I know I said that we were going to start talking about some of Tyndale’s upcoming spring titles on the blog today but I’m going to hold off until Friday. We are still in the middle of sales conference for our national accounts and I’d like to provide a more comprehensive overview, rather than hurriedly post info on just a few titles. With that said, it looks to be an interesting season.
I will mention that The Winners Manual, by Jim Tressel with Chris Fabry, checked in at No. 15 on the most recent Wall Street Journal’s hardcover, non-fiction list.
The Winners Manual Remains on NY Times Best Sellers List
Wednesday, July 30 – 4:14 p.m. CT
The Winners Manual, by Jim Tressel with Chris Fabry, will be No. 6 on the New York Times “Advice, How-to, & Miscellaneous” list on Sunday, August 10. It will debut at No. 3 on the list on Sunday, August 3.
Thursday we will provide a sneak preview of some titles that will be released by Tyndale House this spring.
As this blog really gets up and rolling we certainly hope to receive more responses to our posts. While we do have the ability to moderate posts, we’ll certainly attempt to post any response that isn’t crude or just totally unreasonable. I am not going to respond to every anonymous post. With that said, I do wish to respond to the anonymous poster who was critical of my positive post about Jerry Jenkins’ new novel, Riven. The anonymous poster took exception to my positive assessment of the book writing, in part, “If Riven is a classic, great. But don't act like readers (and Tyndale staff) are stupid.” My positive reaction about Riven wasn’t at all meant to suggest that a reader shouldn’t make his or her own decision about the quality of the book. My post included the author’s assessment that this is the book he has always wanted to write. It also included a positive endorsement from Chuck Colson, and my own endorsement (although I did write that I don’t read much fiction).
I’m certainly not going to tell any reader to like or dislike a book. That’s the reader’s decision to make. I will, however, not hesitate to post about a book if it’s receiving positive feedback. Riven has sparked a lot of discussion at Tyndale since its release. Most people who have read the book have really enjoyed it. Several thought the ending was implausible, but that the ending did not detract from the overall high quality of the book. Tyndale president Mark Taylor, in an Amazon review, lauded the book but wrote that “a few elements … are unbelievable.” As for the poster’s criticism of Mark posting a positive review about a Tyndale book, Mark did not post anonymously. If Mark was posting positively about Riven but hiding behind a veil of anonymity, the criticism may be warranted. It’s certainly easy to criticize or take snarky shots when it’s done anonymously. I think most authors would be pleased that the president of the company where they publish is being publicly supportive of his or her book. I’m sure Jerry Jenkins is as well.
The New York Times article about Tyndale’s football-related titles ran this morning. I have to admit that I am very pleased. The writer, Julie Bosman, did a very nice job. It’s always tough with these articles because I feel sorry for key people who are omitted. For example, Carol Traver acquired both the Deanna Favre and Jim Tressel titles yet wasn’t mentioned. I did offer the writer the opportunity to talk to Carol but the writer declined because she wanted to talk to Jan Long Harris, who acquired Quiet Strength. Jessica Atteberry Quinn, of Jessica Quinn PR in Atlanta, helped tremendously with the PR for the Dungy and Favre titles yet didn’t get mentioned as well. Both Carol and Jessica are key components in the success of these titles. With that said, a rather lengthy – and positive -- article about Tyndale in the New York Times is tough to complain about too much.
We’ll find out this week if the article actually runs, however, the New York Times is researching an article for its Culture section about Tyndale’s recent success publishing football-related titles, such as Tony Dungy’s Quiet Strength, Deanna Favre’s Don’t Bet Against Me, and Jim Tressel’s The Winners Manual. I suppose the article can still get spiked but it looks as if it’s going to happen. We’ll kind of hold our breath that 1) it does run and 2) that it’s a positive article. It certainly should be but we never really know until it runs. The writer, Julie Bosman, has been really good to work with so I am hopeful that will equate to a nice article. We shall see.
***************** In addition, we received the CBA Top 50 Best Sellers list for August 2008 today (list is based on actual sales in Christian retail stores in the United States through June 30, 2008). The Quiet Strength paperback is No. 2 overall on the list, trailing only The Shack. I knew the Quiet Strength softcover is doing well in CBA but I was actually a little surprised that it was doing so well.
