bookpublishing

I had been working at my present company for a few months before I realized that, to my surprise, my favorite genre of books to work on was sports. I do like sports–especially football and I’m getting into baseball now too–but I’ve never in my life picked up a sports book thinking it would be an enjoyable read.

Sports books, on the other hand, are really exciting to edit because the sports world is always changing. Nearly all the sports books I’ve worked on involve big name authors and reviewers including ESPN sportscasters, current and/or former players and coaches, and other well-known fans (like the late Buffalo Bills fan and NBC News anchor Tim Russert). We could be ready to print a book when all of a sudden news will break that affects what we can publish. For instance, when we were about to pub a book about Roger Clemens, word got out that he could have used steroids. Do we mention it in the book? Do we leave it alone? In the end, we didn’t address the scandal, mostly because Roger Clemens had reviewed the book and probably wouldn’t appreciate that addition. But it certainly warranted a discussion. I was even able to meet one of our authors who is an ESPN sportscaster and had an amazing experience simply socializing and learning more about the person’s life.

People get personally and emotionally involved in books. People get personally and emotionally involved in sports. When done well, it’s a powerful combination no matter what team you’re rooting for. It also gets people to talk, and the more we can tap into that network, the more exposure these books (and thus our company) will get. It’s definitely an exciting place to be.

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