If you've ever worked in publishing or self-publishing, the chronology here is a little confusing, though it may be easily cleared up:
Up until about a month ago, there was a release date of Dec. 8 for the self-published edition of Redefining Fast, in both black-and-white and color editions. The big round of Instagram reels with affiliate pre-order links went out about four months ago.
If they were planning to offer a prestige color edition, that suggests the self-published edition was going to have photos.
Producing an illustrated book is a much more complicated enterprise than producing a straight prose book. There's securing the photos, maybe securing releases for the photos, getting all the captions right, and then paginating the whole book so it flows with the photos, getting it to a printer (likely overseas to save costs), checking proofs, maybe doing a press check, and then shipping the completed books to a distribution center or someone's garage before the long, tedious process of putting each book in a mailer to ships to the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people who ordered the book.
It's a serious logistical task that requires months of pre-planning, and all of it happens on top of promotion tasks — setting up interviews and media appearances, etc.
If they were even remotely going to have a chance of shipping out all those books on Dec. 8, they should have had them back from the printer way before Dec. 8.
So my questions are these:
When were the self-published books printed?
When the publishing house acquired the title (officially announced Nov. 18, and probably negotiated several weeks in advance) did they agree to cover the costs of all those printed books now (presumably) sitting in someone's garage?
Is Atria Books — an imprint of Simon & Schuster — going to go with the self-published cover and interior design, which may or may not be up to Simon & Schuster's standards?
Were the books never printed, in which case they were totally going to blow that announced Dec. 8 deadline?
Why is the One Athletics website still listing this book for sale, even if the "Buy Now" buttons don't work?
Why doesn't the One Athletics pre-order page announce the new publishing deal?
Did Brosnan ever line up any December promotional and media appearances to help sell his self-published book?
And this is where one could get a little conspiratorial, but not unreasonably so: Was this whole self-publishing thing always really just meant to drum up a commercial publisher's interest?
The simple answer is probably Brosnan et al were sworn to secrecy by an NDA as they negotiated a deal, which would put them in an awkward spot, presuming negotiations began after soliciting pre-orders in August. Still. There's a story there.
These are great questions. Did everyone who pre-ordered get their money back or payments still being disbursed? Anyone who bought a book still waiting for their refund?
I'm also curious on what price the new publisher will land on. The initial pricing of the book on the OneAthletics site seemed outrageous. By the way, why is that website still active? I would think the new publisher would want it gone.
UPDATE! The book has a new title and a new Simon & Schuster info webpage.
The formerly self-published Redefining Fast is now the Atria-published Beyond Fast: How a Renegade Coach and His Unlikely High School Team Revolutionized Distance Running. It also has a new official webpage here, with a September 2, 2025 release:
(Bonus Chistopher McDougall points if at any point in the upcoming book they declare anyone involved part of a "band of misfits")
Also, "revolutionized." How so?
The rewrote the record books and were the most dominate high school team ever. When they showed up at races it was mob around them asking for pictures and autographs. I’d say they revolutionized
The rewrote the record books and were the most dominate high school team ever. When they showed up at races it was mob around them asking for pictures and autographs. I’d say they revolutionized
I drove my kids 7 hours to Huntsville to see Newbury Park to run at the Running Lane National Championship. I’ve never seen anyone as excited about a high school team as everyone was about Newbury Park. I even spoke to the coach and my kids got pictures with them.
The rewrote the record books and were the most dominate high school team ever. When they showed up at races it was mob around them asking for pictures and autographs. I’d say they revolutionized
I drove my kids 7 hours to Huntsville to see Newbury Park to run at the Running Lane National Championship. I’ve never seen anyone as excited about a high school team as everyone was about Newbury Park. I even spoke to the coach and my kids got pictures with them.
I think we have different definitions of "revolutionized." Haven't heard "got people really excited" or, in the post before you, "was really successful" as a synonym before.
I drove my kids 7 hours to Huntsville to see Newbury Park to run at the Running Lane National Championship. I’ve never seen anyone as excited about a high school team as everyone was about Newbury Park. I even spoke to the coach and my kids got pictures with them.
I think we have different definitions of "revolutionized." Haven't heard "got people really excited" or, in the post before you, "was really successful" as a synonym before.
Newbury Park changed high school running for the better.
I think we have different definitions of "revolutionized." Haven't heard "got people really excited" or, in the post before you, "was really successful" as a synonym before.
Newbury Park changed high school running for the better.
I drove my kids 7 hours to Huntsville to see Newbury Park to run at the Running Lane National Championship. I’ve never seen anyone as excited about a high school team as everyone was about Newbury Park. I even spoke to the coach and my kids got pictures with them.
I think we have different definitions of "revolutionized." Haven't heard "got people really excited" or, in the post before you, "was really successful" as a synonym before.
I agree, these are gross exaggerations or outright lies.
FM won 7 years in a row, and won 11 in a 12 year span. Newbury Park was nothing compared to that.
People were also excited to see Loudoun Valley when they were winning 2 national championships in a row with Drew Hunter.
Tinman and Drew Hunter literally created their own brand and coaching service from their fame. They were way more popular than Newbury Park ever was.
I think we have different definitions of "revolutionized." Haven't heard "got people really excited" or, in the post before you, "was really successful" as a synonym before.
I agree, these are gross exaggerations or outright lies.
FM won 7 years in a row, and won 11 in a 12 year span. Newbury Park was nothing compared to that.
People were also excited to see Loudoun Valley when they were winning 2 national championships in a row with Drew Hunter.
Tinman and Drew Hunter literally created their own brand and coaching service from their fame. They were way more popular than Newbury Park ever was.
Newbury Park was like the Beatles of HS running. Legendary and most their guys were faster then Tinman elite
The rewrote the record books and were the most dominate high school team ever. When they showed up at races it was mob around them asking for pictures and autographs. I’d say they revolutionized
Thats not a revolution that's getting lucky talent wise. What new revolutionary training did they do?
The rewrote the record books and were the most dominate high school team ever. When they showed up at races it was mob around them asking for pictures and autographs. I’d say they revolutionized
Thats not a revolution that's getting lucky talent wise. What new revolutionary training did they do?
