It's been a hectic five months in the sports world since the Boston Red Sox vanquished the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first championship in 86 years. By December, the talk was about BALCO and the grand jury testimony of Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi, with Giambi admitting to using steroids. By February, Jose Canseco's incendiary book about his own steroid use, Juiced, hit the bestseller lists, making baseball executives duck like a high, hard one had been aimed at their corporate heads. February also brought four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, for Million Dollar Baby, based on a book of short stories by F.X. Toole, giving new life to a battered institution. And the sports publishing industry has been quick to jump on each of these stories, with new titles keeping pace with the news of the day.

Idiot's Delight

They were known as the "Idiots," the 2004 Boston Red Sox who finally killed, vivisected, cremated, then buried the Curse of the Bambino in an eight-game end-of-the-season winning streak that clearly shocked and awed both the august New York Yankees and the incredulous St. Louis Cardinals. Never forgetting that baseball is not only sport but entertainment, the Bosox have continued their off-season offensive by taunting the humiliated Yankees, becoming what most Sox fans thought they'd never hear in their lifetimes—"Sore Winners."

The publishing pile-on started last fall with the publication of Faithful by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan. The cover photo shows Boston catcher Jason Varitek punching out the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez. Of course, the book became a bestseller. Perhaps the title that best exemplifies the push in Bosox books this spring is Yankees Suckby Jim Gerard. "Last summer," says Ron Martirano, associate editor for Chamberlain Bros., "Carlo DeVito, our publisher, came into my office and simply declared, 'Yankees suck.' But when I realized he was suggesting a book to reach out to all the Yankee-haters out there, what really struck me was how the chant itself was this universal rallying cry for disgruntled sports fans." Like many publishers of Sox books this spring, Chamberlain has decided to go the trade paperback route. "I'm hoping by publishing in paperback and keeping the cost down," says Martirano, "we entice people to hold onto it, if not for themselves, then hopefully for the baseball fan in their lives." Chamberlain plans to promote by having author Gerard do radio appearances as well as mailings to the myriad anti-Yankee Web sites. Another title in the same vein is The Devil Wears Pinstripes by Jim Caple, a writer on ESPN.com (Mar.). "I wouldn't say this is a pro—Red Sox book," says Brant Janeway, director of marketing/publicity at Plume. "This is an anti-Yankee book." Plume will have a 14,000-copy paperback first printing, backed by newspaper excerpts, Portland/Seattle publicity and scoreboard advertising at Fenway Park.

The head "Idiot" of the Red Sox is center fielder Johnny Damon, and naturally his book is called just that, Idiot (Crown, Apr.). For those not familiar with Damon, his trademark is his shoulder-length hair, which, depending on your team affiliation, makes him look like either Jesus Christ or Charles Manson. According to Steve Ross, Crown's publisher, there is a "contract stipulation that Johnny not cut his hair until the book goes on sale." Ross adds that Idiot is "the only insider account of the Sox's miracle season from one of the players on the team." Crown plans a 100,000-copy cloth first printing, and Damon will be making all the media stops as well as hitting the bookstores for signings. Doubleday also has joined the idiot fringe with Emperors & Idiots by New York Postsportswriter Mike Vaccaro (Mar.). "Vaccaro did a very interesting thing here," says Jason Kaufman, executive editor at Doubleday. "He used both the 2003 and 2004 American League Championship Series as a running through-line and simultaneously interwove a brilliant, punchy history of these two teams." Doubleday has an initial printing of 75,000 cloth copies and plans include ads in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

