Triumph Publishes Instant World Series Books

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 10/30/2007 7:40:00 AM

Triumph Books of Chicago is turning out three instant books on the World Champion Boston Red Sox and the National League Champion Colorado Rockies.

For the Red Sox there will be a trade paperback, text and photos compiled by the Boston Globe, called So Good: The Incredible Championship Season of the 2007 Red Sox. The first printing will be 110,000 copies and the book ships tomorrow. Triumph will also publish Diary of a Red Sox Season by Sox great Johnny Pesky. Originally scheduled for spring 2008, because of the Red Sox win Triumph will ship Pesky’s book within a week. The text-only hardcover will have a 30,000-copy first printing.

Rockie fans can remember their fantastic run with A Magical Season: Colorado’s Incredible 2007 Championship Season, text and photos supplied by the Denver Post. There will be a 25,000-copy trade paperback first printing.

“We do instant books for every major event,” Mitchell Rogatz, Triumph’s president, said. Rogatz recognizes that the success of these instant books is market driven. “If the Anaheim Angels had been in the World Series and won, we probably would have skipped it. If the Arizona Diamondbacks had made it all the way, it would have been a tough call.”

And why did Triumph even bother with the World Series losers? “We found that there’s still a lingering—hopefully—interest level in certain markets depending on the history of the team and the season that they had.”