Sports Publishing caught a bomb for a touchdown this season with a memoir by retired Buffalo Bills coach, Marv Levy: Where Else Would You Rather Be? (Dec.). After starting with a modest printing of 10,000 copies, the book blew out of stores, logging sales of 50,000 copies and hitting #11 on the New York Times bestseller list for January 16.
In the past two months, Levy's numerous interviews—on venues such as CNBC's Dennis Miller Show, National Public Radio, ESPN and Fox Sports Radio—have helped draw large audiences to his bookstore appearances. While no one was surprised when 1,000 fans in Buffalo stood in line for more than four hours in subzero cold to meet their local hero, the crowds of several hundred people in cities like New York, St. Louis, Chicago and Atlanta were more than Sports Publishing bargained for. The book is doing "about three times better than what we'd expect from a sports biography at this early stage," said Kevin King, v-p of sales and marketing.
King ascribes the overwhelming popularity of Where Would You Rather Be? not only to sports fans' affection for Levy but to his master's in English history from Harvard. "The book is about more than being a football coach—it's about making choices in life and taking responsibility for those decisions," King said. "Someone with an Ivy League degree going into coaching—that's different. People want to know more. And they know it's going to be a well-written story, because of the author's academic credentials."
