Story Seller
Wednesday 19 August 2015 You just can't keep him down. Not content with records to do with water, Chris Bertish is heading for a range of other records about selling books, with a few SA publishing feats already banked.
His book Stoked! - featuring his life story and buildup to winning the 2010 Mavericks Invitational - has been on the best seller list for a couple of weeks, and in the last few days has been sitting on the top of the pile in South Africa.
Internationally, Stoked! is selling well on Amazon, and now sits at Number 1 in Hot New Releases in the Extreme Sports category.
The turnout and sales of his book launches have astonished even the most cynical of publishers.
According to Bertish, "it seems the Cape Town launch at Tigers Milk was a great success. Apparently it was the biggest book launch in RSA for the last 5 years, with attendance of over 450 people. We also apparently sold the second highest amount of books (175) on an opening night that Penguin/Randomhouse have sold in the last 10 years!"
Spike from Wavescape introduced the speakers for the evening. When you have guys like Professor Tim Noakes, who wrote the foreward to the book, batting on your side, then you know. Noakes waxed lyrical about the heroic attributes of Bertish, and there was a hint at why the general pro sports community hold him in such huge esteem. The man of the hour told the story of how Noakes had planted the idea of the book in his mind. The audience was packed, and they held on to his every word.
The Johannesburg launch was also "super successful with 5fm DJ legend Sias Du Plessis doing a Q&A with me before more signings".
On his way home after Joburg, he looked for his book in Exclusive Books at the airport in the "New Arrivals books" section. "I was a little bummed and disappointed, until I realized I was looking in the wrong section!!! Apparently I needed to be looking in the "Bestsellers section!" Stoked, beyond belief:)"
A couple of days after the Cape Town launch, Bertish was asked to hand out the jerseys to the Stormers for their first home game of the season.
"Super humbled, honored and atoked to hand over their jerseys and talk to the Stormers before their first big home game of the season! Go Stormers!"
You just don't know til you go. And apparently, that helps others, because we all need to know.
