• by October 29, 2008

• After raising $15,000 for charity from the sales of The Age of Conversation -- the book of essays they compiled last year on the how citizen marketers are changing the marketing landscape--blogging marketing executives Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton have assembled an even larger group of fellow marketing bloggers for a sequel: The Age of Conversation 2, subtitled "Why Don't They Get It?"

This time, 237 marketing bloggers from 15 countries contributed 400-word, single-page essays, up from 103 bloggers via nine countries last year. The collaborators also voted for the book's subtitle, from several options suggested by McLellan and Heaton.

E-books accounted for about 25% of 1,989 total units sold of the first volume, McLellan told Marketing Daily. "Interestingly," he said, "our initial intention was just to do an e-book, but the authors really wanted the paperback and hardcover options. Paperbacks, in fact, turned out to be the most popular format--accounting for about 57% of sales, with hardcover getting 18%.

The first book also continues to be sold on Amazon.com, and McLellan said the editors are now working on getting the second one on the site as well, adding: "We'd gladly have it in other places, as long as they're comfortable working with a print-on-demand product."

And how does such a stellar collection of marketing experts market their own book?

"We're doing a media push this week," McLellan said. "We've already started a podcast series, and the authors are all blogging about the book this week. We've created a widget that people can put on MySpace, Facebook, blogs, Web sites, etc. We are also using Twitter. And we've got some other things that aren't finalized yet but are in the works."

The editors hope volume 2 will raise an additional $20,000 for Variety--The Children's Charity, McLellan writes in his latest blog post at DrewsMarketingMinute.com. McLellan is also "top dog" at McLellan Marketing Group, Des Moines, Iowa.

Heaton, who handles global business development for software company SAP in Sydney, Australia, writes in his blog, ServantofChaos.com, that Age of Conversation 2 is a "must-read for marketers wanting to understand the opportunities, challenges and potential of social and digital media in this challenging and turbulent marketing landscape."

The book's writers include social media pros, traditional agency veterans, authors, ministers, directors of marcom agencies, artists, PR experts and directors of non-profits.