there is always another truth to uncover, compelling readers to keep digging.

From the world of direct response, the first line of Joe Karbo’s The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches sales letter:

The sales letter starts with a curious, counterintuitive statement and then tells his own immersive story of struggle and discovery. You are led step by step through his journey, identifying with the setbacks and rooting for the outcome. You know there’s a pitch coming. But you also want to know the end of the story.

Nabokov Your Copy: Structure your page so that each answer creates a new question, and each benefit hints at a deeper, hidden benefit.

3. Think in Images: Write Cinematically

In his well-titled book Strong Opinions, Nabokov said he didn’t think in words but images. And he encouraged wannabe writers to do the same. This helps uncover hidden details and bolsters the practice of making words more sensory.

Nabokov was an aristocrat. His drawing tutor, a man called Dobuzhinski, asked him to remember, with as many sensory details as possible, things “he had certainly seen thousands of times without visualizing them properly: a street lamp, a postbox, the tulip design on the stained glass of our own front door.”

Take this passage from Invitation to a Beheading:

“Marthe arrived, accompanied by her mother, her father, a maid, a dog, and a large trunk. The furniture followed. The walls slid into place, the ceiling settled, and the door clicked shut. The room, which a moment ago had been empty, was now complete, filled with the clatter of voices and the rustle of skirts.”

Or this from Laughter in the Dark:

“He was alone in the flat. The silence was so deep that he could hear the ticking of the clock in the kitchen. He walked to the window. The street was empty, except for a dog nosing a paper bag. A tram rattled past, its yellow lights reflected in the wet pavement. He closed his eyes and saw Margot’s face, pale and luminous, floating in the darkness.”

Nabokov Your Copy: Visual work is more memorable, relatable and persuasive.

4. Map Out Structure Before Writing

Only sociopaths and artificial intelligence write sales copy from the first sentence through to the last. But you should always know your structure, your outline.

“I may direct my flashlight at any part or particle of the picture when setting it down in writing. I do not begin my novel at the beginning, I do not reach chapter three before I reach chapter four, I do not go dutifully from one page to the next, in consecutive order; no, I pick out a bit here and a bit there, till I have filled all the gaps on paper. This is why I like writing my stories and novels on index cards, numbering them later when the whole set is complete. Every card is rewritten many times.”

Nabokov Your Copy: Do your research. Map things out. Then write in any order you like.

5. The 3 Identities of the (Copy) Writer

Nabokov broke down the three roles of a writer. He said you must be a storyteller (to entertain), a teacher (to inform), and an enchanter (to delight and mesmerize):

“A major writer combines these three—storyteller, teacher, enchanter—but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major writer.”

And a copywriting training I took part in said something similar, which is that there are only three “personas” people buy from: a convert, an expert and a good friend.

The convert persona works well for interesting personal stories. The expert is when you want to leverage credibility. And the good friend is a voice built on likeability.

Nabokov Your Copy: You can mix and match these copywriting personas. But knowing that good copy is based on curiosity (convert), credibility (expert) and likability (friend) will take you far.

Now Nabokov Your Next Campaign 

But remember the key difference between writing and copywriting:

Writing is about delight.
Copywriting is about belief.

“Words without experience are meaningless.”
— Vladimir Nabokov