When Max Barry couldn’t find a publisher for his first novel, Syrup, he bought International Reply Coupons. (little slips of paper that can be exchanged in any country for local stamps).

If you want to send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to another country, you need International Reply Coupons, and Max did: he wanted a lot of them.

Eventually, an agent in America used one of Max’s International Reply Coupons to write back and say he would be Max’s agent. This was a big day.

Some other big days were when Syrup was acquired in a world rights deal by Viking USA, when George Clooney bought the film rights to his second novel, Jennifer Government, and when his third, Company, reached the New York Times extended bestseller list.

He has since carved out a reputation both in Australia and overseas for his sharp, comedic satires of consumerism and corporate life.

Online, Max is the creator of the game NationStates, where more than two million players have created their own countries and explored the dilemmas of good governance.

In 2009 he conducted an experiment in online real-time fiction with the serial Machine Man, sent via e-mail to readers one page per day as he wrote it.

The story was picked up for film development by Mandalay and will be released as a novel in Australia and the US in 2011.

Max has completed six promotional tours of the United States and is a frequent speaker at festivals, libraries, high schools, corporate events and universities.

He speaks with great humor and insight about his road to publication (from short stories featuring his classmates in high school in country Victoria to the bookshelves of New York), his experiences with film development, and corporate life and the marketing-driven world in which we live.

Take a look at Max's website — a wealth of information is found there, all imparted with a cracking sense of irony and humorous interface. The international book covers are our favourite…

“Extremely funny... Barry is a smart writer with a Cassandra's gift for dark-edged prognostication”
— Time Magazine (on JENNIFER GOVERNMENT)

“Hilarious... Barry underscores his credentials as both satirist and saboteur”
— The New York Times (on COMPANY)

“Insightful and devlish... if you're reading a management book right now, any management book, put it down and get this instead.”
— Forbes (on COMPANY)