Why are sports books a tough sell?

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I just saw a news item that Dustin Pedroia has a book deal. So there's hope for everyone else.

Actually, I was wondering if there's interest in a thread about sports book deals; there are new deals being made every week, I'd be happy to keep a thread updating what's selling out there. Would this be useful to anyone?

 

Leahy's book and Mark Bowden's "Bringing the Heat" are probably the two best sports books I've ever read, with Halberstam's Jordan book, FNL and Heaven is a Playground right there, but I bet the first two have barely been read by the sports book reading crowd at large.

 

I'm reading Will Leitch's "God Save The Fan" right now. It's the first book I've sat down with for a while, and only because a copy popped up in the department.

For 200 pages, I've been torn between two facts:

1. It is very readable stuff, lots of great anecdotes and "can you believe he gets away with writing that" items.

2. Will Leitch, like 47% of the writers in the world in this millennium, believes he is, at all times, the smartest kid in the room. And most notably, more than a little bit above any traditional journalists in the room.

 

I think that would be very useful.

 

Please do it, In Exile. Some of us are caught in a need-to-know stance on this topic.

 

Okay, let's give it a try and see if it helps anyone.

As for this particular thread, HarperCollins "restructured" itself this week and vaporized some good people (and divisions) who were devoted sports book buyers. It's not getting easier right now. But we'll get there.