By: Ken Scelfo Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: iUniverse, Inc. Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 238 Publication Date: November 16, 2007 Release Date: November 16, 2007
Chet Fisher wasn’t going to be like everyone else. He was going to be creative, an underground writer or meaningful musician. Unfortunately, as a victim of his own lazy infatuations, he becomes the worst wine salesman in the entire state of New York.
At twenty-eight, Chet Fisher is easily the youngest among the winery representative crowd and already the most disillusioned. Smothered at the bottom of the sales heap, he receives an ultimatum to improve or else be fired. Faced with impending unemployment, Chet sets out on a journey to discover what lies within his job . . . and himself.
Rumbling through New York State in a fog of booze, drugs, and indecision, Chet spends endless hours at wine shops, hotel bars, sales meetings, and wine tastings. As he gradually learns how to sell, he sinks deeper into the very world he despises—a world of chronic greed, stale corporate mentalities, and unfettered competition. Growing further away from his friends, his youth, and his own personality, Chet awakens to the reality that his life is a façade.
Selling a Good Time ultimately ponders the question: how important is keeping a job if it robs you of everything else in life?
Selling a Good Time Selling a Good Time by Ken Scelfo is a fantastic book and I recommend it to everyone. If you're considering a career in sales (any sales), skip the usual suspects (e.g. Sales 101, 100 Tips for Getting Ahead, etc.) and read this book. If you've been in sales and got out, or currently work within the sales industry, you'll appreciate the main character and the demons he must face, head-on, on a daily basis. It's accurate, hilarious and insightful. Yes, a career in sales can be rewarding and prosperous. Or, it can be dreadful, strip you of your self-respect and tear you down emotionally. I know this firsthand. Enjoy it as it explores the highs and the lows of being a wine salesman in this fictional book.
Candid, funny and a great read Picked up this book and got through it in a couple of hours. It is an honest look into the wine industry. The story is candid, honest and best of all funny. Anyone in a sales position would enjoy reading Scelfo's novel and immediately relate with his adventures, the sales meetings, the trade shows, disgruntled clients and sales people. Can't wait for the second book.
The bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean.. "Selling a Good Time" is an extremely fun novel, written with wit, sarcasm, and a sense of the moment. The life of Chet Fisher transcends into "your buddy in the sales industry", "that guy I used to party with in college", or "the dude I used to borrow music from". You feel like you know him, and most likely you do.
The book is written in a format that allows you to gain a sense of what it is like to try and sell your soul for a paycheck. Chet ponders this theme throughout the novel, especially during his chats with his neighbor Gus.
In all, this novel is a fun read. I plowed through the countless tales of Chet Fisher and his crummy sales job, laughing out loud at some of the wasted nights he has spent searching for his sanity and dignity..not to mention the accurately placed musical and sports references. Constanly, Chet is left thinking "is all of this wine sales worth it, if I can't even sell myself on what it is I'm doing?". Chet might not know what the future holds, but he will be living on his own terms, which in turn will be the ultimate sense of accomplishment. "I feel, the feeling I forgot....FREE"
A nice surprise! A cousin of mine back east told me to check this out. He works in the wine industry and said this guy he knew wrote a book about being a wine salesman. Being in sales myself (apparel) I figured I'd give it whirl. To be honest, I was amazed by two things: how quickly I read the book and how well it flowed. Being it was written by a first time author, I didn't really know what to expect, but once I got into it, the pages just flew by. I think the idea of writing to fit a certain rhythm is something of a lost art nowadays. Big words and the most intricate storyline imaginable seem to dominate the shelves. As far as the story goes in this one, it's basically your "coming of age, what am I doing with my life" design. The fact that the main character's job is selling alcohol makes this all pretty damn funny. There are some parts that are downright hysterical. Being a big fan of Bukowski, Terry Southern and Irvine Welsh...it fit right into what I was looking for. Not that Scelfo can write like them, but he seems to be coming from the same mold. Anyway, the book was a pleasant surprise and I thought I'd finally get around to posting one of these reviews.
Interesting Debut Picked this up after searching for some wine books for Christmas. The cover alone kinda intrigued me, but when I saw that it was actually about a wine salesman (winery rep to be exact) I felt, why not? I was one myself, and it's not often you see a fictional storyline based on our day-to-day lives. What I found as I read this was that most of it was dead-on. The wine tasting scenes in both NYC and Atlantic City were absolutely hilarious, as were the meetings. I swear I've lived through those exact moments. And the descriptions on some of the salesmen and wine snobs around the main character could have been guys I actually worked with. I had to put the book down I was laughing so hard.
The idea of the book is how the main character, Chet Fisher, is going to keep his job. In learning how to become a better salesman, though, his observations of the business world have him wondering whether it's all worth it. Although the main story does revolve around the wine industry, it really could fit into anyone's situation. If you've ever wondered what your life has become in the face of what society dictates as a reasonable way to live...you'll understand it. It's more of a character/job sketch than anything, but one with a distinct message: Having a job that eats away at your life, no matter how great it sounds, is simply not worth it. I don't know how Scelfo takes an alcoholic, drug-ingesting slacker like Chet Fisher and pulls this off, but he does, writing "the American Dream has never been about what you do for a living, but rather, the ability to do what fulfills your own definition of happiness." Amen.
I highly recommend it, especially if you're fan of novels with underlying meaning, rather than on the surface plot.
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