Other Tyndale titles in the top 50 included:
No. 18 – Dead Heat (hardcover) by Joel Rosenberg No. 28 – Quiet Strength (hardcover) No. 33 – Heaven (hardcover) by Randy Alcorn No. 41 – The Last Jihad (softcover) by Joel Rosenberg
******************
The following blurb was featured in today’s CBA Retailers + Resources Industry Brief for July 28, 2008
Operation Worship Bible tops CROSS:SCAN. In the first 40 days of the Operation Worship Bible project, an exclusive to Christian retail stores, more than 100,000 Bibles were signed in Christian retail stores and partner churches. The Bibles have caught on with customers, evident in the fact that the Operation Worship Bible has been the #1 best-selling SKU on CROSS:SCAN for five consecutive weeks. The Bibles will be distributed to American soldiers throughout the world through military chaplains. Tyndale House and Operation Worship have increased the goal to 200,000 Bibles to be signed throughout the summer for the project.
-------------------------------- Christianity Today International and Tyndale House Partner to Make “New Living Translation Bible” Translation for CTI Websites --------------------------------- Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008 by Tyndale House Publishers:
Carol Stream, IL, July 16, 2008 — Beginning September 15, 2008, the “New Living Translation” will become the default Bible translation for Bible searches and reference links on Christianity Today Internationals websites. When users select a Bible reference in the content on any of CTI’s 40 channels, they will be taken to the NLTStudyBible.com page for that reference, which will include not only the text of the verse, but the verse in context, as well as all of the study notes and features related to that verse from the “NLT Study Bible.” Additionally, CTI’s flagship websites—ChristianityToday.com/ct, TodaysChristianWoman.com, IgniteYourFaith.com, LeadershipJournal.net and PreachingToday.com—will feature a Bible search box for users to search the NLT by reference or keyword.
Tyndale House will release the “NLT Study Bible” on September 15, the culmination of seven years of work by a team of over 40 Biblical scholars and editors. And while those who purchase a print edition of the “NLT Study Bible” will have an access code for lifetime access to the fully searchable online edition of the complete content of the “NLT Study Bible,” CTI website users will have that same complete access through the CTI portal.
“We know that today’s serious Bible students and teachers are using electronic Bibles and the internet in study like never before, so we think access to the ‘NLT Study Bible’ notes and other features will be of real benefit to those who use CTI’s websites,“ said Blaine Smith, Associate Publisher for Bible Publishing at Tyndale House. “As CTI website users discover the rich library of resources the ‘NLT Study Bible’ offers, we think they will want a copy of their own.”
According to Rob Gaskill, CTI’s Director of Strategic Relations, CTI is pleased that their website users will have direct access to the entire content of the “NLT Study Bible,” a much more robust study tool than simply the text of the verse.
“I’m excited about this wonderful opportunity to partner with our neighbor and Kingdom co-worker, Tyndale House Publishers,” said Harold Smith, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of CTI. “And I’m especially thrilled that we can, together, provide broader distribution and more creative access to a quality translation that will bring God’s living Word to bear on more and more people.”
Mark Taylor, president of Tyndale House, is also pleased with the partnership, adding, “Over the years, Tyndale and CTI have worked together on a number of significant publishing projects, and because of our profound respect for them, we are honored that they have chosen the ‘New Living Translation’ as the Bible translation for their websites.”
We just received word that it looks as if The Winners Manual will appear at No. 4 on Publishers Weekly’s nonfiction hardcover list for July 28. PW only has one category for its list (i.e. no “Advice, How to” list) so a No. 4 rank is quite impressive. While we’ll get the Christian bookseller rankings soon, The Winners Manual is now a New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller. Those three lists are certainly the most exclusive, and the most difficult to make.
