Richie McCaw the best-selling author?
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, who won the Kelvin Tremain Memorial award at the Steinlager Awards in Auckland last night, may be on the verge of having his recent biography become the best-selling ‘rugby book’ of all time.
McCaw, who played in 13 Tests this season, claimed his fourth honour as New Zealand Rugby’s Player of the Year, with the 2012 award joining his wins in 2003, 2006 and 2009.The 31-year-old will take a sabbatical for the first half of 2012, and the rumour mill suggests that the All Blacks captain will spend an extended amount of time in the United States.
McCaw and novelist Greg McGee released the book ‘The Open Side’ via publisher Hachette earlier this year, and it is believed that the popular read has sold approximately 120,000 copies worldwide.
Kevin Chapman, head of publisher Hachette, told the NZ Herald that a real mark of the book’s success was the sales achieved in the United Kingdom, with over 20,000 copies sold in one of the more recognised reading markets in the world.
"We're just pleased for Richie that his book's so successful,” Chapman said.
"Everybody's interested in Richie. It's very hard to find a bad word said about him, and all of us who know Richie know he's a good guy who's an incredibly good sportsman.
"You put that together with a writer of particular skill and you end up with a great book about a great person."
Chapman believed that the best-selling rugby book in the world was the autobiography of former England captain Martin Johnson, which sold 70,000 copies.
All Black greats Jonah Lomu and Colin Meads had achieved significant numbers for their books, but Chapman, who had contacted others around the world for confirmation of the impromptu record, said that it looked like McCaw may have claimed yet another distinction.
"Unless there's something that's completely bamboozled us, we think we've got a pretty good idea (that The Openside is the best-selling rugby book)" he said.
