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New ebook about the life of a chalet host

11K views 95 replies 19 participants last post by  ComeBack_Kid 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi guys

I hope this is ok to post here but I have just finished writing my first e-book, Chalet Boy - The Diary of my First Ski Season (Aged 31), and it's now available on Amazon for those with Kindles (or those with smart phones/tablets that can read e-books).

Here is the blurb:

How hard can it be? Serving a few croissants, cleaning a few bedrooms, cooking some easy meals, and then spending the rest of your time snowboarding and getting drunk. Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? Well Andy Smith thought the same thing as he signed himself up for a four month stint as a chalet host in the French Alps during a career break, and a break from the 'normal life' he found so boring.

Chalet Boy - The Diary of my First Ski Season (Aged 31) gives a truthful and hilarious insight in to the world of the ski resort seasonsaire, a person whom most people view with envy. Working a ski season is seen as an easy job with generous perks from the endless supply of randy holidaymakers, to the constant parties and access to some amazing skiing and snowboarding. Most of that is indeed factually correct, but there's also the flip side - the long hours, the almost embarrassingly low pay and the sordid living conditions.

You will be amazed at the antics of the guests that visited Chalet Montagne during Andy and his friend Dan's time there. From randy middle-aged couples to rampaging lesbians, it's all covered here alongside the the story of a man using his time in the Alps to gain a greater understanding of the meaning of his life, amid a need to escape from the norm.

A must read for anyone considering working a ski season and those who have been on or are planning a ski holiday in a catered chalet, Chalet Boy - The Diary of my First Ski Season (Aged 31) will give you all of the information you need about the inner workings of a ski chalet. And some you really don't.

So if you've just started a season, are contemplating doing one, or a guest wanting to get the behind the scenes gossip of a catered chalet - why not have a read?

It's available here:


Thanks for looking at this and feel free to review it, share it, encourage others to buy it!
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Very cool added to my Amazon Wish list and shared it on facespace, I have a full book queue right now but will buy, read and leave a review over the next few weeks.

Hopefully some of the people on my facebook feed pick it up

It's a 2.99$ ebook I'm not expecting Shakespeare or Hemingway , but yea if your going to post\advertise on the forum at least add a pic and put some cash in for lifetime membershp
 
#4 ·
2.99 to hear about a guys life for 4 months in the alps. Fuck off dude when you can survive doing it for more than a season I'll be impressed. 1 post and this is what you offer and more than likely it's self published without a editor.

Guess I should sit down and write my memoirs from the last decade, talking about the decadence, hookers, blow, rampaging love fisting anal invading lesbians, amidst my need to come to terms with the fact I have no spleen!
 
#5 ·
Guess I should sit down and write my memoirs from the last decade, talking about the decadence, hookers, blow, rampaging love fisting anal invading lesbians, amidst my need to come to terms with the fact I have no spleen!
Being serious here, why the hell don't you, clearly you have some good stories to tell?

I'm betting you make some nice cash off of it, if you don't want conflicts write it under some bullshit name.
 
#7 ·
Wow! It's friendly round here! :blink:

Apologies if I offended anyone by posting it here but, as a long term boarder who gets a kick out of the chilled, supportive nature of those who enjoy the sport, I was just hoping to use forums like this to put the word out about something I'm very proud to have written.

If you're not interested in reading or purchasing the book then that is obviously no worries but I've had some really good feedback on it. I'm not a professional writer and just did this as a bit of fun whilst I was in the Alps and to keep a memory of my time there. A few people read it and said I should make it available so that's what I did.

Happy holidays everyone!
 
#9 ·
Wow! It's friendly round here! :blink:

Apologies if I offended anyone by posting it here but, as a long term boarder who gets a kick out of the chilled, supportive nature of those who enjoy the sport, I was just hoping to use forums like this to put the word out about something I'm very proud to have written.

If you're not interested in reading or purchasing the book then that is obviously no worries but I've had some really good feedback on it. I'm not a professional writer and just did this as a bit of fun whilst I was in the Alps and to keep a memory of my time there. A few people read it and said I should make it available so that's what I did.