In the mystical history between Boston and New York, both sides embraced the idea that their respective luck had something to do with "The Curse of the Bambino." The supposed curse occurred when Boston shipped Babe Ruth to New York for cash so the Boston owner could bankroll No, No Nanette on Broadway in 1920. The Babe's Curse has come into the popular lexicon mainly because of a 1990 book written by Boston Globe sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy called, naturally, The Curse of the Bambino. Shaughnessy's about-face tome, Reversing the Curse (Houghton Mifflin, Mar.), takes a microscopic look at the 2004 season. "Unlike other books that give the one-sided, often myopic fan perspective or revolve around a single player or focus only on the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry," says Susan Canavan, editor at Houghton Mifflin, "what distinguishes this is the insight and the perspective. To put it simply, this is the one book people should buy if they want to understand the 2004 Red Sox and what made them tick versus simply celebrating and appreciating them." Houghton Mifflin will be doing electronic media appearances and bookstore signings from spring training through Father's Day. Shaughnessy also vanquishes the curse for the younger set in The Legend of the Curse of the Bambino (illus. by C.F. Payne) from S&S Children's Publishing for ages 5—8.

Another Boston writing legend, Leigh Montville, author of last year's definitive Ted Williams biography, says adieu to misery in Why Not Us? "Let's face it," says Gene Taft, assistant publisher/director of publicity for Public Affairs, "an opportunity like this only comes around, say, once every 86 years. This book is all about the everyman/woman fan. And frankly, that is the exact consumer we're targeting. I defy any Red Sox fan to pick up Why Not Us? and not find a story in its pages to which they can personally relate." The 35,000 first printing has been backed by media and bookstore appearances in the greater New England area.

The Sons of Sam Horn, an organization named after the light-hitting Boston first baseman of the 1980s, and Eric Christensen have collaborated on Win It For... (Apr.) "This book," says Peter Bannon, president of Sports Publishing, "is a collection of emotional dedications from lifelong Red Sox fans to people in their lives who have been special and would take incredible joy from the team's run to the championship." It is particularly noteworthy because most of the proceeds from the book's sales will be split between the Jimmy Fund (the Dana Farber Cancer Institute) and Curt's Pitch for ALS (Schilling's charity to help Lou Gehrig's disease research). Book signings are planned for New York and Massachusetts.Tale of Two Cities (Mar.) by Tony Massarotti of the Boston Herald and John Harper of the New York Daily News was a work-in-progress throughout the 2004 season. "We were incredibly lucky to have the season end the way it did, with the Yankees dropping four straight," says Tom McCarthy of the Lyons Press. "This isn't a book that rehashes each of the games the two teams played throughout the season, but rather an account of the personalities, and the backstage dramas and feuds and politics, and the behind-the-scenes machinations of players and management of both teams as they wound their way through the season." Lyons is going the trade paperback route, with McCarthy saying that "back orders have been amazing." Both authors will be hitting the media in their respective municipalities.

Rounder Records has been a Boston institution since 1970, and cofounder Bill Nowlin decided to get into the book business in 2004. In the past eight years he has written or co-written 11 titles on the Red Sox for both Rounder and other publishers. His big spring title is Blood Feud, written with Jim Prime (Mar.). Although a fanatical Bosox fan, Nowlin admits, "We started off planning a fairly dispassionate and evenly balanced view of the rivalry. If we were impartial and crafted a strong enough book, we thought we could get acceptance from both the Red Sox and Yankees fan bases." Rounder will be publishing a 20,000-copy first printing in trade paperback. "Naturally," says Nowlin, "we hope that the number of units sold will be at least double what they might have been had we published first in hardcover." Rounder plans to concentrate on Boston-based media.

Pugilistic Zeitgeist

The "Sweet Science" retook Hollywood when Million Dollar Baby won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Originally published in 2000 as Rope Burns by Ecco, F.X. Toole's tome is now a movie tie-in featuring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman on its cover. The trade paperback tie-in edition of Million Dollar Baby now has 60,000 copies in print.

The success of Million Dollar Baby may indicate that a new niche in sports publishing is emerging. "It seems to be cyclical," says Susan Canavan of Houghton Mifflin. "Boxing seems to come into the zeitgeist periodically. It's part of boxing's appeal—popular then forgotten. But there is an astonishingly large and loyal boxing fan base out there, and the literature of boxing is something they have and will always keep alive."

