Branded Blog

“Our Sandton, Cape Town, Durban and Stellenbosch executives are rated as world leaders in money laundering, bribery and corruption, procurement fraud, asset misappropriation and cybercrime.” – Professor Patrick Bond (quoted in The Citizen)

Izak De Vries of Lapa Publishers recently interviewed me about the book. If you’d like to know more about how the book came to be and why I wanted to publish a story about South African corporate corruption read Izak’s article here on LITNET

My friend, Vanessa Clark (@vanclark), a freelance journo found my book at Book Lounge and shared it on Instagram. Thank you Vanessa! After she read it she commented: “Great job! You especially nailed the pacing – beautifully crafted. I was gripped and had to make myself slow down to savour it. ☆☆☆☆☆”

Step 1: Change everything in your life within a year, leave no stone un-turned.

Step 2: Make new friends in the publishing industry who say crazy things like “You know, I’ve read a lot of books about ad agencies, but none about the other side of the table….” (ahem, Izak).

Step 3: Decide that instead of getting a Masters you will write the book. This also applies to a blog – as in, this is my excuse for the sudden, unexplained disappearance of these blogs a few years back!

Step 4:  Join the most amazing writing group in the world started by the same friend who then hand-picks the best group of wordy geniuses you could ever hope to meet and share an evening a month with them for much feedback, wine and raucous laughter (which also results in said group being dubbed “Die Laggende Vroue” by the ever-patient partner of said friend). Die Laggended Vroue did have some very special male members too, they embraced their feminine admirably. [Die Laggende Vroue: The Laughing Ladies // Alternately: The very loud ladies in the lounge!]

Step 4: Spend six years (or so) writing the book (while also starting your own consultancy because who doesn’t like a challenge?).

Step 5: Let a select few (two) special souls know when you finish and then ignore the manuscript for at least a year.

Step 6: Rely on said friend to extract the manuscript from your petrified fingers, have it vetted, get the most brilliant editor/poet/writer/amazing person to edit it, re-jig the entire thing in a few weeks, have it proof-read and checked and dressed and voila! A book has appeared as if by magic!

Step 7: Use decades of marketing experience to create fun PR kits which are approved of by Jerry the Cat, send out and pour a glass or two of wine.  It’s a wild ride this book thing!

In SA you can buy it online here or most book shops:

Corporation Games C/F

And internationally it’s on Amazon in Kindle version!

https://www.amazon.com/Corporation-games-Anneleigh-Jacobsen

In troubled times like these many of us are asking ourselves where we stand and what we should do about it, and the same should be true for brands. But brands are commercial or social vehicles and so these questions are, I think, even more fraught.

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