THE WINNERS MANUAL NO. 3 ON NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLERS LIST
For immediate release
THE WINNERS MANUAL NO. 3 ON NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLERS LIST Ohio State’s Jim Tressel joins Tony Dungy and Deanna Favre as Tyndale’s football-related bestselling authors
Carol Stream, Ill. -- The Ohio State University head football coach Jim Tressel’s book, The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life, will debut on the New York Times Best Sellers list on Sunday, August 3, at #3 on the “Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous” list. With such books as The Last Lecture (No. 1), Deceptively Delicious (No. 2), and The Secret (No.4) occupying the top spots on this list for weeks, the “Advice, How-To” list has arguably become just as exclusive as the Times’s primary non-fiction list. The Winners Manual joins Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy’s #1 New York Times bestseller Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life (July 2007), and Deanna Favre’s Don’t Bet Against Me! (October 2007), as recent football-related New York Times’ best sellers published by Tyndale House Publishers. This is made even more impressive because of the fact that the New York Times does not poll Christian booksellers as part of its ranking methodology. While The Winners Manual landed on the “Advice, How-To” list – it landed there because in many ways it’s a leadership title – sales for the title indicate that it likely would have been among the top five books on the general non-fiction list as well, possibly as high as #3.
Written with Chris Fabry, the five-time national championship winning coach’s book was released by Tyndale House on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 with a comprehensive publicity and book signing tour. Tressel spent the day of the release at ESPN Studios in Bristol, Conn., and conducted a variety of interviews on various ESPN broadcast platforms. Throughout the tour, he conducted approximately 75 television, print, and radio interviews with outlets throughout the country. The publicity and book-signing tour began with a press conference at the Les Wexner Football Complex on the OSU campus on Monday, July 14. More than 40 members of the media from throughout Ohio attended the press conference. Tressel is contributing his profits from The Winners Manual to the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library Renovation Fund on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus.
Later in the evening following his day at ESPN, Tressel held a book signing at Bookends in Ridgewood, N.J. Bookends sold more than 400 copies of The Winners Manual at the signing. For a store known for high-profile signings, the event was one of its most successful signings of the year.
Walter Boyer, owner of Bookends, said, “This book-signing event certainly demonstrated the reach and popularity of Ohio State. We expected a good crowd, but not this big. On the same day the book went on sale, Jim patiently signed 400 books (and bookplates, as we sold out of books) for those in attendance. He met with each customer, posed for pictures, and even signed items for the New Jersey and Philadelphia area OSU alumni clubs. Everyone was a ‘winner’ today.”
While The Winners Manual was garnering a great deal of attention following Coach Tressel’s visit to ESPN, the book began rapidly ascending the online retail sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com, reaching as high as the top 15 on the B&N ranking and the top 25 on Amazon.
On Wednesday, July 16, Tressel conducted three book signings throughout the Columbus area and signed approximately 3,000 books. Tressel began the day at a Kroger supermarket on Chambers Road in Columbus. While the store ran out of books, Tressel signed 500 copies of The Winners Manual. Later that afternoon he signed more than 1,200 books at a Lifeway Christian Store in suburban Dublin, and then more than 1,300 later that evening at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the OSU campus.
Following the Columbus-area signings, Coach Tressel drove to eastern Ohio for three additional signings on Thursday, July 17. He signed more than 3,700 books that day. He signed more than 1,300 copies at a Barnes & Noble in Youngstown, Ohio, more than 1,200 copies at a Berean bookstore in Copley, Ohio, and more than 1,200 at Borders in Westlake, Ohio.
“Having Coach Tressel in our store was a tremendous honor for both our customers and staff,” said Sue Makuh, Manager, Copley Berean Christian Stores. “Coach Tressel is greatly admired in this community, and that was evident by the response we received during the signing. It was amazing to see how kind he was with each person who was here. Our staff worked hard to create a wonderful experience for our customers and Coach Tressel, and we were truly thankful to have the opportunity to welcome him to Berean.”
After a day off the tour on Friday, July 17, Coach Tressel made himself available for a three-hour signing at a Barnes & Noble in Pickerington, Ohio, in suburban Columbus on Saturday, July 18. He signed more than 1,500 copies in Pickerington.
In addition to the success of Tressel’s The Winners Manual and Dungy’s Quiet Strength, which has more than 1,000,000 copies in print, Tyndale House Publishers recently had another football-related hit on its hands with Deanna Favre’s Don’t Bet Against Me! The memoir by Favre, wife of Green Bay Packers great Brett Favre, spent 10 consecutive weeks on either the New York Times hardcover nonfiction primary list (top 15) or expanded list (top 35). It is now in its eighth printing, with more than 200,000 copies in print.
