The book you've all been waiting for

All due respect to Wojo, but his book was really glib and kind of dumb.
I hope this one's better.

 

A little more info:

My advance copies of the book arrived this week and I'm very, very pleased. So far, the reaction has been really terrific.

According to my publisher, orders have been a bit on the random side. B+N and Borders have both ordered copies, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be in your local store right away. To quote:

"It would be helpful to your sales record if people who don't find it in a store go ahead and have the store special order it. That's the best way to get it on their systems and give the the individual store personnel an opportunity to know about it and reorder it. The national buyers can track regional demand and if they see it spike then they may order it for the region."

I guess I'll find out more once it's released in a couple of weeks. Thanks everyone.

 

What didn't you like about it? Just kind of the conversational, anecdotal - "And listen what happened to this next guy!" - tone?

 

Good luck, Chris! Hope the returns are slim to none.

 

Per the cover: that dude has a sweet wireless machine.

 

Chris - I hope the book is very successful. I can't wait to read it!
Recently we had a thread about writing a book. Many of us were stumped about, once we're finished, how to get someone to listen/pay attention/publish ;D the book.
Can you give us any pointers?
Thanks!

 

I'm surprised Dools is the only person who posted the Norm MacLean reference.

We were mentioning in another thread about how few good sports journalism books there are. With some big-time schools getting in the groove with SJ programs, I'm sure this will find a place in their curriculum.

 

Sister - Thanks. I appreciate it.

All I can do is really answer for myself and how it happened for me.

I came up with the idea for "No Time Outs" after leaving Super Bowl XXXV (yes, five years ago). I started piecing it together and pitching it to publishers and agents. Naturally, I have a huge stack of rejection letters. A year later, I found an agent. However he never once told me how many times he sent out a manuscript or who, if anyone, bit at all. So I kept pitching until someone at Rowman/Littlefield showed interest and referred it to their trade division (Taylor Trade). It went all the way to the top, where it was turned down at the last second, but they said they liked it enough to ask me to do a book on Alabama football (which is the team I'm currently covering). After we figured out a format that we both liked, and I could hit the deadline, I signed the contract late December 2004. The book was due April 1, and "Crimson Storm Surge" came out last fall (and was basically released on the day Hurricane Katrina hit). Because the manuscript was much more ambitious and exceeded their expectations, they immediately asked about doing another book on SEC football in time for the 2006 season.

About this time, after not hearing from my agent for more than a year, I called and we decided to part ways. The second the contract expired I went back to Taylor Trade and said what I really wanted to do was get "Not Time Outs" published. This time they agreed, but only if I took a smaller advance (because quite frankly they had nothing to go on for how well it might sell). I re-wrote it and turned it in last summer. We then signed the deal for "Where Football is King: A History of the SEC," which I wrote during last season and will be out in August.

So yeah, I basically wrote three books in a year without taking any time off from work. I'm already working on a follow-up project and then I'm going to give writing a novel a shot.

So here's my best advice: Start, keep going and don't stop. Hope that helps.

 

Chris...

should we act outraged when they don't have it? I'll act outraged if you want me to...

kidding aside, I think this would make a good graduation gift for somebody I know.

 

Christopher, congrats on the APSE nomination for breaking news. This has to be a spring to remember for you.

 

C'mon, man ... what are you talking about? ... if you are a name, you're a piece of shit ... if you are not a name, you're not worth reading. These are the SportsJournalists.com rules.

 

The "no one's good" rule, correct?