Comments on: Matt Hughes Book A Top Seller – More to Come?

By: cyphron

cyphron — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:55:54 +0000

How about:

Tito Ortiz: My Life with Jenna: What the Hell Was I Thinking?

By: mike wolfe

mike wolfe — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:47:43 +0000

Post no. 13 is the inspiration for the latest competition: Come up with the best title for Tito’s new book. My entry: “Tito Ortiz: I fought Chuck Liddell twice and all I got was this lousy book deal”

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:33:02 +0000

“They list how a book is selling against other books in that category during that hour of that day”

True but if a book is high on the NYT list you can expect the sites numbers to be high.

By: Joe Nassise

Joe Nassise — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:33:24 +0000

And non fiction doesn’t sell a miniscule number of books compared to fiction – where are you getting your information, Grape Knee High?

By: Joe Nassise

Joe Nassise — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:31:13 +0000

Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble sales ranks don’t tell you anything about how a book is selling over all. They list how a book is selling against other books in that category during that hour of that day. A long term listing in the lower numbers would show a book is selling well from that particular vendor but book can seem to be doing well from one vendor but actually tanking over all.

By: cyphron

cyphron — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:29:37 +0000

I found out what the title for Tito’s new book is:

Tito Ortiz: I Can’t Hang With Top Competition but I Can Beat Ken Shamrock.

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:37:36 +0000

By the way…Tito has one coming out in May. Which is right around when his UFC current contract expires, I believe. It will be interesting what kind of blow torch he takes to Zuffa.

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:28:24 +0000

hah…no worries Mike

“you have to keep in mind that hardcover books generally sell much fewer copies than paperbacks overall, ”

Grape Knee High

Without question you are correct here. Relative sales of paper backs to Non Fiction are two completely ballparks. But no matter how you split it a MMA bio in the top 100 is simply amazing. If it had been a sub catagory like “non fiction – home improvement” (yes there is one out there) then indeed it can be compared to “the Special Olympics”.

But the blanket “non-fiction ” catagory…thats very impressive to me. If it had been by Lance Armstrong or Tom Brady then not so much I suppose…but back to my main point…this is a MMA book. Lets have a little gof clap for Matt.

By: Mike MacLeod

Mike MacLeod — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:15:51 +0000

Hey guys. This article got published while I was still gathering information. Figures, seeing as this is my first article for Five Ounces.

I have confirmed that the NYT publishes their list two weeks after they collect the data and Hughes’ book is indeed #21 for nonfiction for the week ending January 12.

You can resume your argument about whether #21 can be considered successful.

Mike

By: Grape Knee High

Grape Knee High — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:08:33 +0000

Evan, you have to keep in mind that hardcover books generally sell much fewer copies than paperbacks overall, with non-fiction generally selling a miniscule number of books compared to fiction. To be only #21 on the hardcover non-fiction list is not impressive.

Here’s a better snapshot of where his book really stands in terms of pure sales from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,935 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Barnes and Noble Sales Rank: #4,843

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:00:52 +0000

“it doesn’t take much sales to get onto the Hardcover Non-fiction list in the first place”

I am sure there is a few thousand authors of books released in the past year that would argue with that. The fact that ANY MMA book can crack the top 100 list is pretty amazing. Its not a developed sport with a deep history like the NFL or MLB.

By: Grape Knee High

Grape Knee High — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:56:55 +0000

I’m sure Matt is not lying here. However:

The real important point is that it doesn’t take much sales to get onto the Hardcover Non-fiction list in the first place, so being #21 on this list is not exactly prestigious. It’s like coming in #21 in the Special Olympics.

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:34:25 +0000

Yeah I agree phyteguru …I read a lot of books and its obvious you’re reading a raw author on this one. The flow can be rough at times. I think the editor chopped a lot of stuff out for his early life and Matt had a hard time with it. It gets much better as it goes as he finds his stride. Once he meets Monte and starts his fighting career it goes by too fast.

By: phyteguru

phyteguru — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:26:39 +0000

I’m in the process of reading the book and have made it through about 6 chapters so far. The material in the book is great so far, but the writer did not do the best job in the world. He jumped from section to section with horrible transitions. Paragraphs will end pretty quickly and jump right to a new subject. …I dont really care though, I’m reading it for the material in the book, not Matt Hughes writing skills.

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:57:08 +0000

“We just got the NY Times bestseller list in, and MADE IN AMERICA is #21! Thanks to all the fans for making this happen.

EDIT: If you go to the NY Times website, you will see a list posted there that is dated January 20th, 2008 and MADE IN AMERICA is not on that list. That list only reflects sales for the week ending January 5th. My book should be on the list for the week ending January 12th, which hasn’t been posted to their website yet; but it should be in a week or two.

-Matt

“

By: Derek B.

Derek B. — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:53:45 +0000

books? Who reads books anymore?

I’d be more interested in a documentary film.

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:50:39 +0000

Its a very good book.

For people getting so upset about some of those earlier quotes for him not liking Tim should read the whole thing as he ended up having a lot of respect for him.

By: Ben Fowlkes

Ben Fowlkes — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:49:50 +0000

Wow. That’s ironic.