Tyndale House Publishers was founded in 1962 by Dr. Kenneth N. Taylor as a means of publishing The Living Bible. It is now one of the premier publishing houses in the industry. Tyndale products include numerous New York Times best sellers, including the popular Left Behind series. Tyndale also publishes the New Living Translation Bible and many other resources for church and family. Tyndale House Publishers is located in Carol Stream, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.
Following is a press release about the early success of Jim Tressel’s The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life. We should find out later today if the book will be on the New York Times bestsellers list on Sunday, August 3.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FIRST-WEEK PERFORMANCE BY TRESSEL’S THE WINNERS MANUAL NEARLY IDENTICAL TO DUNGY’S QUIET STRENGTH Long lines, rabid fans make book signings “overwhelming”
Carol Stream, Ill. – Can Tyndale House Publishers catch lightning in a bottle yet again? Almost one year to the day that it released Tony Dungy’s eventual #1 New York Times best seller Quiet Strength, Tyndale has published a book that has produced nearly an identical first-week retail sales performance. The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life, by Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel with Chris Fabry, released Tuesday, July 15 and sold nearly 20,000 copies in its first week of sales. With nearly 9,000 books signed by Tressel during eight book signings last week, the turnout and sales totals are nearly identical to the Dungy book signings that garnered national media attention last summer.
“Like Tony Dungy last year, and now with Tressel, it’s overwhelming to see such huge lines and enormous unit sales at signing stores,” says Ron Beers, Senior VP and Group Publisher. “We knew Jim Tressel was well-known and respected as a football coach,” Beers continues, “but we didn’t realize the extent of that respect for the coach in all leadership circles both in Ohio and around the country.”
With final sales totals for the week still yet to be tallied, The Winners Manual trails only Let’s Roll! (August, 2002), by Lisa Beamer with Ken Abraham, in first-week consumer sales for a hardcover, nonfiction title published by Tyndale. Tressel is contributing his profits from The Winners Manual to the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library Renovation Fund on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus.
Much of the early success of The Winners Manual can certainly be credited to Tressel, who committed nearly a week of his time to the promotion of the book, including personally appearing at eight book signings, as well as conducting more than 75 book-related interviews last week alone. The publicity and book-signing tour began with a press conference at the Les Wexner Football Complex on the OSU campus on Monday, July 14. More than 40 members of the media from throughout Ohio attended the press conference.
On Tuesday, July 15, the first date that the book was available in stores, Tressel traveled to the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., for a full day of interviews on a variety of media platforms. Following his day in Bristol, Tressel held a book signing at Bookends in Ridgewood, N.J. Bookends sold more than 400 copies of The Winners Manual at the signing. For a store known for high-profile signings, the event was one of the its most successful signings of the year.
Walter Boyer, owner of Bookends, said, “This book-signing event certainly demonstrated the reach and popularity of Ohio State. We expected a good crowd, but not this big. On the same day the book went on sale, Jim patiently signed 400 books (and bookplates, as we sold out of books) for those in attendance. He met with each customer, posed for pictures, and even signed items for the New Jersey and Philadelphia area OSU alumni clubs. Everyone was a ‘winner’ today.”
While The Winners Manual was garnering a great deal of attention following Coach Tressel’s visit to ESPN, the book began rapidly ascending the online retail sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com, reaching as high as the top 15 on the B&N ranking and the top 25 on Amazon.
On Wednesday, July 16, Tressel conducted three book signings throughout the Columbus area and signed approximately 3,000 books. Tressel began the day at a Kroger supermarket on Chambers Road in Columbus. While the store ran out of books, Tressel signed 500 copies of The Winners Manual. Later that afternoon he signed more than 1,200 books at a Lifeway Christian Store in suburban Dublin, and then more than 1,300 later that evening at the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the OSU campus.
Following the Columbus-area signings, Coach Tressel drove to eastern Ohio for three additional signings on Thursday, July 17. He signed more than 3,700 books that day. He signed more than 1,300 copies at a Barnes & Noble in Youngstown, Ohio, more than 1,200 copies at a Berean bookstore in Copley, Ohio, and more than 1,200 at a Borders in Westlake, Ohio.