When you hear people talk about Cinderella Man (Houghton Mifflin, May), Jeremy Schaap's biography of Depression-era boxer James J. Braddock—down on his luck like the rest of America—visions of Seabiscuit come to mind. They are both stories about underdogs, and as Canavan reminds us, "You don't have to care a lick about boxing to enjoy it"—just as you didn't have to know a horse from a mule to love Seabiscuit. "The more I heard what Jeremy Schaap had to say about Jim Braddock," says Canavan, "the more I was intrigued. Here was this completely improbable story set against the backdrop of one of the most electric times in boxing, and arguably sports history. Braddock was every bit a man of his time, and his story is one of those gems we find so infrequently in publishing, the tale of a seminal moment in sports history that is little known and even less understood." Although completely unrelated to the book, a Ron Howard film about Braddock, also called Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger, is set for a June release. Houghton Mifflin is planning a 50,000-copy first printing, followed by an author tour and major promotion.

With the emergence of Cinderella Man, book and movie, and the new NBC reality series The Contender getting kudos from the press, don't be surprised if Shadow Boxers: Sweat, Sacrifice & the Will to Survive in American Boxing Gyms (photos by Jim Lommasson, essays by many, including F.X. Toole; June) gets lots of attention. "Most people don't see beyond the violence of the sport," John Gattuso, editorial director of Stone Creek Publications, says. "But to dismiss boxing as merely violent without also acknowledging its grace, its poetry, its blood-and-bone humanity is to tell only half the story. What we learned is that boxing gyms can be extraordinarily nurturing places, where kids—many of them drawn to boxing by violence in their own lives—learn to channel and contain aggressive impulses in an environment that stresses discipline, hard work and respect for authority. For a troubled kid, boxing gyms can be a lifeline." Shadow Boxers will have a 10,000-copy initial printing and promotional efforts will be based in the nine cities visited in the book: Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Portland (Ore.), San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The University of Nebraska Press will be publishing Boxing Stories by Robert E. Howard, a Braddock contemporary, in April. Howard, probably best known as a writer of historical fiction and fantasy—and the creator of Conan the Barbarian—was also an amateur boxer who loved writing about his sport. "His interest in boxing is evident in the realistic, richly populated boxing universe he creates in these stories," says Heather Lundine, editor at Nebraska's Bison Books. "With them, he takes his place in a tradition of American boxing writers but always with a uniquely Howardian twist—a gritty brooding atmosphere and a reserve of humor that captures the often brutal ambience of the 1930s."

Other boxing books include Rocky Lives! by David Finger (Potomac, Mar.), Pound for Pound: A Biography of Sugar Ray Robinsonby Herb Boyd with Ray Robinson II (Amistad/HarperCollins) and Chaos, Courage, and Corruption: A Year in the Life of Boxingby Thomas Hauser (Sport Classic Books, Apr.).

Seabiscuit, Gone but Not Forgotten

It's been several years since the Seabiscuit phenomenon, but publishers continue to explore the world of horse racing, producing more books about the sport every year. "I think horse racing has been a largely untapped area of sports publishing," says Judy Marchman, managing editor of Eclipse Press. "Seabiscuit helped bring horse racing into the public's and other publishers' consciousness. Horse racing has such a rich history and so many great stories to tell, and I think readers are responding to that, and so are publishers."

