Jeff Pearlman on Walter Payton

Except for anyone that wanted to click on the link at the start of the thread.

 

Saying it happened in this instance equates saying it's never happened before? Are you kidding me right now?

Look, I'm not saying the board is perfect. They (and we) fawn over those we like. And we rip those we don't. But in general, Whitlock excepted, when the actual author of a piece shows up, the sentiments on the thread seem to change.

 

Really, you couldn't see the sarcasm?

 

Leavy's book did very well. BookScan has it at just a tick more than 200,000 copies. It sold 15,000 the first week. BookScan accounts for about 70 percent of all sales.

 

You have to start to wonder how important a New York connection is to sales. Obviously there have been some exceptions. What accounted for the wild success of "Moneyball"? Was it marketed as a business book rather than a sports book? I once brainstormed a sports business-type book, and my agent told me that they almost never sold. He said "Moneyball" was an exception because Michael Lewis already had a large following of readers in the Wall Street community.

 

The wild success of Money Ball was due to Michael Lewis being a great and distinctive writer.

Based on figures of sports book sales being mentioned here you really wonder why publishers continue to pay for them.

What is a typical advance to writer for such books? $35,000,
$75,000, $100,000?

Based on sales it seems like the breakeven point to publisher is pretty high for a printed book.

 

I think a New York connection may help, although I'm not sure how much. I know the New York Times seems to count northeast sales more heavily in its rankings than sales in other geographic areas. I know of a coach bio that released recently that sold more than 6,000 copies in its first week and never made the list (the best-selling non-fiction book in a one-week period this calendar year not to make the list) because almost all of the sales were in one state and through one outlet (Books-A-Million).

As for how some books take off and others don't, publicity certainly helps but word-of-mouth is the key component.

 

The breakeven threshold is very tough to reach. About 80 percent of printed books don't earn back the advance. Those that do have to carry the water for all of those that don't.

 

I think that was a necessary component of its success but not sufficient. Sales still depend on a market. S.L. Price's "Heart of the Game" was a work of a great and distinctive writer, as well. It would make every bit the Hollywood movie that "Moneyball" did. It was staggering in its reportage and narrative touch. But I bet it didn't sell as many copies as Pearlman's book did in Week 1.

Boom, the reason they pay advances is because they look at the advance money as spreading their risk around. One of those books is going to break big and earn the advance back many times over. It's just difficult to predict which one. So you had out $35,000 here, $50,000 there. And when one of them earns that many times over, it pays the freight for the rest of them.

 

Heart of the Game sold fewer than 1,000 copies first week (never sold more than 1,000 in any week) and has sold fewer than 10,000 since it was published.

 

One of the things I found weird about the SI excerpt was that one minute he was talking about how Payton struggled after retiring - then he brings up the shooting incident in '85 - was Pearlman's attempt to put all the negative stuff in one chapter?

 

Interesting. So in some ways it's almost a bet. Playing multi hands of black jack on same table.