The possible baseball work stoppage may be leaving more than just fans in the lurch. Book publishers with big fall releases are crossing their fingers for a settlement, but bracing for the worst—a book's core audience that no longer wants anything to do with the subject.
Baseball's labor problems have traditionally walloped publishing. In the last work stoppage, in 1994, small houses like Sports Publishing International almost saw their entire operation go under. (The house has since diversified.) This time, with a shaky book climate and fewer reliable categories, editors and publicists are following with an even more watchful eye. "A baseball strike won't help anybody, and that includes publishing," said AOLTW Books senior editor Rick Wolff.
Putnam executive editor Neil Nyren, editor of Mike Lupica's baseball novel Wild Pitch, said he thinks the collective mood could be too fragile to withstand a strike. "The thing I worry about is that people are not going to be in a feel-good mood about baseball this fall," said Nyren. The book is set for an unfortunate release date—September 16, one of the days the MLB players' union has floated as a possible strike date.
The publisher that finds itself in the biggest pickle is Simon & Schuster. The house will soon be releasing The Last Commissioner, by Fay Vincent, the man the owners ran out of town in 1992. If a strike indeed happens, Vincent is likely to start popping up everywhere in the media, but, because of how a strike could sour readers' appetites, the house isn't so quick to welcome such a development. "The extreme irony is that what might be very, very good for publicity on this book might hurt its ultimate sales," said Vincent's editor, Jeff Neuman.
Originally slated to have his book come out from Little, Brown in 1995, Vincent decided not to publish at the last minute and was sued by co-author David Kaplan. The two settled, and Vincent then sold a completed (and somewhat different manuscript) to Neuman, who had once rejected it.
The labor situation could even affect historical books, like Harper's upcoming bio of Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy. Still, some are trying to maintain a sunnier attitude. "Maybe there's a bright side," said Wolff. "Maybe in a strike people will hunger for the national pastime."
Vincent Could Cause Stir
Vincent's book has already sold first-serial rights to Sports Illustrated. In the excerpted chapter, the only one in which Vincent discusses the current business climate of baseball, Vincent reportedly argues that Major League Baseball could solve many of its problems if every owner took a percentage of their team and combined it to form a separate, publicly traded company in which players, owners and the public would all hold shares. (He reportedly even suggests that players could be given stock options as a way to reward loyalty and prevent team-hopping.)
The former commissioner's other radical plan is that baseball should allow media conglomerates to own more than one team in one (large) market, as a way to level the disparity in TV revenue deals.
