Sports Books Update

Not specifically - at least right now. But it is always good news to have another player in the process, and that helps anyone pitching a proposal. And HMH has done a fair number of sports titles over the last 7-8 years.

 

A brief Wall Street Journal story on some upcoming baseball books, and some (questionable) publishing wisdom about what sells:

http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB123716610033436281.html?mod=rss_Books#articleTabs%3Darticle

 

455,000 copies in print for the Verducci-Torre book ... holy shit.

 

Waylon:
Here's betting that at least 227,500 of those end up back in the warehouse forever and another 100,000 on the Bargain Books remainders table by June 1.

That's not a knock against the book---might be terrific. But it's the state of this industry and the growing slew of returns. Word of mouth on this book flasmed out two weeks after it was out and all the ARod angles got beaten to death with overkill. What else is there in the book?

 

In general, announced print runs in publishing are about as reliable as asking someone how much they weigh.

 

Even if it sold 200,000, though, that's a hell of a haul for a sports book.

Now, I bet their advances were astronomical, too. Love to see the Torre/Verducci $ breakdown.

 

A couple new book deals to report:

Steve Buckley's WICKED GOOD YEAR, about Boston sports in 2007/08, when everyone won everything, to It Books (new division of HarperCollins).


Neal Bascomb's THE NEW COOL: A Season Inside the Super Bowl of Smarts and How the First Robotics Competition May Be the Future of Education, "which follows three high school teams during the design, buildout and head to head combat of their robots in stadiums around the country, a highly pressured world where teams succeed due to both innovation and cooperation, founded by the genius and visionary Dean Kamen and now a worldwide phenomenon," to Crown. [This appeared in Publishers Marketplace as a sports title. Maybe because "Super Bowl" appears in the subtitle.]

 

Yeah, I'd bet three times as many books on baseball and golf come out every year than on the other sports combined. People who watch sports on TV like to watch football and basketball, people who like to read about sports like to read about baseball and golf.

 

Unfortunate but inevitable: The Mike Vick Book Proposal.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/03/29/2009-03-29_a_books_apology_wont_keep_michael_vick_f.html

 

Ian O'Connor bio of Derek Jeter, to Houghton Mifflin.

Also, the Manning Brothers and their dad doing a kids' book for Scholastic.

 

Will Leitch's BASEBALL 2.0: Fathers, Sons, and the Great Game in the New Century, to Hyperion.

2008 Women's Motocross Champion Ashley Fiolek's memoir, to It Books.