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Earlier in the week, Jon “Stugotz” Weiner released a new book detailing his theories on several occurrences in the world of sports. Weiner has been promoting the book over the last month, compelling members of the audience to pre-order the copy in an effort to land him on The New York Times Best Seller list. On Wednesday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz preceding the Thanksgiving holiday, Le Batard explained that Weiner has been distracted over the last two days and that he saw him counting the numbers from his book sales. Weiner explained that he was reviewing the author portal, conveying to Le Batard that he too would have one if he wrote a book.
Le Batard proceeded to explain that Stugotz’s Personal Record Book was No. 7 on the Best Seller list through Amazon within its sports and outdoors category. At the time of the show, the written work was trailing other books such as The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Hockey Romance and How To Survive A Freakin’ Bear Attack: And 127 Other Survival Hacks You’ll Hopefully Never Need. Weiner articulated that he does not care what the category is and that he would be satisfied with his book being No. 1 in any genre.
“Yeah, we’ll take care of them, we will,” Weiner said of his competition. “We’re No. 1 in many, many places. Sports Essays, Sports Sociology. We’re top 500 in all books, which is insane. I am super grateful and thankful to the audience, to everyone, who helped with the book and to the audience who came through and purchased the book during presale and [Tuesday]. It was really cool to see, so thank you to everyone.”
After reviewing some of the numbers, Le Batard said that there is no means by which the achievement of Weiner being an accomplished author can be undercut. Leading up to the book release, there had been genuine surprise that Weiner was able to complete this work, sentiments voiced during an interview with co-author and ESPN podcast producer Dan Stanczyk.
“Our audience, as we’ve known for a long time, is like super, super loyal, and so he sold tens of thousands of books in an industry where it’s hard to do that these days because that’s not how it generally works,” Le Batard said, “and he’s just getting started.”
Le Batard recently tried to have someone from Random House publishing onto the program to discuss what it was like to work with Weiner. In reply to his request, he said that the company said it was “a bridge too far,” an expression to which he did not know the exact meaning. Show producer Billy Gil noticed on Tuesday’s episode that Weiner had not released the audiobook edition of his work concurrent with the written version, and Le Batard stated that the company is mad with Weiner, who disputed the claim. Gil articulated that after doing some digging, he found out that this was the first time an author did not release an audiobook at the same time as the print and digital copies.
“I paused the audiobook because as I was doing it, I said to myself, ‘This doesn’t meet any standards that we have as a show to entertain our audience,’ and so I just figured there was a better way to do it,” Weiner said, “and I asked them politely, ‘Can we pause the production of it and release it later because I would like to do something a little bit different?’ That’s all.”
Weiner disclosed that he wanted everyone on the show involved in the project and that he would pay them for their work. Before this avowal, show producer Mike Ryan Ruiz was perplexed that Weiner suddenly had standards for the book.
“Unintentionally, this is going to work out great for you, because six months from now or whenever it comes out, then people are going to be like, ‘I want to buy that. I should pay for this new [book],’” Gil hypothesized. “Here’s the thing – you’re saying too much because now you’re promising you’re not just reading the book, you’re promising some other show-involved thing.”
“I’m not saying too much,” Weiner replied. “I got a plan, I’m okay. I mean, I appreciate what you’re saying, Billy.”
“Random House has dealt with massive personalities in every facet of life and entertainment, and you’re the first person that didn’t deliver an audiobook when it was expected,” Ryan added. “That’s not a badge of honor.”