The interesting thing about the new books on horse racing is that they are beginning to branch away from the celebrity horse and are taking a look at other aspects of the sport. For instance, did you know that $16 billion is wagered every year on horses? One book that looks at this phenomenon is Horseplayers: Life at the Track by Ted McClelland (May). "The interest for Horseplayers," says Cynthia Sherry, associate publisher of Chicago Review Press, "was gambling on horses and the passion people have for all things track related. Seabiscuit showed one side of the track, but Horseplayers provides a view most people haven't seen before." Chicago Review plans to send the author on the Triple Crown publicity circuit—Kentucky Derby/Preakness/ Belmont. Another view of the track is presented in Race Day by Maxwell Watman (Ivan R. Dee, July). "We contracted for Race Day," says Ivan R. Dee, "simply because we like the way Max Watman writes about horse racing. It's very much unlike the usual sports page stuff; it's closer to Liebling. Watman gives you a little history, a lot of atmosphere, plenty of personalities and the details of one of the great races at each track." Watman will also be working the Triple Crown circuit for publicity.

Wonder what really goes on behind the scenes at the track? Well, check out the Insider's Guide to Horseracing by T.A. Landers (May). "With more than 40 years experience as a licensed thoroughbred trainer and track veterinarian," says Bruce H. Franklin, the publisher of Westholme, "Landers has written a quick, well-illustrated book that gives you just enough information to make horse racing more interesting and enjoyable to watch."

Against the Odds: Riding for My Life by Jerry Bailey with Tom Pedulla (Apr.) tells how Bailey conquered a serious drinking problem to become one of America's outstanding jockeys, having won every leg of the Triple Crown. "Bailey is the greatest jockey in the world," Neil Nyren, senior v-p/publisher/editor-in chief at Putnam, declares flatly. "He's the Michael Jordan of riders. He's won every important race there is, and then won it again." Putnam plans major promotion as the author works the Triple Crown circuit.

Eclipse has books that cover two-thirds of the Triple Crown. "With The 10 Best Kentucky Derbies [Apr.]," says Marchman, "we think we'll invite a great deal of debate among fans and help generate that all-important 'buzz.' " New York's Belmont Park is celebrating its centennial, and Eclipse is bringing out Belmont Park: A Century of Championsby popular equine artist Richard Stone Reeves (May). "Reeves already has a loyal following," says Marchman, "and we hope to spread the word about Mr. Reeves's artistry as well as Belmont Park's centennial."

America anxiously awaits its next Triple Crown winner, but in the meantime it may want to bed down with The Most Glorious Crown: The Story of America's Triple Crown Thoroughbreds from Sir Barton to Affirmedby Marvin Drager (Mar.). "This book is an oversized coffee-table keeper," says Triumph's Mitch Rogatz, "with rare archival photographs of all the Triple Crown winners—and near winners—that most racing fans, even lifelong ones, would never have seen before." The package also includes a 100-minute DVD examining the history of horse racing with vintage footage of past champions and commentary from jockeys, owners, trainers and insiders. Triumph plans a 30,000-copy first printing backed by major promotion.