“Having Coach Tressel in our store was a tremendous honor for both our customers and staff,” said Sue Makuh, Manager, Copley Berean Christian Stores. “Coach Tressel is greatly admired in this community, and that was evident by the response we received during the signing. It was amazing to see how kind he was with each person who was here. Our staff worked hard to create a wonderful experience for our customers and Coach Tressel, and we were truly thankful to have the opportunity to welcome him to Berean.”
After a day off the tour on Friday, July 17, Coach Tressel made himself available for a three-hour signing at a Barnes & Noble in Pickerington, Ohio, in suburban Columbus on Saturday, July 18. He signed more than 1,500 copies in Pickerington.
In addition to the success of Tressel’s The Winners Manual and Dungy’s Quiet Strength, Tyndale House Publishers recently had another football-related hit on its hands with Deanna Favre’s Don’t Bet Against Me! The memoir by Favre, wife of Green Bay Packers great Brett Favre, spent 10 consecutive weeks on either the New York Times hardcover nonfiction primary list (top 15) or expanded list (top 35). It is now in its eighth printing, with more than 200,000 copies in print.
Tyndale House Publishers was founded in 1962 by Dr. Kenneth N. Taylor as a means of publishing The Living Bible. It is now one of the premier publishing houses in the industry. Tyndale products include numerous New York Times best sellers, including the popular Left Behind series. Tyndale also publishes the New Living Translation Bible and many other resources for church and family. Tyndale House Publishers is located in Carol Stream, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Jerry Jenkins’ new novel, Riven, releases today. The early reviews of the book have been tremendous. This is not a little novel, checking in at 526 pages. Jerry Jenkins has said of Riven, “This is the novel I have always wanted to write…if a novelist has a life’s work, this is mine.”
Chuck Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship added: “Thoroughly moving, Riven leaves an indelible impression on the reader. Its characters and message stay with you long after the final chapter. For me, it is also a deeply personal reminder of why God called me to prison ministry so many years ago.”
I don’t read much fiction at all but have read the first 100+ pages of Riven and it’s absolutely lived up to its advanced billing. This is a big-time book.
After some research, it looks like it is the best first-week hardcover, nonfiction launch since Lisa Beamer’s Let’s Roll in August 2002. The Winners Manual parallels very closely the first-week consumer sales of Tony Dungy’s Quiet Strength. We’ll have more info on this early tomorrow.
We are starting to hear some rumblings that the first-week sales for The Winners Manual may be the strongest “launch week” in terms of sales in the history of Tyndale House Publishers. If that can be confirmed, we will have a press release about it either later today or Wednesday. We’ll keep you posted.
The book signing tour for The Winners Manual concluded this morning with a three-hour signing in suburban Pickerington. Coach Tressel began the signing nearly 15 minutes early and signed from 845-1150. Like the other signings, fans were patient, yet enthusiastic.
The signing featured a high school marching band and a young baby named, of course, Tressel. We had people who had named their dog Tressel, but this was our first baby on the tour with the name Tressel. Coach said he had heard of about seven or eight baby Tressels previously. Here is a link to an article about this Tressel baby: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2830476
We were joined on the tour today by C.J. Van Wagner and Dave Endrody from Tyndale. C.J grew up in Ohio and is a big Buckeye fan so he was excited to meet Coach Tressel. I think both were amazed by the volume and enthusiasm of the crowd.
Yesterday was yet another remarkable day on the The Winners Manual publicity and book signing tour. We began the day in Coach Tressel's old stomping ground of Youngstown, Ohio, in the southeast corner of the state (Youngstown is actually only a little over an hour from Pittsburgh). Coach Tressel won four I-AA national championships at Youngstown State, so to say that Youngstown rolls out the red carpet is certainly an understatement. The signing in Youngstown was at a Barnes & Noble store and fans actually began forming a line for the signing the night before. Yes, people waited in line overnight to get their book signed by Coach Tressel. You just can't say enough about the passion of OSU fans.
