My latest column for the National Sports Journalism at Indiana is on John Feinstein and his latest book.

Here are some excerpts:

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When John Feinstein arrived at the Indiana campus in 1985, he merely was an ambitious young Washington Post sportswriter looking to do an interesting behind-the-scenes book on Bob Knight. After struggling to find a publisher (“Who wants to read a book about a Midwest college basketball coach?”), he was thrilled to land an advance of $17,500.

Little did Feinstein or anyone else know that “A Season on the Brink” would zoom to No. 1. It set the stage for him to become the bestselling sports author of all time, with more than 10 million books sold.

“The Franchise” is out with his 23rd non-fiction book: “Where Nobody Knows Your Name.” It is a terrific read about life in the minor league Triple A. He chronicles the frustration, even heartbreak, of many young players and former big league veterans who are stuck in baseball’s nowhere land.

Once again, Feinstein taps into a familiar formula: Finding and telling good stories. He introduces you to characters at the beginning of the book. In the end, you feel their joy and pain. A highlight of the book is Feinstein telling the tale of a Triple A umpire. You realize it isn’t just players who aspire to make it to the Bigs.

His good friend, Dave Kindred, summed his work as an author with this line when Feinstein received the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame’s media award: “He is sportswriting’s John Grisham, a storyteller whose brand is so strong, his name goes above the book’s title.”

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Writing a book isn’t what it used to be. The publishing industry is struggling.

Feinstein: No, I’m not making as much money as I used to make.

Nobody is, that’s for sure.

Feinstein: Exactly. I don’t take it personally.

So why do them?

Feinstein: Because I still love the idea. My biggest frustration as a newspaper reporter: I never had enough time, I never had enough space. The famous story about me at the Post, I called in, I was at a Davis Cup final and I was screaming at the editor, “You can’t just give me 24 inches, I can’t write this story in 24 inches. I’ve got to have at least 40.” He goes, “That’s fine, John, write 40, we’ll use the best 24.” That was my newspaper and still is.

I still love really, really getting into a subject. I really love figuring out how guys think.

Bob Woodward has been my mentor for so long. When I went to do “Season on the Brink,” I had lunch with him. He said, “When you finish reporting this book, you should know more about Bob Knight than anybody on Earth. That’s your goal. You may not need it, but the closest you come to it, the better your book is going to be.”

I’ve always kept that in the back of my head. Every book I do, I try, unsuccessfully but I try, to walk away knowing more about the subject and the people involved than anybody on Earth, and I enjoy that process. I still love the process. I sound like a friggin’ coach now.

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You wanted to a put a face behind the players who get listed as being sent down in the one-line transaction lines?

Feinstein: Exactly, and how when we read the agate and it says so and so sent down so and so out righted to Tidewater or whatever, Norfolk now. Somebody’s life just changed and somebody else’s life changed because they got called up. That’s what I wrote about in the introduction was just what you just said, all these guys whose names appear in the agate. There’s one guy I wrote about, Chris Schwinden, whose name appeared like 22 times in 2012. I ended up with the anecdote with the guy J.C. Boscan who got called up to the Braves for the first time after 14 years. There was a celebration in the clubhouse. The next day there was one line: Atlanta Braves recall J.C. Boscan from International League. That moment was the highlight of J.C. Boscan’s life, and it was one line of agate.

Why has this formula worked for you?

Feinstein: Because I think everybody can relate more to somebody like J.C. Boscan than Miguel Cabrera. I played baseball. I never got past high school baseball. If I’d gone to a D 3 school, I might have been good enough to play on that level, but I was a high school baseball player. J.C. Boscan is 100 times better than I ever thought about being as a baseball player, and yet he’s not a star. He’s not a millionaire. He’s not in the headlines.

You know, Jeff Greenfield wrote a review of the book in the Washington Post. It was a good review, and he started it by saying, imagine if you spend your whole life being the best athlete, being the best at what you do, and then hitting a ceiling when you’re an adult. That’s what this book is all about.

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Is there a next John Feinstein book on the horizon?

Feinstein: As long as they keep letting me do books, I’ll do them. I’m doing a book on Dean Smith, Mike K. and Jim Valvano. I already know the name, “The Triangle.”  This is one I’m really looking forward to doing. I wasn’t born to do this book, but I lived it.

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Here is a link to the entire Q/A.

Also, here is the link to listen Feinstein’s show on the CBS Sports Radio Network.