Sports Books Update

Hi folks--Haven't posted on this thread for a while because, sadly, there isn't much happening in the sports book category these days. Lots of grumbling about weak sales of books with high expectations, and general malaise around the industry in general.

And just to clarify--because I got a very nice note from a client congratulating me on all the book deals I post here--this is just a collective list of deals from all over, mine and many others. Deep apologies if that was not clear.

So anyway, if you're wondering what the publishers are interested in these days? Here's two, you can draw your own conclusions about what they're looking for:

--Lance Armstrong will be chronicling his 2009 return to the bike; and
--Justin Timberlake is shopping a proposal about his experiences on the golf course.

 

Justin Timberlake and his golf experiences?? Man, reserve one for me.

Not.

 

This might have been mentioned earlier, but I"m not going to go all the way back through to see---Jim Dent's next book, on Notre Dame's turnaround season of 1964 under new coach Ara Parseghian, will soon be out. I"ve had a peek at a proof and it looks pretty good.

 

http://www.observer.com/2009/media/justin-timberlake-out-book-proposal-golf

 

Just to resurrect the occasional chatter about sports novels ...

Literary agent Nathan Bransford has an insightful blog post about why sports novels don't sell. The following except is right on:

"I think what's behind the difficulty of pure sports novels is that sports already provides so much human drama and narratives and storylines that a straightforward novel about sports is almost redundant. Sports provides a real life narrative experience that makes novels feel almost hollow in comparison."

Here's the link: http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2009/06/sports-novels.html

 

Damn turncoat.

If you can't beat him, hire him.

Of course, somehow, ND never got around to hiring Fisher DuBarry . . .

 

You mean Fisher DeBerry.

 

He wouldn't say that if Chip Hilton were still playing.

 

Breaking the hiatus here, but an uptick in title acquisitions may be beginning to take place. My agent told me that editors the agency is speaking to are preparing to gear up for summer 2011 to 2012, when they expect sales to be back up by then and want to have strong lists in the pipeline to take advantage of that. And an editor I know seems much less gloom and doom than late last spring. The feeling is that the bottom has been reached and things are, slowly, bouncing back.

I think he may be right. I can't be more specific but just had a multi-book sports proposal accepted and have two non-sports projects - one with a co-author - that will be pitched come September that we are very optimistic about. These are all proposals I have been working on over the last six to twelve months, when nothing was moving. As an author, that's what you should be doing when times are slow, or should be doing now, to be prepared for the turnaround. If you are not preparing now, you'll be too late by the time the turnaround is obvious to everyone.

Curious as to whether Swenk or anyone else in the book business is also sensing the same.

 

Congrats on your proposal being accepted!!

 

Same thing happened to a long-time and award-winning staffer at the Dayton Daily News ... dumped for not attributing thoroughly enough the fact that blog info was culled from various sources. The hard-hitting, integrity-testing subject? Uh ... celebrity watching. Seriously. What? Did the staffer never leave the Hollywood Bureau office? Oh, wait, there probably isn't one, considering the fact that Dayton isn't even sending a Hall of Fame baseball writer 45 miles south to cover the Reds anymore.

Why do we keep putting the idiots in charge?

 

Mr Exile,

I'm not quite sure what Mr Squared's missive concerns so I'll go back to your point.

I had one major-house editor take real interest in a proposal and a sample chapter--several conversations, a couple of meetings, suggestions on reframing the proposal. A year-in-the-life of a couple of rival athletes and that's as much as I can say. I dunno if he's going to make a great offer or anything--hope to know more after a conference call next week--and my agent is sorta anxious to shop it around. I'm inclined to stick by this editor considering the time he has put in and the interest he has shown. Not quite a moral quandry yet, but we'll see. Nonetheless, I've never thought the tap was turned off at the bigger houses. Turned down a bit, but not off. The smaller outfits, a different story.

o-<