Valeria Maltoni is one of the very few people for whom, if she said, “Jump!” I’d respond, “How high?”

A couple of weeks ago she asked me to jump, so I did. I’m very honored to be one of the 12 marketing bloggers she invited to make a contribution to an eBook called Marketing in 2009.

Our assignment was not to make predictions for the upcoming year but prescriptions, looking at what we think will be important trends and directions for marketing in general and social media in particular, and then sharing our mandates for execution.

That opening “e” in execution seemed to jump out at me and became my theme. My contribution is called: MARKETING PRESCRIPTIONS FOR 2009: VITAMIN E.

The three E’s in my Rx are

Explode your firewalls

Educate your employees

Explore, experiment, empower

The other contributors are

Olivier Blanchard, The Brand Builder, @thebrandbuilder

Matt Dickman, Techno||Marketer, @MattDickman

Mike Fruchter, My Thoughts on Social Media, @Fruchter

Francois Gossieaux, Emergence Marketing, @fgossieaux

Beth Harte, The Harte of Marketing, @BethHarte

Lois Kelly, Beeline Labs, @LoisKelly

Christina Kerley, CK Epiphany, @ckepiphany

Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide, @JenniferLaycock

Amber Naslund, Altitude Branding, @AmberCadabra

Mike Wagner, Own Your Brand!, @bigwags

Alan Wolk, The Toad Stool, @awolk

Download the free Marketing in 2009 eBook from Conversation Agent.

One of the best things I did last year was to participate in the The Age of Conversation, a collaborative e-book. Editors Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton have announced they’re up to a sequel–and this time you get to vote on the topic.

But wait–there’s more! You also have the opportunity to be a collaborator. If you want to be an author for The Age of Conversation’s kissing cousin (the 2008 version), e-mail Drew and say you’re in.

He will be providing a lot more detail in a week or so — but for now, here are some basic rules for authorship:

• You will sign over all rights to your chapter
• You understand that all proceeds of the book will be donated to Variety, the Children’s Charity
• You will promote the book, throughout the process, on your blog if you have one
• You’ll embrace the cooperative, collaborative spirit that defined Age of Conversation
• You’ll honor deadlines so Drew does not have to be a nag
• You’ll honor word counts so Gavin doesn’t have to be a nag

What’s the topic for 2008? Drew says, “In the true spirit of collaboration, we’re going to decide together. Your choices are …”

• Marketing Manifesto
• Why Don’t People Get It?
• My Marketing Tragedy (and what I learned)

The only way to vote is via this SurveyMonkey survey: Click Here to take survey

You DO NOT need to be an author or potential author to vote.

The survey will close on January 31st, so help get out the vote.

I never imagined that the MakeConnieLaugh in 140 Characters or Less contest would turn out to be such a dangerous event. While I can’t award a Purple Heart, I can award a First Place prize to Tim Siedell, an advertising guru and jerky afficianado [inside joke] who was so determined to make me smile that he wound up injuring himself.

You’ll have to dig deep on the Web to find a real photo of Tim; on his Bad Banana blog and Twitter he prefers to use the iconic image of one of his heroes, legendary adman David Ogilvy. A well-thumbed copy of Ogilvy on Advertising has a place of honor on one of my many bookshelves as well.

Here is the series of entries from Tim that cracked me up. Remember, these are posted in reverse chronological order, so it helps to start reading at the bottom.

Here’s a shout-out to Brenda and Ryan for adding to the fun.

A final note to Tim: I am still awarding you First Place, even though I later found out from your Web site that you also won the World’s Toughest Briefs competition. Somehow it sounds like you weren’t exactly playing fair here; nevertheless, you can still expect an autographed copy of The Age of Conversation.

The Age of Conversation launched this morning! Read the release announcement and check out the AOC book project blog.

The book collaboration has been covered by Techmeme, and a great interview with the project’s originators appeared in Ad Age, where the book is reviewed in their bookstore. The book has also been featured in Social Computing Magazine: here and here.

The Age of Conversation is available in three formats:

e-book: $9.99 ($7.99 going to charity)
paperback book: $16.95 ($8.10 to charity)
hardback book: $29.99 ($8.55 to charity)

Place your order online at Lulu.com/ageofconversation.

As noted above, all proceeds above the cost of production go to Variety, the Children’s Charity.

I’m off to order my own copies. For the last three months I’ve been dying to see what all the other contributors had to say, and today’s the day!

It has been a great privilege to be included in this collaboration, and I simply can’t thank Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan enough for getting this whole thing started.

I also look forward to hearing what you think about The Age of Conversation.

So let’s get the conversation started . . .

LAUNCH DATE: MONDAY, JULY 16

Back in April I signed on for a project that has turned out to be one of the most interesting I’ve been involved with lately. I contributed a 400-word chapter to a collaborative e-book to be called The Age of Conversation. The concept, dreamed up by Drew McClellan and Gavin Heaton, was simple but brilliant: to get 100 authors contributing to one conversation and to offer their collective writings as a downloadable file, with all proceeds from the sales donated to Variety, the Children’s Charity.

I’m happy to report now that not only with there be a downloadable e-book, but print versions of The Age of Conversation can be ordered as well.

Formats/Prices:

Hardbacks $29.99
Paperbacks $16.95
E-book $9.99

My chapter is on conversational writing — how to gain and hold interest by writing with your reader in mind. Here’s a complete list of contributors with links to their blogs and Web sites. It’s a stellar lineup, and I’m honored to be in their company. Can’t wait to read what everyone else had to say about the subject.

Check back here Monday, and I’ll have the link for online ordering.

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
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
Luc Debaisieux
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
Robert 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
G.Kofi 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
Gia 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
Craig Wilson
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

It started as a dare by Gavin Heaton to Drew McLellan, and turned into a full-fledged e-book with more than 100 authors. I’m tickled to be one of them.

When I read the call for authors on Drew McLellan’s blog, I jumped at the chance to contribute to a project that is all about my passion: making connections through conversation. My chapter will be called “The Two-step of Conversational Writing.”

All proceeds from the project will go to charity, and the book is dedicated to Sandra Kerley, mother of well-known marketing blogger and conversation champion CK. (Adding her to my blogroll now.)

Here’s the final list of bloggers signed up to write a chapter, with links.

Contributors:
Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
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
Mitch Joel
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Krishna De
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
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Pollinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
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