Why are sports books a tough sell?

I also think there are too many books that are "cashing in" that are not really literature. In Cleveland there are five different books on Lebron James...give me a break. I find myself going back and reading some of the old-time books like "The Long Season" by Jim Brosnan or "Nice Guys FInish Last" by Durocher...great stuff. The best ones I have read over the last couple of years are "When Pride Still Mattered" about the Packers in the Lombardi era (read Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer as well) and "The Miracle of St. Anthony's" about high school hoops in Jersey. Good stuff.

 

From what I understand, Lewis's publisher didn't want to do Moneyball...supposedly he took much less because he just wanted to write it.

But he's a best selling author, which means something to the booksellers, and they got behind it. I think there was also a lot of media buzz, which is ultimately what lights the fire under the winners.

And of course, it was the very first SJ Book Club selection, which probably made all the difference.

 

Just to nitpick, but that book is hardly about "the Packers in the Lombardi era." It's an exhaustively researched account of Lombardi's life, and it takes a couple hundred pages to even begin to scratch the surface of the man as an NFL coach.

 

It's one of my favorites as well as "Run to Daylight", which was groundbreaking for its time

 

That's not a nitpick. The story is about Lombardi, his contradictions and contributions. The Pack-ehs are a big part but not the main subject.

 

How many athletes/coaches can command national interest?

Brett Favre, Bob Knight, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, maybe a few others.

Someone told me Leahy's brilliant book on Jordan barely sold anything.

 

Okay, about Lombardi and a little about the PAckers. Right. Gotcha.

 

Of course it didn't. It exposed the hero for what he really is.

As for Feinstein's book on Glavine and Mussina...7 out of 10 readers got a hernia picking it up. I cordially disagree with Ben, I think Glavine and Mussina are interesting in their own odd ways, but geez, not for 500-plus pages. Dude needed an editor there in the worst way.

 

But people lap up similar exposes from the likes of Kitty Kelley about celebrities, politicians and royalty - why the difference in readers' attitudes?

 

Most athlete autobiographies are pieces of shit. They're either too self-congratulatory or if they actually reveal anything it's because the guy is desperate to get back in the public spotlight (Canseco, Rose).

 

Great question. I've been doing sports books for 20-some years, and the only thing anyone knows about sports books is that no one knows anything. Until after the fact, then everyone knows everything.

Are sports books actually a "tough sell"? Compared to other non-fiction categories, sports books probably hit the jackpot as often as other commercial non-fiction categories, such as TV or music. Which is to say, occasionally to rarely.

A few points, some of which have been touched on here:
--Sports is, by definition, regional. A player, a team, a game...the main interest is usually centered in a specific region. So right away, you've limited the mass appeal of the book.
--Many sports books expire before they hit the shelves. A great idea in August frequently becomes dated and over-exposed by the time the book comes out a year later. This is especially true for the big celeb bios, and books about a big event.
--Look at the bestseller list: most of those books involve a "name brand" author. Publishers believe you will not end up with a huge bestseller without that big name.
--Bestseller lists are completely subjective in terms of quantity sold; making the list simply means you sold more than the rest of the books that week. It doesn't mean you've earned out your advance or made money for the publisher.

What makes sports books sell? I don't know of two books that exploded the same way. Usually there's a pre-publication news story (Pearlman's Boys book), or someone becoming publicly enraged (Bob Knight calling Feinstein a pimp and a whore). Kiss of death? The gigantic excerpts. Everyone reads the good stuff in the paper and then no one needs to buy the book.

Back to the original question Sports books ARE a tough sell to publishers. Think of it this way: they're only going to publish so many books each season (generally fall and spring). Fiction, cookbooks, parenting, health, technology, how-to, pop culture, humor, etc, etc, sports. We're competing for limited dollars, and our proposals far outnumber their offers.

But send out something great, someone will buy it. Fast.