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Door to Door
by Terry Eastland
9/2/2006, Volume 011, Issue 48
Around the first of September I tend to have memories of my days selling books door to door during my college summers. I worked in what was called the Bible division, because the lead book was a family Bible. I didn't sell many, since most everyone living in my territories already seemed to have a family Bible. But we had other books to sell--a medical encyclopedia and storybooks for children, among them. And our company, Southwestern, in Nashville, was keen to try out new books. It still is, from what I can tell.
I think the reason I recall those days at this time of year is that during the first week of September we delivered books ordered during the previous three months. So by September we knew how well we'd done, and also that our 13-hour workdays would end soon and we'd be back in class, with some free time at last. Compared with the bookfield, as we called it, college was easy.
I first heard about the book business when I was a high school junior, in Dallas. I met some college guys from Southern Methodist University who netted far more selling books than I made mowing grass. It was intriguing to me, the idea of going off to some other state and seeing what you could do on your own. I wanted to be a bookman.
My parents relented as I finished high school. I memorized the various sales talks and caught a ride to Nashville, where I spent a ...
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