BiographyIt's Only Me: The Ted Williams We Hardly Knew by John Underwood (Apr.). In perhaps the most fascinating sports book of the spring, Underwood, a renowned sportswriter for SI and other publications, tells of his friendship with the Splendid Splinter over the last decades of Williams's life. A CD featuring never-before-heard comments by the uncensored Williams is part of the package.
Mitch Rogatz, president/publisher of Triumph: "The audio tracks are so amazing that fans of history—military, culture or baseball—will love them. Teddy Ballgame talks candidly about being shot down in the Korean War, in a way that nobody, other than his close friends, ever heard. Of course there's some talk about baseball, too, but it's the topics away from the diamond that I think will captivate the public's attention."
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathan Eig (Apr.). Eig has uncovered personal correspondence of Gehrig's that provides new insights into the Yankee legend's personal life.
Bob Bender, v-p/senior editor at S&S:"At the home of a baseball memorabilia collector, Jonathan came across an auction-house catalogue that mentioned some correspondence between Gehrig and his doctor at the Mayo Clinic. Jonathan tracked down the letters to a collector, who agreed to allow Jonathan to examine photocopies. These letters have never been published anywhere. They give us a clear picture of what Gehrig was thinking during his fatal illness."
Forging Genius: TheMaking of Casey Stengel by Steven Goldman (Apr.). A profile of the Old Professor meticulously shows how managing atrocious teams prepared him for greatness.
Chris Kahrl, sports acquisitions editor,Potomac Books: "The book focuses on what Stengel learned from John McGraw during his playing days with the Giants, and how the miseries of running terrible Dodger and Brave ball clubs prepared him for 1949, his first year with the Yankees. Goldman then shows how those lessons provided him with the tactical and strategic skill to win that year—and to keep winning beyond it."
One Magical Sunday: But Winning Isn't Everything by Phil Mickelson with Donald T. Phillips (Apr.). The beloved Lefty tells how he won the 2004 Masters.
Rick Wolf, v-p/executive editor, Warner Books: "Phil relives each hole on that fateful Sunday at Augusta and discusses how he approached each shot. Then, interspersed through this format, Phil talks about his life, his parents, family, wife and children. It's a quick, fun and very satisfying read."
Strike Zone: Targeting a Life of Integrity & Purity by Andy Pettitte and Bob Reccord with Mark Tabb (Mar.). The former Yankee hero and current Houston Astro writes about his profound belief in God.
Robin Patterson, marketing manager, Broadman & Holman Publishers: "Strike Zoneis more of a spiritual biography written directly to young people, especially boys. There is plenty of baseball excitement throughout the writing, but the main message of maintaining spiritual integrity and sexual purity shines through."
Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of NASCAR Legend Curtis Turner by Robert Edelstein. NASCAR remains the largest spectator sport in America, and Curtis Turner has played a large part in its success.
Peter Mayer, president/publisher, Overlook: "Everyone, from children to adults, loves a hero. And if it's a colorful hero, like Curtis Turner, all the better. Turner was a genius racer and a rascal. An excellent combination for a biography."
How About That!: The Life of Mel Allen by Stephen Borelli (Mar.). A biography of the voice of the Yankees goes into many of the personal aspects of Allen's life.
Kevin King, v-p/sales & marketing, Sports Publishing: "This covers everything from a boy raised by Russian Jewish immigrants who faced Ku Klux Klan persecution and depression-era hardship to his meteoric rise to national fame. Allen never did an autobiography, and the author spent over four years working with Mel's surviving siblings. This is the only book written on this broadcasting icon."
Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle by Janet Guthrie (May). The autobiography of the first female racer to compete at the Indy 500 and Daytona 500.
Jim O'Leary, publisher, SPORT Classic Books: "Janet's story is not only unique, but she has done a marvelous job of telling it. Her writing style is clean and distinctive, and she speaks with incredible passion. I seriously doubt there has ever been a better-written book about auto racing."

Jackie Robinson On March 2, Jackie Robinson was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow. Robinson, a man who led a controversial, angry life, is finally being honored for being morally right when so many people, back in 1947, saw him only as an "agitator."
The year 1947 ended baseball's apartheid, and as Robinson's teammate Carl Erskine recalls ethereally in his new book from McGraw-Hill, What I Learned from Jackie Robinson: "This was a Brigadoon time for baseball." There is more Robinson inspiration in HCI's How to Be like Jackie Robinson: Life Lessons from Baseball's Greatest Hero by Pat Williams with Mike Sielski. Ig Publishing is also reissuing Robinson's Baseball Has Done Itwith an introduction by Spike Lee.
Robinson has also become an inspiration to children's publishers, with three titles coming out this spring:
Luke Goes to Bat, a novel written and illustrated by Rachel Isadora, in which Jackie serves as inspiration (Penguin Young Readers Group, ages 4—up); Jackie Robinson: Strong Inside and Out by the editors of Time for Kids with Denise Lewis Patrick (HarperCollins Children's Books, ages 7-9); and Dad, Jackie and Me, a novel written by Myron Uhlberg and illus. by Colin Bootman (Peachtree, ages 4—8).

