Posnanski and the Paterno book

Hope Solo's book is going to debut at No. 3 on the primary nonfiction list. It sold just over 5,000 hardcover copies first week.

 

Wow, never expected "You never played the game" from a fellow journalist ... if you are one.

Then again, your response is entirely predictable, considering your blind devotion to all things Penn State.

 

As sportbook and Mr. Stout know, making the bestseller list is a nice thing to tell your mom and your publicist, but otherwise, the only number that matters is the size of the advance and how close the publisher can come to earning it back.

Most books lose money. The big sellers compensate for the losers, so I wouldn't worry about planning a bake sale for the publisher. They'll sell a lot of books quickly, in large part to the curious and the PSU faithful. They'll lose the "national treasure" sector, which may not have been that substantial in the first place. Seems unlikely they'll earn back the advance, but I'm not convinced it would have been earned back either way. Wondering if sportbook and Mr Stout would agree.

 

You know your stuff, Swenk. It was extremely unlikely in any circumstance that the book would have earned back - and given the increasingly toxic state of publishing today, plus the toxic state of all things Paterno and Penn State, that's even less likely now. And I'm not making any comment whatsoever on the quality of the book, (which I have not read) simply on circumstance and what I know from talking to people in the business almost every day.

Let's just say this - there are people accustomed to receiving book advances in the low six figures who can't get an OFFER on a proposal today. There are always exceptions, but there is also reality.

 

They should have done regional dust jackets for the book, like SI does regional covers. Maybe different final chapters too.

In Happy Valley, and throughout PA, Joe is a saint. Everywhere else, he's a monster.

 

Well Huzzah! At least there's that. I'd love to see the publisher take a bath (since we know Posnanski won't, and we wouldn't root for that) because the way the publisher's handled this just blows.

I'm trying to get my hands on a borrowed copy... With all due respect to the author, I really don't want to plunk down money.

 

I don't want to buy it because it just encourages more dreck.

 

I wonder if the Roger Angell book on Pete Rose cratered as badly as the cynics believe this one will.
Seem to remember that one not going as smoothly as the collaborators and publisher wished.

 

You mean Roger Kahn, don't you?

 

Yes, beg pardon.

 

GQ interview with the author.

www.gq.com/sports/profiles/201209/joe-posnanski-paterno-biography-author-interview?mbid=social_twitter_gqmagazine

 

Holy shit. A columnist without an opinion on his subject.