John Grisham Speaks on eBooks and “Calico Joe”
John Grisham is all for eBooks, believing they’re good for publishers, authors and readers. Not that he doesn’t love books in print too… but he is concerned about bookstores.
“We’re always going to have books,” he said. “Getting hurt in all of this is bookstores. We’re losing bookstores like crazy. Book sales are down overall because we lost 800 stores last year with Borders. We’ve lost 2,000 stores in the last 15 years.”
Grisham has just recently published his 26th novel, Calico Joe, and he expects half of the sales to be in eBook form.
Although he’s best known for his legal thrillers, Calico Joe is a departure Grisham has made in order to explore one of his greatest passions – baseball.
Calico Joe is about Joe Calico, whose baseball career ends when he’s hit in the head with a ball.
“It stops his career,” Grisham said. “It ruins the career of the guy that threw the pitch. And in the middle is a little boy, 11 years old, who is the son of the pitcher. He idolizes Joe. It’s how it transforms all three lives and the lives of a lot of little boys that summer.”
Grisham says that he hasn’t sold the film rights to Calico Joe yet, but there is a lot of interest.