Bobby Jones This year marks the 75th anniversary of Bobby Jones winning the Grand Slam of golf—the only player in history to accomplish this feat. "Golf's history in this country goes back to Bobby Jones," says Mitch Rogatz, president/publisher of Triumph. "Though Jones only played for a very short time, he was immortalized by a handful of the most respected writers of the day—largely because of his incredible talents—coupled with his intellect, class, poise and focus."
Publishers celebrate Jones's remarkable feat with the following titles: Bobby Jones and the Quest for the Grand Slam by Catherine Lewis (Triumph); Golf's Golden Age: Bobby Jones and the Legendary Players of the '20s and '30s by Rand Jerris (National Geographic Society); The Slam by Curt Sampson (Rodale); and Bobby: The Life and Times of Bobby Jones by Sidney L. Matthew (SportMedia).

Scouting ReportCurt Smith,Voices of Summer 20,000 first printing
Mini-essays on the best baseball broadcasters, featuring a 10-point criteria system
"No baseball writer has ever done what Curt has done here."
—Carroll & Graf's Philip Turner
Mathew McGough,Bat Boy 60,000 first printing
The true life adventures of coming-of-age with the New York Yankees
"It's about a kid's impossible dream coming true."
—Broadway's Bill Thomas
Buzz Bissinger,Three Nights in August100,000 first printing
Inside the mind of St. Louis manager Tony La Russa
"The idea of unleashing the author of Friday Night Lights on baseball was, to me, intoxicating."
—Houghton Mifflin's Eamon Dolan
Jonathan Mahler,The Bronx Is Burning 40,000 first printing
The year 1977 in New York City—its baseball, politics and the battle for its soul
"A lens through which to observe the changes in America in the late '70s."
—Picador's Josh Kendall, who acquired the book for FSG
Michael Lewis,Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life 300,000 first printing
The author of Moneyball remembers a high school baseball coach who influenced his life
"Coach captures quite beautifully a defining and perhaps universal moment of adolescence, when doubt and diffidence vanish and the impossible seems suddenly in their reach."—Norton's Starling Lawrence
Frank Deford,The Old Ball Game 50,000 first printing
How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants created modern baseball
"The epic sweep of both a game and a thriving New York City in transition."
—Grove Atlantic's Brando Skyhorse
Kevin Kennedy with Bill Gutman,Twice Around the Bases 35,000 first printing
The former manager and current TV analyst breaks down the game.
"Kevin shares his knowledge in a way that both hardcore and armchair fans can appreciate."
—Morrow's Rob McMahon
Bob McGee,The Greatest Ballpark Ever 5,000 first printing
Ebbets Field and the story of the Brooklyn Dodgers
"The ballpark is a prism through which to tell the story of the Dodgers."
—Rutgers UP's Kristi Long
Tom Oliphant,Praying for Gil Hodges 40,000 first printing
A memoir of the 1955 World Series and one family's love of the Brooklyn Dodgers
"Every once in a while we see a special book—one that transcends a single subject and give us a view of a nostalgic America."
—Thomas Dunne's Peter Wolverton
Turning on the Juice It has the potential to damage baseball as the Black Sox scandal did in 1919. It's another kind of cheating, this time with body-enhancing steroids. It hit the headlines in early February with the impending publication of Jose Canseco's tell-all from Regan Books, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, his unabashed ode to bulking up without ever lifting a weight.
Juicedgot all the publicity, but there are three other books out this spring that go into the steroid controversy. The most surprising is Buzz Bissinger's 3 Nights in August(Apr.), a book about the strategy games of Cardinal manager Tony La Russa—who just happened to be the one-time manager of Canseco and one of the players he implicates, former slugger Mark McGwire. Although only three pages are dedicated to the steroid controversy and were written before the Canseco brouhaha became massive media fodder, it is worth noting that the denial MLB has been embracing—that no one knew—is breaking apart. La Russa, who, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,"in 2002 told St. Louis reporters he did not know of one of his past or present players who took the drugs" believes, according to Bissinger, "that steroid use on his clubs was 'not excessive' when compared to other teams"—clearly contradicting himself.
