Blog: Behind the Book, Issue 1

As the release of the non-fiction book The Boys in Brown approaches, author Jon J. Kerr takes readers inside the process. On Tuesdays, the series Brown Beginnings is a question and answer format with the author, a behind the scenes look at the conception and reporting of the story. On Thursdays, he blogs about the writing and publishing steps before launch.

Do you recognize this image? This was the first book cover design for The Boys in Brown. 

My designer, Kelley Jensen, put this together in February of 2011. At the time, I didn’t have a title (I added that later). I didn’t have anything close to a book. What I had was a working cover and lots and lots of data: hundreds of pages of notes and equally copious amounts of audio interviews (oh, and several short video clips).

For several months after the season ended in November of 2010, I kept asking myself: What the heck am I going to do with all of this stuff?

I recently finished a biography of Bruce Springsteen. The writer says how Springsteen, one of the most prolific songwriters in history, was constantly writing. He would record guitar parts to help conceptualize songs. This was well before he entered a recording studio to make the actual album. When the rest of the E Street band arrived to add their parts, the album was well on its way to completion (although Springsteen was an obsessive re-writer, often adding months to the recording process). It was up to Springsteen’s producer to curate all the material into one cohesive record.

In early 2011, I was sitting on piles and piles of material. At that time, my role was more as producer than artist.

The first thing I did was transcribe all the audio. I had already started that piece, as after each day’s practice, I would go home, transcribe the audio and organize it into folders.

The folder above is from the week of the Joliet Catholic game. There was a lot going on that week and up to that point, it was the week I did the most reporting.

My day would usually begin in Head Coach Andy Bitto’s office at 2:30 or 2:45 p.m. He and I would discuss the state of the team, the practice plan that afternoon and any injury updates (and there were a lot that season). Often, our conversations would veer away from the day-to-day monotony of the season. We’d talk more about his coaching philosophy, specifically as it might relate to a current event. These interviews were separate from the normal, every day stuff.  I did not listen to that audio until months after the season. This was the same with longer interviews I did with other coaches and people around the program.

To borrow the Springsteen analogy, the day-to-day stuff were like early demos. It gave me a timeline and base camp for the story I could always fall back on as football seasons have a defined period. The lengthier interviews, as I listened and wrote down weeks and months later, added depth and texture. Similar to when in the studio, Springsteen and his producer would add a Steve Van Zandt guitar riff or Clarence Clemons saxophone part (for all of you non-Bruce heads, they are members of the E Street band). Those pieces made the songs come to life, turning sketches into sculptures.

The 2010 Corsairs were my E-Street band. Instead of a music album, I had to convert material into a book.