Happy holidays everyone!
Let me guess, this "really good feedback" came from friends and family? Yeah, I thought so.

Again, I skimmed through the first few pages of the book and your writing is awful, like 99% of the other doofuses who try to self-publish on Kindle.

Also, taking advantage of the "chilled supportive nature" of snowboarders by joining a forum just to SPAM your sh*tty book is pretty rude.
 
#13 ·
Not at all - the feedback has been from people on other forums who have purchased and read it, I can post links but I don't want to spam lol.

How is posting about my book any ruder than calling it SH*TTY???

In terms of the writing style - I'm not claiming to be a professional writer and it's meant to have a conversational feel, which is something people have said comes across. As you rightly mention, it's self-published so I didn't have the luxury of a ghost writer or a publishing house to pay for several runs of proofreading.

I'm sorry that reading and replying to my post took up precious moments of your time but lets be honest, surely there are worse things in the world to get so irate over?!
Let me point something out here for you about proper Forum etiquette. If you're an already existing member we would welcome you with open arms. You are not! Instead you thought to yourself, hey I'm fucking awesome I turned 30 moved to the mountains for 4 months and got to live the typical douche bag snow carnie lifestyle.

In the process of 4 months of inebriation I somehow managed to document my random misadventures which are nothing special. Now after 4 months of sucking at life and being poor due to making piss poor life decisions I thought I could write a book and sell it to recoup some of my losses.

As a thirty something successful snowboard bum and writer. Your style is horrible, I read the introductory paragraph and subsequent other pages. It's pure trash. Oh look at me I was going into my 30's and had wasted my youth, I needed a change, blah blah blah I'm going to run away and find myself. News flash if you haven't found yourself in the first 25 years of your life you won't find it later on you're a lost cause and should suck on the end of a shotgun. Although in the UK that's probably a bit harder than here in the states so maybe fall off the roof of your flat onto a pile of broken glass.

Whoever said it was worth reading should join you in jumping off their roof. Stupidity encouraging stupidity should be forced to deal with Darwinism.

Oh and yes I'm a dick and it's not nice to say how crappy your book is. But I don't care if you cry out your ass cause it hurts.
 
#17 ·
Firstly I have to commend you on that post - you actually should think about putting something together and self-publishing, it was very amusing and well-constructed! Genuinely.

So the main point of your anger is directed to the fact that I only joined the forum recently and to post about my book. So does that mean if I was a 'veteran member' like you (i.e. spending more time online being an arse and slating people rather than getting out there and leading a fulfilling, worthwhile life) - your opinion of my writing would be more positive?

I certainly don't think I'm awesome for doing a season, it was just the right thing to do at the time and the book serves to provide an insight in to the workings of the chalet host role to those who might be considering doing it or those who have been on catered chalet holidays. There are no other books like this available so I figured when not have a punt at being the first. If you're not keen having read the preview, no worries. Move on.

Let's be clear though, I don't believe I have wasted my youth or that I have made 'piss poor' life decisions and am seeking to recoup any losses. I am currently sitting in my office just outside Melbourne, Australia looking out at a beautiful summer's day having spent my Christmas mainly on the beach so I'm pretty happy with my life decisions. I didn't need to write the book for any reason, I just wanted to as I've always fancied leaving a bit of a legacy behind (other than just the memory of me being a dick to those I was a dick to). I'm guessing you are someone who, given all of the vitriol you're spouting, is also struggling with finding himself in this world but at least you have carved out a niche as a miserable sod who derives joy from trying to bring down others. Be sure to put that on the resume!

I'm more than fine with people not wanting to buy or read the book, and I'm more than fine with constructive criticism but, if you don't mind, I might just discount yours as the ramblings of a socially inept and troubled man!

Hope you have an awesome season though, sunshine, keep spreading that joy!
Ah yes the argument that because I have a high post count I don't do anything else. It's the exact point I would expect from someone who is insulted by the fact they've been mocked for coming on a site and offering nothing to the people other than their shitty ware, which just so happens to be a horribly written book about quitting ones complacent life to travel down the road less traveled in hopes of finding themselves. I love that your assumption of me lies solely in me mocking you for writing like crap and promoting a shitty book.

