Hard Sell was originally published as a series of short stories in various pulps and magazines (see below). Eventually the stories were collected and expanded to form the novel.

Summary from Tafford Publishing Hardbound Edition:

"Meet Fisk Centers, a typical 21st century man.

"Comfortable in his early retirement, Centers gets a call about a Martian real estate opportunity that turns his life upside down. His initial skepticism is overcome by the smooth talking sales representative from Mars Ltd., and by the potential for huge profits in a gigantic domed Martian retirement city.

"When all doesn't go quite as planned with his big land deal, Centers finds himself entangled in one preposterous predicament after another. His unwitting involvement in child procurement for a Venusian mugwump farmer and near death behind the wheel of a fusion car in a suicide auto race are bad enough. But when he's almost embalmed alove by an over eager robot mortician he knows that he has got to get his life—not to mention his credit balance—in order fast.

"A wild, sometimes violent, always hilarious romp through a familiar yet strangely twisted future earth."

Inside Back Cover Author Information: "Piers Anthony is the pseudonym of an otherwise nonentitious man in his fifties with a patient wife and two bright daughters. He tries to avoid traveling, and attends few public functions. The problem is this: he likes to write, so seldom stops doing it. This is his 78th published book; 72 of the others remain in print in one form or another, which may be the science fiction/fantasy genre record. If it's not, he'll stay home until he makes it. Undue modesty is not one of his faults."

Piers Anthony as he appeared in on the cover of Hard Sell