Fantasy Football Book Title

[10g_DBA]

How am I not myself?

[wiegie]

How about calling it: "Sippy Cups Are Not for White Zinfandel"

 

NY Times

October 27, 2005

Unearthing Books Embedded in Pop Culture (Watch Out Weezer)

By EDWARD WYATT

 

Much of the publishing world was in Frankfurt last week for the annual book fair, but for the publisher Jennifer Bergstrom, it was a place she chose to avoid.

 

"I would rather go to the Aspen comedy festival," she said. As the publisher of Simon Spotlight Entertainment, a fledgling imprint at Simon & Schuster devoted to pop culture for readers age 18 to 35, "That is how we scout for material," she said.

 

It was after meeting the comedian Tommy Chong in February at the annual Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., that Tricia Boczkowski, Simon Spotlight Entertainment's executive editor, signed him to write a book about his prison term for selling drug paraphernalia.

 

Other forthcoming titles from S.S.E., as the imprint is known, have emerged from similar circumstances. A May 2006 title, "Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay," by another comedian, Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, resulted from Ms. Bergstrom's desire for a book about women who wait until their mid-30's to have children. An August book about fantasy football by two sports journalists, Erik Barmack and Max Handelman, had at least part of its inspiration in her brother's incessant jabbering about the game, similar to rotisserie baseball.

 

"Ninety percent of our authors are first-time authors, and most of them have platforms in other media," Ms. Bergstrom said recently. "And what we decide to publish is greatly affected by our publicity department - who we can get on 'The Daily Show' or who might be great on a radio tour."

 

What Simon Spotlight Entertainment has done - rather successfully in its first year in business - is to tap quickly into pop culture currents.

 

The imprint's first big hit, "He's Just Not That Into You," was a relationship-advice manual that grew out of dialogue on the popular television show "Sex and the City." The book sold more than 1.5 million copies in hardcover, many of them through nontraditional book outlets like Urban Outfitters, a youth-focused clothing and housewares chain.

 

The success - which owes a fair amount of credit to Oprah Winfrey, who featured the book's authors, Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, on her show - made S.S.E. profitable in its first season, giving it cachet with literary agents and the money to attract new authors. But offers for a second book by Mr. Behrendt climbed above $3 million, and Ms. Bergstrom dropped out of the bidding.

 

"I didn't want to spend the profits from the first book to buy the second one," Ms. Bergstrom said. Even if she had wanted the book, she said, "it would have taken every penny we had."

 

Instead, she used the profits to invest in other projects, like licensing the book rights to "Napoleon Dynamite," the film about a high school nobody who turns into a hero. One book of pictures and quotations from the film is already in stores, and another, a flipbook of Napoleon's sweet dance moves, is on the way.

 

Those books were shepherded by Emily Westlake, a 25-year-old editorial assistant at S.S.E., who, like all the other members of the imprint's editorial staff, is securely within its target market.

 

That an editorial assistant would be given that level of responsibility is evidence that the imprint does not hew to the traditional hierarchies in many publishing companies, said Rick Richter, the president of Simon & Schuster's children's book division, where Simon Spotlight Entertainment is housed.

 

"They live and eat and breathe the demographic," he said.

 

The imprint was conceived two years ago after Jack Romanos, the president and chief executive of Simon & Schuster, issued a challenge to his staff to find a way to reach a younger audience not necessarily interested in reading the same things that the baby-boomer audience was buying.

 

"Most of our adult imprints went after the market on a title-by-title basis," Mr. Romanos said in an interview. "But this group came in and proposed a guerrilla movement to find content and match it to the audience."

 

In addition to seeking alternative distribution channels, the imprint sponsors events with the likes of Jane magazine and gives book parties at the Brooklyn Brewery. It is also willing to consider unusual financial arrangements. For a coming memoir by Jerry Heller, a founder of Ruthless Records, Ms. Bergstrom agreed to forego an advance and split the profits from the book with the author.

 

"The thing that impresses me most about our editors is that they understand that it's not all about the book," she said. "It's about the money you can make from that book."

 

Before S.S.E., Ms. Bergstrom had published children's books based on characters licensed from other media companies, including those of Nickelodeon, which, like Simon & Schuster, is owned by Viacom.

 

As the den mother to a group of editors mostly in their 20's, Ms. Bergstrom, 36, is not the hippest person in the room. At one recent meeting, the staff was batting around ideas related to celebrities and MTV when one staffer mentioned Weezer.

 

"And Weezer is a ...?," Ms. Bergstrom asked.

 

"Band," the staff replied collectively, sounding as if it frequently had to finish such sentences.

