Michael Moynihan
SPOTTING trends in the book publishing game isn't as easy as you might imagine. If it were, we'd all have pumped out vast tomes on the adventures of a bespectacled apprentice wizard and retired to the Bahamas to count our money.
When it comes to sports books there's an additional complication: many books in the genre conform to a pretty rigid formula – much like a lot of sportswriting itself – which becomes something readers come to expect.
The end result is a vicious circle in which only the sports books which conform to the formula are the books which are published, strengthening the grip that formula holds on writers, publishers and the reading public. (There's nothing wrong with a formula, by the way. The fact that practically all stories have a beginning, middle and end is testament to that.)
From an Irish perspective there are several sports books which are crying out to be written for all sorts of reasons, and no matter what format is used.
The sports person's biography might appear to have been done to death, but there's always room for innovation. Books from the likes of Paul McGrath and Donal Óg Cusack have taken personal candour to levels we would have hardly have dreamed of even 10 years ago.
It's difficult to conceive of the personal revelations which would 'top' the likes of those books, and there'd be a sense of diminishing returns if sportspeople were to try. But one obvious candidate wouldn't need any such sensation to make number one in the charts.
If Cork County Board secretary Frank Murphy were to put pen to paper then it's unlikely that a GAA household in the country would want to be without a copy.
The string of controversies, on- and off-field, which Murphy has been present for would make compelling reading if the secretary were to give his side of the story. (Before we leave Leeside, the authorised biography of Christy Ring, over three decades in gestation, would be welcome too.)
Another welcome addition to the bookshelves would feature warts-and-all honesty from one sport about another. Decades of detente have left the major sports bodies in Ireland killing each other with politeness, and a raw, from-the-gut screed would be a compelling read.
Hating The Egg-Chasers by John Delaney would be enjoyable; Putting Down The Grab-All Association by Philip Browne even tastier; and Ha Ha, Fill The Aviva by Pauric Duffy a best-seller.
On the topic of candour, there would surely be room somewhere for a newly-retired journalist to describe the other side of the heroes of the sports pages. Though there are plenty of decent people to be encountered at press conferences and in dressing-rooms, there are also prima donnas, drama queens, louts, bullies, know-alls, brealls and, in one or two cases, the overtly psychotic. (That's just among the journalists, ho ho ho.)
A book that chronicled the lack of manners, inflated sense of entitlement, preening self-regard, iron-clad ignorance and super-sensitive touchiness to be found among some sportspeople would open a few eyes. If the lawyers ever approved it.
There are a couple of other ideas, of course, but give a man a break: he's got to bring something to the table when he meets his publishers next week, right?
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/WpY6o5G7vEE/post.aspx
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