cafe

New book takes a satirical journey through the crazy world of network marketing

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
“New pet food set to poo-poo industry”

“It’s a brave new world of odourless doggie droppings!”
What goes in must come out. Right? It’s as sure as the day is long.

So imagine a world where pet food was actually healthy and your pet was able to absorb all the nutrients. Imagine that your pet’s droppings don’t stink and you could pick them up with your bare hands. And imagine if the pet food can was biodegradable and turned into plant food wherever it was dumped – an environmental advancement!

Imagine then that you could become seriously rich from distributing these products. But the only way to sell or buy the pet food was through network marketing.

Even in his wildest fantasies (and he had a few of them!) Ed Sharock, a burnt-out advertising
copywriter, never imagined such a life-changing career change. But nothing lasts forever.

cafe, the second novel by Sydney author, Fraser Beath McEwing, is a satirical journey through the crazy world of network marketing. It doesn’t seem like a funny subject until it gets into – and onto – the hands of master humorist, McEwing.

If you’ve ever been involved in network marketing, either as a distributor or a customer, cafe will have you nodding and laughing out loud. And if you haven’t, you’ll still laugh too much to risk reading cafe in a public place.

cafe is the first novel to hilariously lift the lid on network marketing. Meet the people – you
might be one of them – who get sucked in by a promise of working from home to get rich. A few do, but most lose friends and lose money.

cafe is told by Ed Sharock, a struggling ad man who will lose his job unless he comes up with a winning brand for an American pet-food company. Although Ed is elated when he hits the jackpot, he is dismayed to find that the miraculous products are sold only through network marketing, which he detests. But the promise of huge incomes and the magnetism of Nat Cohen, a leading member of the network, suck Ed and his veterinarian friend Sid Willis into giving it a try. Ed struggles through prospecting his “warm circle” until he hits the terrifying wall of the cold call. Does he find a way
over the wall or turn and run?
Ed let’s us into his quirky and highly inventive mind as he grapples with handling rejection,
sexual preferences, loyalty and, finally, the demands of his conscience. While cafe sends up network marketing, there are also truths for those contemplating it.

cafe, by Fraser Beath McEwing, rrp $26.95, available from good book shops, Horizon Publishing Group and Australian Book Group websites.