 

Later, when someone mentioned that Bonnie Fuller was pursuing a book idea similar to the one being discussed, Ms. Bergstrom asked, "The actress?" Her mind, she later explained, had jumped to Bonnie Franklin, the actress from the 1970's sitcom "One Day at a Time," rather than to Ms. Fuller, the editorial director of American Media and former editor of Us Weekly magazine.

 

Not every deal works out perfectly, of course. A book based on the Fox television show "Arrested Development" was canceled after S.S.E. could not nail down the rights.

 

The imprint could take a loss on "The Story of My Life," a memoir by Farah Ahmedi, the winner of a writing contest featured on "Good Morning America." Though Ms. Bergstrom said more than 60,000 copies were sold, it shipped twice that number to stores, meaning that heavy returns are likely.

 

And it is about to undertake a risky venture, publishing fiction - a far more fickle genre than advice books and celebrity memoirs - with two novels planned over the next year.

 

Plenty of other imprints are seeking similar readers, including Penguin's Plume, Random House's Three Rivers Press, Harlequin's Red Dress Ink and Simon & Schuster's own Downtown Press. But the success so far of Simon spotlight Entertainment has emerged as a powerful calling card.

 

Denise Marcil, a New York literary agent, said the imprint's books "showed they know all about sex and sexuality for young 20-somethings." That made S.S.E. a natural fit, she said, for "Same Sex in the City," a relationship book for gay women written by two young lesbians, Lauren Levin and Lauren Blitzer.

 

Ms. Bergstrom said the idea for the book emerged last year, when the series "The L Word" was burning up Showtime on cable television. She and Ms. Boczkowski decided that the time was right for a book about lesbian life. They gathered a focus group of about a dozen gay women to talk about what type of book they would want to read. The discussions soon led them to Ms. Marcil and "the two Laurens," as the authors are called.

 

It is not exactly a formula, Ms. Bergstrom said. "But we usually know what we want to publish," she said. "It's then a matter of wrapping the right author and spokesperson around it."

[whomper]

I have a good one..I was at a bar one time and a wide reciever was Sprinting towards the endzone and a guy at the bar was screaming at the top of his lungs "Stop him at the One" because he had the back from that team..I remember cracking up about it..Call your book..."Stop him at the 1"

[Gunther]

I have a good one..I was at a bar one time and a wide reciever was Sprinting towards the endzone and a guy at the bar was screaming at the top of his lungs "Stop him at the One"  because he had the back from that team..I remember cracking up about it..Call your book..."Stop him at the 1"

 

1099875[/snapback]

 

 

 

I like this one, I have had this thought run through my mind many times while watching a game where I had a RB active in it.

[crispirons]

Fantasy Football: Oh How I Suck and You Can Too.

 

 

for women......Dork Magnet: How To Score With Men Playing Fantasy Football.

[Bonehand]

I just got my advanced copy of this in the mail:

"Why Fantasy Football Matters (and our lives do not)"

 

Congratulations, Erik!

[Dr. Sacrebleu]

I just got my advanced copy of this in the mail:

"Why Fantasy Football Matters (and our lives do not)"

 

Congratulations, Erik!

 

1397604[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I don't know. Kind of feel like MR Barmark came to thehuddle for some market research and then left, without even leaving a sawbuck on the nightstand . And he never calls

He's got all of a 2 posts here...

[Bonehand]

Yeah, I don't know. Kind of feel like MR Barmark came to thehuddle for some market research and then left, without even leaving a sawbuck on the nightstand .  And he never calls

He's got all of a 2 posts here...

 

1397619[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

Flipping through, it looks OK, there's some pretty funny stuff. I'll post something more substantial once I've finished. As both a longtime FF guy and someone in the book industry, I'm glad to see more being published on the subject.

[Jumpin Johnies]

Flipping through, it looks OK, there's some pretty funny stuff. I'll post something more substantial once I've finished. As both a longtime FF guy and someone in the book industry, I'm glad to see more being published on the subject.

 

1397624[/snapback]

 

 

 

You should buy msaint's book. It's a good read.

[Bonehand]

You should buy msaint's book.  It's a good read.

 

1397638[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

Really? I hadn't heard that! Who is this msaint of which you speak?

[DMD]

St. Amant's book is VERY funny and is a great take on an individual (him) playing fantasy football with an interesting tact of him taking a year off to play fantasy football. An excellent read as we have discussed.

 

 

I have read Barmack/Handelman's book as well and I also strongly recommed it. This book examines fantasy football humor and wackiness from the standpoint of the entire league. It is peppered with numerous funny lists that I enjoyed. If you liked St. Amant's book (and you should), you will enjoy Why FF Matters too.

[Bonehand]

St. Amant's book is VERY funny and is a great take on an individual (him) playing fantasy football with an interesting tact of him taking a year off to play fantasy football. An excellent read as we have discussed.

