A year and a half ago, an online conversation between two marketing
professionals in the U.S. and Australia evolved into a collaborative
writing effort by more than 100 bloggers from nine countries, including Craig Wilson,
that created a book called The Age of Conversation. The project raised
nearly $15,000 for Variety, the international children’s charity.

Following the success of the first book, which was published in the summer of 2007, Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton,
organizers of the first project, have now published Age of Conversation
2, which compiles written thoughts on the role of conversation in
marketing today from 237 marketing professionals who blog in the U.S.
and 15 other countries. This time both Craig and Gordon have chapters in the book.

Pricing for The Age of Conversation 2 is:

* e-book: US$12.50  ($10.00 going to charity)
* paperback book: US$19.95 ($8.02 to charity)
* hardback book: US$29.95 ($4.60 to charity)

Purchases can be made online from October 28, 2007 at www.lulu.com/ageofconversation.

A 24 hour "Bum Rush" co-ordinated by Chris Wilson saw hundreds of bloggers mobilize to promote the innovative marketing publication The Age of Conversation.  In one day the book has risen from an Amazon ranking of approximately 110,000 to finish the day at  #262 for all books and  #36 on the Business Bestsellers list.

The "Bum Rush" marketing effort saw the book’s release promoted on
hundreds of websites and blogs around the world, then heavily pushed on
Digg.com, where it was the fastest rising web topic in the last 24 hours.

Readers were encouraged to buy the book from Amazon, make comments, review it, Digg it and tell their friends, and discuss the progress on Twitter.

The rush started in Australia, which is only lightly represented in
the book, then proceeded around the world until midnight on the US
east-coast. Bleary-eyed bloggers stayed online for the entire push,
giving encouragement in a real online-style festival.

The book had another breakthrough when it became listed on Wikipedia during the "Bum Rush". A profile of the book and listing of authors can be found here.

Of course thats not the end of the story. Now that Age of
Conversation is well up the Amazon rankings, we want to maintain the
rage and try to push it further. Its not too late to buy a copy. Buy one for your business, your clients, your friends or family. All proceeds go to Variety, the children’s charity.

But within a month of its release, two major movie studios have shown interest in Magdalena Ball’s debut novel and are studying the manuscript: 20th Century Fox and Anonymous Content, who did the Brad Pitt blockbuster Babel and other huge box office hits.

Then again, Sleep Before Evening is no ordinary novel.  The critically acclaimed book, which Magdalena wrote by midnight oil at her home in Lake Macquarie, has received unanimous 5-star reviews for its linguistic beauty and the intensity of its plot.

Set in and about New York, Sleep Before Evening tells the story of a teenager’s struggle against a self-centred artist mother, a succession of drive-by stepfathers, her desperate escape into a nightmare of drugs and sexual degradation … and her struggle not to sleep before evening.

Award winning author and poet Magdalena Ball left behind the concrete canyons of New York and the sleepy spires of Oxford, England to find her voice in the rural mountains of Australia 18 years ago.  And with wombats and kangaroos for neighbours, she’s producing the best work of her life.

With work underway on two other books 43-year old Magdalena even finds time to run her bustling review site, CompulsiveReader.com – and look after her three young children.

Magdalena opened her popular Compulsive Reader website (http://www.compulsivereader.com/html) seven years ago to provide the kind of in-depth serious reviews found in top review sources like The Observer and SMH, but online and for a mixture of books including small presses and new authors, primarily literary fiction, and it has since become a benchmark for high quality online literary criticism. 

Her gritty Sleep Before Evening unfolds with the same cool detachment that motivates the central character to peel back the layers of her life and expose the painful scalding within. There are lonely vigils in city parks and subway journeys to oblivion. In the city she meets Miles, a hip musician busking the streets and playing seedy venues with a rock band.  Her new, exciting, dissolute world challenges Marianne’s preconceptions about art and life. Here, in contrast to her prescribed upbringing, she finds anarchic squalor, home grown music and poetry, substance abuse, sex and crushing disappointment and fear; but above all, exhilarating personal freedom. Addictions — of all kinds — and the redemptive power of art and music, love, loss and beauty are all explored in a young girl’s difficult journey from sleep to awakening. The book draws on Magdalena’s own rich life experience as a daughter and a mother to bring Marianne startlingly to life.

Some review excerpts:

"…the drug scenes are written with an intensity that I have rarely experienced in literature, or any other medium for that matter. The words and sentences beautifully drift through this melancholy, but never hopeless, foggy reality of drug abuse and self-searching and beauty and longing. The change and growth the protagonist goes through from the beginning to the end is nothing short of extraordinary, rendered almost impeccably, and the dialogue throughout feels as real as those dark shadows that hang out on that whiskey corner just down the street from my place, street-talking their way to the next hit, the next kiss, the next anything…kudos to Magdalena ball , "Sleep Before Evening" is a beautiful book. quite the accomplishment…" Tony Nesca, author of "The Do-Nothing Boys" and "About A Girl"

"The writing is deep and memorable making the novel a true page-turner. The words are chosen masterly; the narrative and the imagery are excellent. The book sounds like the music Marianne wants to compose."   Maressa Zahra, Moondance

"This is a beautifully written novel. While the subject matter is dark and unflinching (namely grief, depression and drug addiction) Magdalena Ball’s prose is always smooth and lyrical. Her characters are well drawn and memorable, set against a series of contrasting backdrops – suburban America; high school; the wild freedom of the coast and the seedy underside of New York life lurking just beneath the cosmopolitan coffee-bar surface. A joy to read." J Moore, Writelink

"what we have here is a full-on rush of ambitious literary fiction.  Gerald Everett Jones, Boychiklit

A full media kit for the book, including Reading Group notes can be found at http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/images/MediaRoom.htm

For review copies contact Cait Myers at BeWrite Books, caitmyers@bewrite.net

To arrange an interview, contact Magdalena Ball at maggieball@compulsivereader.com

We must be doing something right…

Hunter’s Best the new ‘Citizen Powered Media’ channel has been mentioned in a remarkable global project involving over 100 of the world’s foremost marketing thinkers that has resulted in a new book called the Age of Conversation.

In only a few months, leading Australian marketer Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan have conceived, assembled and produced a collaborative ebook which is all about the power of community in marketing.

The book will be launched world-wide in three formats — eBook, soft cover and hard cover. All proceeds will be donated to Variety, the Children’s Charity.

Launch date:  Now available.  Order your copy HERE.

Formats/Prices:
Hardbacks $29.99
Paperbacks $16.95
E-book $9.99

The list of co-authors in The Age of Conversation (I’ll give $5.00 to anyone who can name the author who mentioned our site):

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan

Craig Wilson
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Mindblob (Luc)
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Bob Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
Kofl Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gianandrea Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg
C.B. Whittemore

If you would like me to make any changes or fix any links, please just give email me at info@huntersbest.com.au

Article author: Gordon Whitehead