Sports Books Update

When Sports Illustrated published their top 100 sports books of all-time a few years back, OAR was not on the list. After the publication of the list, SI said they received more letters on the subject than any other article ever in their history, something like 225 letters IIRC. They also said OAR was the book mentioned most by the respondents.

 

That stinks -- but it remains hard to imagine a bookstore floating that particular piece of real estate.

 

Yeah, it is absolutely right in the heart of Nieman-Marcus/Saks/Lord & Taylor country.

 

Excerpts from the long-awaited Alyssa Milano baseball memoir, SAFE AT HOME: CONFESSIONS OF A BASEBALL FANATIC, via Deadspin:

No doubt the NY media will be frantic to confirm the stunning Steinbrenner suspension allegations.

http://deadspin.com/5163024/book-excerpts-that-might-suck-alyssa-milanos-safe-at-home

 

A few new deals:

Zack Hample's THE BASEBALL: Five Ounces and 108 Stitches of Glory, everything about the ball, to Vintage.

Sean Manning's anthology of various contributors discussing their favorite alltime baseball players, to Da Capo.

Steve Silverman's WHO's BETTER, WHO'S BEST IN FOOTBALL, comparing NFL greats by position, to Skyhorse.

 

Jesus. Joe Torre will do anything for a buck, won't he?

 

No kidding. It's mentioned all the time, by adults with functioning memories.

The great Billy Martin line rolls on . . . "One's a born liar, and the other's convicted."

 

FYI, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is acquiring books.

 

Is that good news for you, Exile?

 

My apologies if this question has been posed in a previous thread, but I have always been curious about the acquisition process. Does the editor decide which projects to take on, or is it someone else higher up in the publishing house's food chain?

 

Books are bought by Acquisition Editors, who usually need the approval of about 8,000 other people (depending on where they are in the hierarchy). It goes like this, generally:

We pitch the book to the Acquisitions Editor, who will ultimately guide and edit and be in charge of the whole book. If he/she likes the proposal, it is circulated to other editors and senior editorial people. The bigger the book (in terms of dollars/sales), the more people get involved--marketing, sales, publicity, every department that could contribute to the overall success of the book.

You can have an editor really love the project, and get completely shot down by the higher-ups. Or you can have all the editorial people on board, and the sales folks resist. If they don't get it, they just don't get it. (Note: Insert discussion on really good proposals, you never know who you're ultimately selling to.) You can have the entire corporation excited, and then find out the CEO of the parent company is in litigation with or married to the subject of the book. Who knew?

If you get to the offer, the editor does the negotiating. How much do we want? How much will they pay? It's a long process of "Let me talk to my boss." The more powerful the editor, the less time it takes to get through the negotiation.

Long answer to a short question, but hope that helps.

 

Thanks for the excellent explanation! I figured it had to be more complicated than an editor saying, "I love it; here's your six-figure advance!"