Guess who’s publishing this year’s edition of Age of Conversation?

Yep, us.

Back in September, Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton announced that they were getting ready for round three of their multi-author marketing book Age of Conversation. Having authored a chapter for AOC 2 and witnessing the laborious process Drew and Gavin endured to edit, design, publish and distribute the book, I was amused by the subject line they chose to announce this year’s project: “Some call it insanity–we call it Age of Conversation 3.” Sounds about right.

So, naturally, I signed up to contribute another chapter. Then, the next day, I decided that I wanted a bigger part: I wanted to publish the book. (And when I say ‘I’, I mean the collective ‘I’–as in, me, Kate and the entire Channel V Media/Channel V Books team.)

Not only did I know that Drew and Gavin had to dive in head first to learn the publishing business the last two years (you know, on top of being editors, designers, marketers and project managers for the past two books), we’d just launched our publishing arm, Channel V Books, which was basically designed for this project. How? I’ll make this quick.

Channel V Books is a publishing model we designed for business thought leaders who are building their personal brands and marketing platforms–whether to promote themselves, their companies or their services in order to attract new opportunities. Often times, after working with us, their natural next step is to solidify their brand or promote their company by publishing a book that reinforces their stance on whatever it is that they do. And quite frankly, they don’t have the desire to become publishers and distributors in their spare time, nor the patience to work with the big traditional publishing houses. I mean, really–can you imagine an 18-month turnaround on a book about online-anything? Or trying to keep up with a slew of book orders coming through your website in order to clear your garage of the 2,000-book minimum order your self-publisher made you purchase to get a “discount”? There’s got to be a better way…

After a couple years of research and debunking the status quo, there is, and, well, the rest is history. We approached Drew and Gavin, and told them we wanted to help. But let’s be honest here: as much as we were doing this out of the kindness of our little blackened hearts, I’d be lying if I didn’t say we were slightly swayed by the fact that all 180–yes, 180!–authors are thought leaders who we’d love to work with when they publish their first/next books. (Seriously, call me…) Oh–and all profits from the sale of the book are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which is pretty great.

But enough about us, let’s talk about talking. Or talk about conversation, rather. I present you with: Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time to Get Busy!

Following  the success of the first two editions, Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time to Get Busy! again kick-starts the discussion about how the global marketing landscape is changing. With over 300 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators contributing chapters, this collaborative work investigates the roles that community, conversation, experimentation, engagement, and collaboration play in shaping the 21st century’s economy of ideas. As businesses, public and private organizations, and individuals realize that there’s much more to social media and its impacts than first meets the eye, Age of Conversation 3 shows which platforms, tools, and approaches truly work.

From the boardroom to the locus of customer interaction, social media is transforming the way we do business. The impact of this is being felt in every customer interaction, each business decision and even the way we source, retain and engage our staff.

“Social media” is the business buzzword of 2010.

But what’s happening beyond the hype? What are the practicalities that social media are imposing on our business practices?

In Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time to Get Busy!, the world’s leading practitioners share their stories, ideas, strategies and observations. Each chapter yields practical insight and valuable experience. The third book in the Age of Conversation series is crowdsourced, bringing together hundreds of authors from across the world, which means diverse perspectives and innovative approaches that reflect the global, changing nature of business today.

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