It was a fun morning for Coach Tressel. After knocking out some media responsibilities he began the signing and saw lots of familiar faces. Before the signing even began the Tyndale team came through again by hand delivering another shipment of books to make certain that the store had enough copies on hand for anyone who wanted to purchase the book. The fun thing about the fans this morning was that there was a great mix of both Youngstown State Penguins fans, as well as OSU fans. In all, Coach Tressel signed about 1,200 books and met about 600 fans. You can tell why Coach Tressel is such a great recruiter. He has a great sense of humor and can very quickly engage with fans. You can tell that he has a great affinity for young people, often asking college age students if they attended Ohio State, their major, and other things to quickly connect with the fan. He also has incredible visual recall, remembering people and where he met them often years after having met them previously.
Upon the completion of the Youngstown signing, we drove toward the south Cleveland/Akron area to Copley, Ohio, for a book signing at a Berean Christian Store. Berean really had its act together. Amy LeVan, the marketing manager for Berean Christian Stores is based in Lexington and she came to Cleveland for the signings. Amy does tremendous work and the store was very well prepared. She had great help from the stores managerial staff. The air conditioning was cranking and the line was fast-flowing. Prior to the signing, Coach Tressel did a phone interview with ESPN Radio for its Tirico and VanPelt Show, which was hosted yesterday by Scott VanPelt and Kirk Herbstreit. Following the radio interview, Coach did a one-on-one radio interview with Jordan Sherwood of WKNR in Cleveland, as well as a sitdown interview with a Cleveland network affiliate. Following the radio responsibilities, Coach Tressel had a meet-in-greet with several Berean consumers. Again, Coach Tressel signed about 900 books at Berean and even finished a few minutes early.
Following the signing in Copley, we drove to a Borders in northwestern suburban Cleveland. Like the store in Youngstown, people began arriving to get their tickets for the signing at the Borders in Westlake more than 12 hours before the beginning of the signing. Again, Coach Tressel ran into a number of former friends, coaches (his former high school basketball coach was in attendance), players, and teachers. One thing that Coach Tressel did find out is that many people in Ohio have dogs named Tressel. Following the signing, Coach Tressel signed some photos for the families of several police officers who assisted us with the signing and we were on our way to Columbus.
One of the things about the pace of these book signing tours is that it's difficult to find time to eat. I don't think Coach, Carol Traver, or I ate either breakfast or lunch yesterday. Coach did eat a sandwich and a smoothie prior to the evening signing and Carol and I spent $6.70 combined on a stop at Taco Bell following the signing. At least it will look good on the expense account. Pretty much you don't eat, and then you eat junk which you eat way too fast because you are used to working at such a fast pace. Coach Tressel jokes that he will be glad when the tour ends so he can go back to work and relax. We all know that Coach Tressel works extremely long days so he is joking, but I think he was a little surprised by the demanding nature of a book tour of this intensity.
The Winners Manual is still holding strong sales momentum, ranking No. 45 on Amazon and No. 15 on Barnes & Noble.
Coach Tressel is off the tour today and the tour concludes tomorrow, Saturday, with a three-hour signing at a Barnes & Noble in Pickerington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. Coach Tressel will have a chance to sign nearly 2,000 copies of The Winners Manual tomorrow morning. If he doesn't sign that many he'll come awfully close.
We just arrived in Youngstown for the first of tomorrow's three signings. Everyone's dragging a little bit tonight. Today was really a remarkable day, one when The Winners Manual was about as popular as the cabbage patch doll at the peak of its popularity. We held three book signings in Columbus today and all three were extremely well attended with excited OSU and Jim Tressel fans.
Coach Tressel began the day at 6:00 a.m. with nearly 30 radio interviews from coast-to-coast from six until 10:00 a.m. He was working on about four hours of sleep, which isn't really all that unusual for a major college football coach but it's tiring for anyone, no matter how conditioned to the schedule. The first book signing was at a Kroger store not far from campus. The signing featured members of OSU's famous marching band and, maybe even more importantly...free bratwurst. The store had ordered 500 copies of the book and was completely sold out of the book by 10:15 a.m. Coach Tressel signed all of those 500 books for a little more than an hour and then signed the books of those who had left the store and had looked to secure books at other stores throughout the city. Some people were actually scalping their books for $100.
