Joel Frey: Day off

About Two Sides of a Cypress Wall

Despite a solid GPA, several glowing letters of recommendation, and being named “Outstanding News-Editorial Graduate” by his journalism professors, no one seemed to care about Joel Frey after he completed his undergraduate studies.

With no employer seeking his “semi-professional” services, he left school behind and crashed with his mom and dad. He worked a couple of jobs that did not require a degree. He drank too much and escaped to the comfort of old friends whenever the opportunity arose. Most of all, he wondered what it was going to take to shake off the desire to be nothing more than a carefree college kid.

Two Sides of a Cypress Wall is a bittersweet story of coping with the discovery that life in your early twenties is more than just finding a real job.

Day off

Late yesterday afternoon, I jotted down a to-do list of 13 items to tackle during today's respite from the Day Job. Several of those items are book related including " B&N," "bookstore calls," and, obviously, "write a blog." As for the rest of the list, it looks as if several of those tasks will live beyond the weekend.

I did succeed in shipping two copies of Cypress Walls to Barnes and Noble's distribution center in New Jersey this morning and also sent their accounting department in New York an invoice. They have 30 days to pay or else. Hopefully, "this item is currently out of stock" will soon be updated to "Buy now! Just two copies left" on their Web site. No one has taken the plunge to write a review, but then again, I haven't asked anyone to do so either. It's summer and I know those of you who have read the book have more pressing matters to attend to. Kidding aside, having Cypress Walls on sale with a reputable seller of books is wise and a step I should have taken a long time ago.

"Bookstore calls" is my cue to dial up two local bookstores, The Book Rack and The Bookery, to see if I can interest them in putting Cypress Walls on their shelves. While some of you might assume that I'm deliberately putting off a couple of cold calls, I'm actually thinking ahead to my next update. Clever, eh? My fear of talking up strangers and trying to get them excited about a subject they have absolutely no familiarity with subsided during my three years as an account executive at Vollmer PR. If you've ever pitched a snarky reporter on behalf of a client, you know what I'm talking about.

I have sold four more copies in recent days. Thanks to Anne King and super fan Julie Weber for the cash flow.

TJ update: our friend who recently graduated from the University of Memphis had an interview with the local CBS affiliate a couple of weeks ago. I haven't heard on whether or not he landed the job, but I'll keep you posted.

Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks, too, for stopping by.

Posted by Joel Frey at 04:24 PM | Permalink

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Comments

Glad to see the wheels continue to be in motion! Any updates on the book store cold calls? You should definitely consider posting a transcript or some audio so we can get a feel for what that pitch is like!

Posted by: Sie | August 02, 2008 at 03:46 PM

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