Baseball and book publishing, part 2

A while ago, I linked to this entry about why baseball and book publishing are alike.

Here’s another take on the subject from the Issues in Publishing blog.

In brief, the host, Fran Toolan remarks on :

The analogy of authors as ‘players’. This fits on many levels. Authors have agents, players have agents. Authors either ‘fit’ with a house, or not, the same as players. Authors have coaches – both personal and professional (editors), the same as players. Interestingly, though, there is no organized ‘farm team’ for authors? Wouldn’t that be an interesting concept for a publisher to take on – developing talent?

Furthering this, publishers should give the authors the platform and tools to become superstars in their own right. The individual players on the Red Sox all have their own fan bases in addition to that of the team.

From the fan/reader point of view, Toolan complains that the book sites he visits should keep track of his interest in baseball and tailor e-mail alerts thusly. “If I have an interest in baseball, and have proven that through my purchases, then why don’t I receive emails that specifically target that interest, and tell me what’s going on in that area, and point me to blogs that cover it…” Actually, Amazon does do that and consumers can request such info, at least about new releases; not sur about further links, blogs, etc. But it would make sense. I guess it’s just a matter of how much the publishers are willing to spend on reaching out to what must be a very small genre compared with those who read, for example, Stephen King, Harlequin romances, or self-help books.

Tagged as: baseball books, Publishers