The problem with these signings is that the stores never really know how many people are going to show up so it becomes difficult to anticipate how many copies must be ordered. Obviously Kroger came up a little bit short. Those who did get their books signed did have a good time and Kroger was extremely well organized, even though those standing in line were certainly hot standing outside in nearly 90 degree weather. Carol Traver, the acquisitions editor who played a very instrumental role in acquiring the book for Tyndale joined us toward the end of the signing as her flight was delayed leaving O'Hare.
After the Kroger signing we next went to a Lifeway Christian Store in the northeast suburbs of Columbus. This store had ordered approximately 1,300 books and again every single book was sold. There is no question that as many as 200 or 300 more books could have been sold but every single person that had purchased a book had the opportunity to get it signed and to meet Coach Tressel. That signing began at 3:00 p.m. and ended at about 5:10.
Even before the Kroger signing began I began calling our sales team back at Tyndale to make plans to get more books to Columbus. Much of the team was still in Orlando or traveling from Orlando to Chicago from the International Christian Retail Show. Our sales and customer service team was able to rapidly load about 4,000 more books in a large SUV and small truck to be brought immediately to Columbus. I can't thank them enough for their rapid response.
The final booksigning of the night was at the huge (I'm talking 50,000 square feet huge) Barnes & Noble bookstore on the OSU campus. If you need any piece of OSU clothing it is at this bookstore. This B&N began handing out wrist bands and the first people began arriving at 6:00 a.m., more than 12 hours prior to the 7:00 p.m. signing. However, because they had the wrist bands they didn't have to wait at the store for 13 hours. The signing was extremely well organized and the venue was really special with many OSU students, alumni, and recently graduated students in attendance. Coach Tressel often asked the students' majors and they were all over the board: nursing, mechanical engineering, music, philosophy, sports management, journalism. You name it and there was likely a student enrolled in that major. Again, the store sold approximately 1,300 books.
The Winners Manual also continues to do on the online retailers' rankings. As of this hour, the book is No. 16 out of the more than one million books available on Barnes & Noble, and No. 34 on Amazon's hourly ranking. There is no question that people are aware of the book. There is quite a buzz. We should find out about a week from today if it will be a New York Times bestseller. It will certainly have a shot, although Christian bookstores are not counted by the New York Times, and the campus B&N is not a New York Times reporting store. We'll see what happens.
Following the Barnes & Noble booksigning the wonderful staff at the store arranged for us to get food from Eddie George's restaurant, which is right next door. Eddie is the former OSU running back who won the Heisman Trophy and went on to a stellar NFL career withe Tennessee Titans. He is also a trained and licensed landscape architect. I think I had eaten an apple all day so I splurged with an artery clogging meatloaf and cheese sandwich, which wasn't really good car -eating food but, man, did it taste good. Coach Tressel splurged on his favorite fried bologna. We were then on our way to Youngstown with with stop for gas about halfway there. We begin tomorrow morning with a 10:00 a.m. booksigning in Youngstown, the place where Coach Tressel led the Penguins to four national championships. It should be a lot of fun.
A special thanks should also go the four members of the Tyndale staff that drove books to Columbus today in attempt to alleviate the crunch for books. They will be taking more books to Youngstown and Cleveland for the signings tomorrow. Thanks need to go to Lindsay McElroy, Adam Sabados, Tom Smillie, and Heather Alred for their help driving from Chicago to Columbus.
Coach Tressel and I are back in Columbus. We arrived back at 11:00 p.m. after taking a NetJets flight from Teterboro, NJ, to Columbus. The book signing was incredible. I just received an e-mail from Walter Boyer, the owner of BookEnds, and more than 500 faithful Buckeyes fans turned out for the signing and more than 400 books were sold. Actually, the store ran out of books, which isn't at all surprising as I don't think anyone thought that we would sell close to 400 books in New Jersey. Buckeye Nation was out in full force, both young and old. When the store ran out of books they sold book plates, essentially stickers that Coach Tressel signed to later be put in the books. The fans that didn't get their books tonight will receive them very soon. Nobody seemed to mind as everyone just enjoyed spending time with fellow OSU fans and alums. We had former band members, a former Brutus, at least one former OSU player, and a LOT of Jim Tressel admirers.