Taylor will publish When Winning Costs Too Much: Steroids, Supplements, and Scandal in Today's Sports by John McCloskey and Julian Bailes, M.D., also in April. "By then," according to Tracy Miracle, marketing/publicity director, "fans and media will be starved for legitimate information on the developing scandal. Our hope is to garner interviews and attention for this book based on facts—not speculation—about who is doing what and what the long-term effects will be for individual athletes, leagues, drug companies and impressionable youth. McCloskey makes a pretty convincing case against Barry Bonds, who will be under the microscope come April as the home run record chase begins and the 'asterisk' talks heat up." Taylor will have a 15,000-copy first printing and plans a multicity television and signing tour.
New York Yankee Jason Giambi has admitted to a grand jury that he injected himself with testosterone, as part of his steroid cocktail. Perhaps Giambi should read John Hoberman's Testosterone Dreams: Rejuvenation, Aphrodisia, Doping, which investigates the complex, bizarre and sometimes outrageous history of synthetic testosterone and other male hormone therapies. "If readers seek more than a tell-all," says Alexandra Dahne, publicity director at the University of California Press, "or if [Canseco's] memoir whets appetites, then Testosterone Dreams is a reasoned, intelligent, fascinating companion. And since our book places the doping scandals in the context of the marketing, development and consumption of androgenic drugs in our culture, this is really a book for everyone."
Surfer Girls Bridget Jones on a surfboard may be the ultimate Surfer Girl—and it's not that far-fetched. According to several publishers, the movie Blue Crush, which grossed more than $40 million, and the MTV series Surf Girls, have had a profound effect on the number of young women hitting the waves with their surfboards. According to Newsweek, 37% of all U.S. board riders are female. "There is definitely a movement happening," says Ann Treistman, senior editor at the Lyons Press, and publisher in June of Sister Surfer: A Woman's Guide to Surfing with Bliss and Courageby Kia Afcari and Mary Osborne. "Women's surfing camps are popping up all over the West Coast," says Treistman, "with more and more women wanting to try a sport that combines such sheer pleasure—waves, sun, sand—with exercise. It's like summer vacation every day." Lyons plans an initial printing of 15,000 copies and plans to work the bookstores as well as doing live chats and interviews on surfer Web zines' sites.
Few publishers can walk out of their office doors and hang ten. Jen Charat, editor at Harvest/Harcourt, is one of them, and this happy fact introduced her to Izzy Tihanyi and Coco Tihanyi. The result is Surf Diva: A Girl's Guide to Getting Good Waves. "Harcourt's offices in San Diego are located about 20 minutes away from the Tihanyis' Surf Diva's shop," says Charat. "I've surfed since I was 16 years old, so for me Surf Diva was the book I felt I was born to edit." A five-city publicity tour is planned with stops along the way including ESPN, MSNBC, FOX News and even Telemundo for the bilingual divas.
Chronicle Books' executive editor Sarah Malarkey has had the same avocation, which led her to publish The Girl's Guide to Surfingby Andrea McCloud, illustrated by Shin Symbolon (Mar.). "This book," she admits, "offers smart, detailed instruction that isn't patronizing or overly enthusiastic." Chronicle will back the first printing of 20,000 copies with an extensive print campaign in Health and Shape magazines, plus radio and regional TV.
Ballantine will have Surf's Up: The Girl's Guide to Surfing by Louise Southernden (Mar.). "I saw the increased popularity of women's surfing," says Allison Dickens, editor at the Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine, "and noted increased use of surfing imagery in many arenas from advertising to movies and music to fashion. It made sense to look for a book that could capitalize on the heightened interest in the sport."