“She’s getting rejection letters, 8-10 rejection letters,” he said. “‘Sam Smith? Who’s this? Michael Jordan? He never won anything.’ But she works out a deal with Simon & Schuster for like $25,000. She kind of used that offer as leverage and got another publisher involved and she got an advance of $50,000 (from Simon & Schuster). That’s big money, more than I was making at the Tribune actually.” Smith didn’t imagine the season would end in a championship, and he claims he had no idea the book would blow up as it did.