Feinstein's new book

One another aside -- every friend, relative, neighbor, store clerk and former third-grade classmate thinks you have a garage full of free books and will give them one, suitably inscribed. Doesn't work that way.

People in NY know the Strand bookstore, which has a basement full of reviewer's copies at 50 percent off the listed price. Papers are only going to review a tiny percentage of what they receive, so someone (you know who you are) gathers up the castoffs and takes them to the Strand. Some of them still have the press release tucked inside. They pay 25 percent of the price. If it's a $40 book, the store pays $10 and sells it for $20. Get a box full, and it's worth making the trip downtown to the Strand.

Anyway, there's a story of a guy who wrote a book, signed a copy for a friend in the business, and added, "Please don't Strand this." Naturally, someone found it in the Strand basement with the inscription intact.

 

Did the Shawna Richer book on Crosby sell?

 

Mr Sloan,

It might have but I'd bet against it earning out its advance. Let's just say her advance must 20X what mine was. But the notion that the publishing business is efficient/rational goes out the window. To wit, a publisher was willing to make a significant investment in her book a year late. With a full publicity machine behind it and the shoulders of the Globe and Mail leaning into it, it didn't outsell mine. (Mine made a few Canadian-author top 15 lists, even last fall in paperback, but I only remember hers being on one once in the early going.) She had some pretty rough review moments too.

YD&OHS, etc

 

I just remember that when she was working on the thing, there were high hopes that this would be one of the biggest hockey books ever because of her reputation as a writer and the buzz about Crosby.

 

Fixed.

 

Mr Sloan,

She started her book when mine was selling in bookstores in Canada and the U.S. and I had been tracking him for more than two seasons before his NHL debut.

YD&OHS, etc

 

Right, but wasn't the focus of her book specifically his experiences as an NHL rookie?

 

Junior's next book is on the winners of the 2003 majors.
Having covered the PGA that year, I'm interested in it.

 

If anyone really wants this Glavine/Mussina book, I have a copy and will mail it to them for the cost of shipping. I have almost zero interest in reading it.

 

While I have you on the line, Mods, allow me to express my deepest condolences on the loss of your team's closer for the next 20 years.