#Manweek was about raising awareness around men's health - in particular depression and the complications that can arise from that

What the research had indicated was that when young men share their thoughts and feelings that chances of them experiencing dep..

..ression drop - and this means the chance of flow-ons - like substance and alcohol abuse (and even suicide) are lessened

So @markpollard and I asked other men to share their own stories - as honestly as they could bear - in support of the #manweek ..

..campaign -- But, of course, #manweek only lasted a week - and the stories - incredible stories - kept coming.

We wanted to not just capture these - but get them into the hands of young men who need to hear them.

So the idea of a book was born.

They wanted to share more. To push themselves to be more open and honest. It was astounding to see and touching to read

So ... from the authors, we had fantastic feedback

We have also had tremendous feedback from the wider community. People love the idea of "giving" this perfect gift to other men

We initially thought that the eBook would be most popular, but the printed version - the real physical gift - is outselling the..

.. ebook version - which is great. And in fact, we are seeing most people buying more than one copy

.. about failure and sadness are written with spirit, with hope and with honesty.

.. tears welling up in my eyes. I still felt deeply touched by these intimate, personal stories.

It made me change the way that I think of what it means to "be a man". And I guess that's really what we wanted.

..g a Teenage Boy Needs to Know (or something like that)

But there was no soul to it. It was paternalistic. It spoke down to its readers.

And that's the last thing that a young boy wants to read

..different

So @markpollard is a (former?) reachout ambassador

and one of the other authors in the book @stevecrombie is as well

And because the initial #manweek program was launched by Inspire Foundation for reachout.com we wanted to make sure that the pr..

..ofits from the sale of the books went back to them - to help them continue their good work

.. too. We are hoping to also get some insight from the #blurboz folks who have been helping us behind the scenes

But i guess, most importantly, is that we wanted to find a way to really get the book into the hands of more young men ...

Yes, we think it is important to share the story about Inspire and the good work that happens through reachout.com, but the rea..

..l focus is putting the book into the hands of young men. We want them to see that stuff happens, that you can live through it..

.., and that life can still be astounding, challenging and even problematic - and that that is ok. It happens to all of us at s..

..ometime.

So it is with this aim that we are working on a new format of the book. A smaller sized format - that will bring the price down..

... And hopefully generate more sales, reach more young men and encourage them to share their feelings, thoughts and stories

..a great help on this front.

..re men starting to write their own stories, share their experiences - their lives. And basically, if you can type a document,..

.. then you can create a book. And blurb have a neat tool that helps you make your book look fabbo. Of course, @markpollard did..

.. a special design for the Perfect Gift ;)

Yes, blurb.com are starting up here in Australia - there's a local office with local support. That has made a big difference fo..

..r us