One pocket books

[Toncam]

Sorry if this has been brought up before, but im truly puzzled about something.
Theres a ton of books out there on straight pool, nine ball, a few on banking i think and three cushion. Then theres the general how to books.

Why is the choices on One Pocket books so small, actually non existent is more like it. The ones by Robbins is it ? That one is like out of the price range of most people and the only other one i know of and own is by Kohler.

Now why doesnt a guy like Capelle, who in my opinion, put out a great piece of work on straights, why wouldnt a guy like that do something along the lines of a book on one pocket ? Im sure he could get collaborators to help him out and put out something decent, even if hes not an excellent one pocket guy himself, no ?

Theres so many guys that could probably do a great piece of work on the subject and no one does. Is it that publishing a book of that nature is a real gamble or that no one wants to wisen up the masses ?

Actually im surprised that Freddy hasnt done something along the lines of this , so im sure theres got to be a good reason why it hasnt been done.

Like i said, i apologize if this subject has been beaten up on here before, but i figure if i dont ask i wont know, lol.
Thanks

 

[tylerdurden]

There just isn't a large enough market for it. Grab 10 pool players at random, how many are into one pocket? Maybe 0 or 1 if you are lucky. Just not enough buyers. I wish there was a market for such a book. We are getting more players it seems, so I would not be surprised to see some books on the topic soon. Making the game a little more popular among pool players via speeding it up has been a subject of debate around here recently.

 

[WhatWouldWojoDo]

One Pocket Book

One Pocket Book

I think that there is a market for a book like that. It would be cool if it was layed out like Capelle's Break Shot Patterns for straight pool (book and dvd set that the book explains the setup and the shot, and the dvd is from a real match and shows how they did the shot).


Cover some instructional information on the game and strategy. Then do a certain number of Early Game, Mid Game and Late Game Moves.

Early Game - maybe the 10 most common break layouts and options for possible responses

Mid Game - lots of possibilities on this section, how to really put pressure on the opponent (bank a ball to your side and leave them on the stack), when to play up table, Power moves (moving several balls), banking into the stack, when to take intentional fouls.

Late game - 2 and 3 rail banks, wedge, when to safe and when to go for it.

Also a section on common ways to clear a ball from the opponents pocket.

 

[Cowboy Dennis]

Sorry if this has been brought up before, but im truly puzzled about something.
Theres a ton of books out there on straight pool, nine ball, a few on banking i think and three cushion. Then theres the general how to books.

Why is the choices on One Pocket books so small, actually non existent is more like it. The ones by Robbins is it ? That one is like out of the price range of most people and the only other one i know of and own is by Kohler.

Now why doesnt a guy like Capelle, who in my opinion, put out a great piece of work on straights, why wouldnt a guy like that do something along the lines of a book on one pocket ? Im sure he could get collaborators to help him out and put out something decent, even if hes not an excellent one pocket guy himself, no ?

Theres so many guys that could probably do a great piece of work on the subject and no one does. Is it that publishing a book of that nature is a real gamble or that no one wants to wisen up the masses ?

Actually im surprised that Freddy hasnt done something along the lines of this , so im sure theres got to be a good reason why it hasnt been done.

Like i said, i apologize if this subject has been beaten up on here before, but i figure if i dont ask i wont know, lol.
Thanks

Toncam,

Good questions and I don't think it has been discussed here. Here are my opinions:

First of all, One-Pocket is a sub-game in a niche sport. Most people only know 8-Ball from being in a bar. Any author would automatically be limiting himself to a very small buying group. Not much incentive there to spend money writing a book.

Secondly, the books by Eddie Robin are almost totally all-encompassing in the material they cover, from the break, responses to it and many other things. No author could match what Robin already did. There are only so many ways of writing the same thing. Winning One Pocket came out 20 years ago and it's never been reprinted except for the 2nd edition, this is why it costs a lot. Limited supply and it's not growing, only dwindling.

Thirdly, in order to write a one-pocket book that would sell, a person would have to know the game and probably be a top player himself or nobody would respect what he wrote. I know I wouldn't buy a book written by a guy I could beat. How many top one-pocket players can even write a sentence or construct a paragraph? Top one-pocket players are too busy trying to earn enough to eat, they aren't thinking about writing a book that only a relative few would be interested in.

Fourthly, if a top one-pocket player did decide to write a book he would need backing, an editor, writing and publishing help and many other things. That's probably too much work for a poolplayer to even consider, especially knowing going in that he's only likely to break even on the venture, at best.

Fifthly, even if a top player decided to write a book and had financial backing, he would still have to be able to put his ideas and theories into the written word. Many players know many things but I know that even more probably don't know exactly why they do what they do, at least not well enough to put it in writing and have it stand the scrutiny of others.

Those are my ideas, for better or worse.

Dennis

 

[tucson9ball]

Great timimg....

Great timimg....

I think the timing is perfect foe one of the top 1 Pocket players to do this. One Pocket is actually growing in popularity in most areas.

If somebody like Scott Frost, SVB or Alex Pagulayan were to put their ideas into book form, who knows, they could probably charge $50 per book. If it had similar material to Eddie Robbins book, I'm sure it would sell at least 1,000 copies in a few months.

Even if the top players don't know anything about writing, they probably know somebody that could get it done. It really is a money maker that is not being taken to the bank. I see it as a easy 100K or more, but alas....I'm just a banger at best What do I know?

 

[lll]

toncam
dont know if you are familiar with this book??
good for an intro book

 

[vapros]

Freddie,

Freddie,

explain to this guy why people don't write more pool books, especially one-pocket books.

 

[Toncam]

Dennis and Tyler, you got some real good reasons about why it hasnt been done yet, i cant argue with any of them.
One thought i had was if a writer interviewed about say 10 different top players and got them all to contribute a chapter or so on different ideas, that might sell to the niche crowd pretty well. Then again, the part about cost would come into it and it might make a thin budget to begin with astronomical as i doubt the players would do it gratis.

Anyway, it was just a thought i had and was wondering about it for quite a while. Dvds are all right, but to pick up a book and be able to skim it constantly or take it with you to practice is a better way to go in most cases.

I have had the Kohler book for some time and the guy really doesnt cover that much ground, decent section on banking but Freddys book buries Kohlers but theres still decent info in there i guess.

Anyway, thanks for the input guys, i appreciate the responses.
Tony

 

[tylerdurden]

Dennis and Tyler, you got some real good reasons about why it hasnt been done yet, i cant argue with any of them.
One thought i had was if a writer interviewed about say 10 different top players and got them all to contribute a chapter or so on different ideas, that might sell to the niche crowd pretty well. Then again, the part about cost would come into it and it might make a thin budget to begin with astronomical as i doubt the players would do it gratis.

Anyway, it was just a thought i had and was wondering about it for quite a while. Dvds are all right, but to pick up a book and be able to skim it constantly or take it with you to practice is a better way to go in most cases.

I have had the Kohler book for some time and the guy really doesnt cover that much ground, decent section on banking but Freddys book buries Kohlers but theres still decent info in there i guess.

Anyway, thanks for the input guys, i appreciate the responses.
Tony

I agree with your thoughts on the book format. After I started, the first thing I did was go get a book from the library - Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards. It really was nice to have a physical copy of something to page through anytime.