In the latest installment of mediabistro.com's "Book Keeping" interviews, sportswriter Steve Friedman discusses how he came to write The Agony of Victory, a look at 14 athletes for whom success was all too fleeting. "I did not set out to be writing these kinds of stories; I did not think of myself as a sportswriter," Friedman says. "Now the editors are like, 'Oh someone's facing death. Someone's confronting his most loathsome demons. Get Friedman for it.'" And apparently it didn't come all that hard:

"When I suggested [the book] to my agent, she said, 'I love these stories, but I don't see how we can pitch this as a book unless there's an introduction that ties them all together and I don't see how you can do that.' So I said, 'I can do that,' and I did. She really liked it and she pitched it to Arcade and they bought it."

The "Book Keeping" series is available exclusively to AvantGuild subscribers, so if you're not one of those yet, why not join today? In addition to all the other benefits, mediabistro.com is giving away $10 gift certificates to Amazon.com to anyone who joins AG this month. But even if you're not a member, media industry pros can still RSVP to meet Friedman at his book party tonight at Corio...