How to Sell Book

"My first and best crow at Clark's was Joe Morgan. I picked him up at a giant tent auction we held that summer under a tent circus tent we erected in the parking lot. The whole parking lot was beneath this enormous white and red tent that the rental guys inflated like an air balloon with enormous fans. We parked the twelve vintage Rolls-Royces we were auctioning at the far end on the either side of the auctioneer's stage. It was the full-page color ad featuring those Rolls-Royces that brought in Morgan, he later told me. Many crows are women, and the luxury jewelry lives on them. Wealthy women who shop for jewelry the way normal women gather shoes. But a rich male crow is even better than a woman, because women are buying for themselves, but men can at least pretend to be buying for their wives. It is easy for a husband to tell a wife that she does not need another diamond bracelet. But it is difficult, and very unusual, for a wife to tell her husband that she has enough jewelry. Even if she has more than she wants, she does not want to discourage his affection" from How to Sell.

Anybody that has spent time in any sort of retail situation will love this book. While the author may be an "associate professor of philosophy," his experience with selling jewelry shines through this novel. In fact there is a whole chapter where the protagonist spends an afternoon with a jeweller who shares not only his experience in the business but also his war stories and his "romances." While that chapter in itself had nothing to do with the main story line, it was an interesting add on. The insights of that chapter alone couldn't have been made up but based on real life experiences.