I have read Barmack/Handelman's book as well and I also strongly recommed it. This book examines fantasy football humor and wackiness from the standpoint of the entire league. It is peppered with numerous funny lists that I enjoyed. If you liked St. Amant's book (and you should), you will enjoy Why FF Matters too.

 

1397673[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

I was just pulling JJ's chain. I loved Committed, & reading it was what brought me to The Huddle in the first place.

 

After all, if I'm all the things I say I am (a Huddler, a longtime FF guy AND someone in the book industry), I'd have to be pretty darn incompetent to have missed Committed.

Edited April 1, 2006 by Bonehand

[ABearWithFurniture]

"Who Do I Start?...and Why it Won't Matter Anyhow"

[yo mama]

Flipping through, it looks OK, there's some pretty funny stuff. I'll post something more substantial once I've finished.

1397624[/snapback]

 

 

 

Going to take one for the team and post some of the better stuff here? Excellent! It's good to hear that sissy terms like "copyright infringement" and "civil lawsuit" mean nothing to a man of Bonehand's caliber and financial resources.

[Bonehand]

St. Amant's book is VERY funny and is a great take on an individual (him) playing fantasy football with an interesting tact of him taking a year off to play fantasy football. An excellent read as we have discussed.

I have read Barmack/Handelman's book as well and I also strongly recommed it. This book examines fantasy football humor and wackiness from the standpoint of the entire league. It is peppered with numerous funny lists that I enjoyed. If you liked St. Amant's book (and you should), you will enjoy Why FF Matters too.

 

1397673[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

By the way DMD, While we're on the subject of books, do you have a street date yet for the new Huddle Handbook?

[Sgt. Ryan]

Fantasy Football - An Addicts Handbook.

[DMD]

One of the parts that I found pretty funny was when he described some of the draft archetypes. I liked this one:

 

The Guy Who Elongates Player Names - In announcing his picks, chooses to say "Clintonius Portis", "Frederick Taylor", "Chadwick Johnson", "Edward Kennison", "Torrence Holt" and "Touraj Houshmandzadeh"

 

At first I laughed because it really is true, in almost every draft there is that one guy who elongates player names into something silly. And then I realized that I had actually said "Clintonius Portius" in a draft before...

[AtomicCEO]

One of the parts that I found pretty funny was when he described some of the draft archetypes. I liked this one:

At first I laughed because it really is true, in almost every draft there is that one guy who elongates player names into something silly. And then I realized that I had actually said "Clintonius Portius" in a draft before... 

 

1398017[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

 

I like player nicknames.

 

At the FRTFL draft with Bier, Az, and Rhino... I drafted both McCardell and McNair with Irish accents one year. "(with accent) A fine Irish player... Keenan McCardell"

 

It was hard to be the funniest guy at the draft that year though... what with that guy who kept drafting unknown 4th string Detroit players.... and Rhino's bizarre obsession with Brandon Lloyd.

[Guest Cherni]

Fantasy Football-The evolution of the refresh button

 

1083674[/snapback]

 

 

 

Now that's F'in funny.

[Chief Dick]

If you liked St. Amant's book (and you should), you will enjoy Why FF Matters too.

 

1397673[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

Yeah, but we don't know and love this Erik fella as much as we love our little Radio.

[Donutrun Jellies]

Performance Scoring: The Illustrated Guide 

 

1081884[/snapback]

 

 

 

Starring Anna Nichole Smith as Squeegibo.

[Donutrun Jellies]

Yeah, I don't know. Kind of feel like MR Barmark came to thehuddle for some market research and then left, without even leaving a sawbuck on the nightstand .  And he never calls

He's got all of a 2 posts here...

 

1397619[/snapback]

 

 

 

I feel dirty ... the sawbuck -- or at least a couple of ninja posts or a reference to Tedi Bruschi -- certainly would have made our little escapade here have a bit more meaning ...

[Erik Barmack]

Sheesh.

 

Okay, okay -- I owe someone a sawbuck. Question, though: what, exactly, IS a sawbuck?

 

Thanks to those who have read galleys so far. Max and I tried to balance our attempts at humor with a more general approach to the rituals of fantasy football.

 

At any rate, I will definitely be on the boards more as the season approaches. I've been on the Huddle several times with different nicknames. But now, I am, uh, revealed?

 

-E

[SuperBalla]

The Day of Rest: Beer, who to start, and how to manage your 5 month fantasy pregnacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were no WMDs in Iraq and why fantasy football rocks...

 

1082408[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

Hyena and fantasy...TypiKal

[thecerwin]

Fantasy Football: Why Some People Still Love TO