BookEnds does a great job. They have a number of huge signings and it is a go-to store for New York City area bookstores. Just during the past several months they have had signings ranging from Julie Andrews to Giants wideout Plaxico Burress. Ernest Borgnine will be at the store on August 13. Something tells me he won't outdraw Jim Tressel.
Coach Tressel is really excited about the three book signings in Columbus tomorrow (okay, later today). He certainly expects huge turnouts. He just hopes everyone is patient, relaxes, and just has fun. I hope the stores have stocked enough books.
Before the signings, Coach Tressel will do a radio publicity tour from his home in which he will do about 25 radio interviews over a four-hour period beginning at 6:00 a.m. No rest for the weary, although I'm not certain that Coach Tressel gets weary.
Coach Tressel and I left Manhattan at 8:00 a.m. to take the drive from Manhattan to Bristol, CT, and the ESPN campus. Yes, it is truly a campus with multiple buildings and a variety of impressive studios, editing bays, and a techie junkies dream. We were told ESPN had about 5,000 employees, about 3,500 working in Bristol. It's an impressive place.
I had been to ESPN once before with Deanna Favre last fall. This is Coach Tressel's first visit. Carol Mayer, an Illinois grad and former U of I golfer, is coordinating his visit. She puts the guest through what is called the "carwash," which is essentially taking Coach Tressel to a variety of interviews on a number of the ESPN broadcast platforms.
ESPN was a bit short-staffed in Bristol today because of the MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium tonight. Coach Tressel's first interview was for "First Take," hosted today by Jessie Palmer, former University of Florida quarterback and participant on "The Bachelor" on ABC. I had forgotten that Jessie had grown up in Canada and didn't play high school football yet went on to play in the NFL. It was actually Jessie's first time hosting the show and he did a nice job.
Coach Tressel then did an ESPN Radio interview for "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd, who is a college football junkie. To say that Colin is energetic is an understatement. Coach then had lunch and then did a :30 minute chat for ESPN.com, an interview for "College Football Live" (that actually wasn't live today as it is going to air next week), an interview for ESPN News, a taped phone interview with David Kaplan of WGN Radio in Chicago, a pre-recorded satellite interview for "Jim Rome is Burning", and then an interview for Sportscenter. Carol kept Coach Tressel busy, which was exactly what we wanted.
It was a great visit. Carol was a fantastic host and there is a strong Big Ten flavor at ESPN, with so many of the Big Ten schools represented by its employees. The staff is very young and energetic and gives the "campus" a very collegial feel. I think the people who encountered Coach had an even greater respect for him after having some face time with him, and Coach Tressel said that he had a much greater appreciation for the work and planning that goes into the entire ESPN operation. ESPN is even rolling out a new morning Sports Center in August. It will be an incredible undertaking with six new hours of original programming.
We are now leaving Bristol and on our way to BookEnds, a famous bookstore in Ridgewood, NJ. Are there any Buckeyes fans in New Jersey? I guess we'll find out in about two hours.
There is an interesting Tyndale connection to the huge story regarding Brett Favre's decision to return to the NFL. After weeks of speaking through intermediaries, Favre did an exclusive interview with FOX News's Greta VanSusteren just minutes ago . The likely reason: Greta had done an exclusive interview with Brett and his wife, Deanna, in the Favre suite at Lambeau Field last fall to talk about Deanna's New York Times bestseller Don't Bet Against Me!
Tonight's interview was a smart PR move by the Favre camp. Greta is a Packer fan and Appleton, Wis., native. Can't imagine the sports media are any too happy about losing this exclusive to Greta but Greta's compassion for Deanna's story certainly had to weigh heavily in their decision to have Brett give the exclusive to Greta.
As for B&N and Amazon rankings, high rankings don't necessarily equate to huge book sales but it certainly gives you an idea about momentum, and there seems to be a lot of interest in The Winners Manual. When it was among the top 25 books on B&N it was among books written by Tim Russert, James Patterson and Jodi Picoult. Elite company. While Coach Tressel could be vacationing prior to the start of training camp rather than spending time publicizing his book, he is fully committed to this project. Monday morning at 8:15 ET he did an interview for Dan Patrick's