Now I'll point out that I've published numerous articles in magazines, written my fair share of product catalogs, and still managed to live year round in the mountains riding more days in a month than you probably clocked in the 4 you were a Chalet Boy. Also as your book is a bore I should probably point people to Chalet Girl which at least has some eye candy to look at and will undoubtedly be far more compelling than the quest for a 30 year old to find ones self.

On the topic of ones legacy. I'm positive if you died today no one would notice outside your immediate family and circle of friends. I on the other hand would be a different story.

Now the real topic at hand regardless of how you decide to sway it off topic is that after 4 posts we've learned you can't write, get offended that people are not open to someone who poses to give nothing to a community, and has failed at finding themselves. Unless of course pissing your life away for a third of it in a drunken state is what you had in mind.

Without even bothering to read your book I can assume it has all the stereotypical cliches every snow carnie encounters on their one season of mountains, babes, booze, and adventure. There's love, lust, drunken antics, and some anal fisting by legions of lesbians. Also there's probably some weak message about finding yourself and happiness with the balance of life.

I await your half-assed retort which will just further assert to me that this is your lame grab at trying to get 3 dollars from the Kindle users out there who more than likely will find disappointment in your eBook.
 
#19 ·
Ah yes the argument that because I have a high post count I don't do anything else. It's the exact point I would expect from someone who is insulted by the fact they've been mocked for coming on a site and offering nothing to the people other than their shitty ware, which just so happens to be a horribly written book about quitting ones complacent life to travel down the road less traveled in hopes of finding themselves. I love that your assumption of me lies solely in me mocking you for writing like crap and promoting a shitty book.

Now I'll point out that I've published numerous articles in magazines, written my fair share of product catalogs, and still managed to live year round in the mountains riding more days in a month than you probably clocked in the 4 you were a Chalet Boy. Also as your book is a bore I should probably point people to Chalet Girl which at least has some eye candy to look at and will undoubtedly be far more compelling than the quest for a 30 year old to find ones self.

On the topic of ones legacy. I'm positive if you died today no one would notice outside your immediate family and circle of friends. I on the other hand would be a different story.

Now the real topic at hand regardless of how you decide to sway it off topic is that after 4 posts we've learned you can't write, get offended that people are not open to someone who poses to give nothing to a community, and has failed at finding themselves. Unless of course pissing your life away for a third of it in a drunken state is what you had in mind.

Without even bothering to read your book I can assume it has all the stereotypical cliches every snow carnie encounters on their one season of mountains, babes, booze, and adventure. There's love, lust, drunken antics, and some anal fisting by legions of lesbians. Also there's probably some weak message about finding yourself and happiness with the balance of life.

I await your half-assed retort which will just further assert to me that this is your lame grab at trying to get 3 dollars from the Kindle users out there who more than likely will find disappointment in your eBook.
Lol - no half-assed retort given that you're slamming me for having written a boring and awful book but one that you haven't even read. Surely as an author yourself you realise how much that discredits your argument.

Get back in your box...
 
#12 · (Edited)
Really?!?!?

For starters I've never even been to Europe to ride dipshit, the fact is I read about 10-20 books a month many of them are Amazon writers or self published I like to support the writing community especially if their snowboarders, climbers or paddlers.

Geesh sorry for f'ing trying to support someone(a fellow rider) trying to become something more than what they are...fuck off.

Of course in the era of jersey shore and Honey boo boo most people to too fucking stupid or lazy to read these days so I should expect nothing less
 
#11 ·
Not at all - the feedback has been from people on other forums who have purchased and read it, I can post links but I don't want to spam lol.

How is posting about my book any ruder than calling it SH*TTY???

In terms of the writing style - I'm not claiming to be a professional writer and it's meant to have a conversational feel, which is something people have said comes across. As you rightly mention, it's self-published so I didn't have the luxury of a ghost writer or a publishing house to pay for several runs of proofreading.

I'm sorry that reading and replying to my post took up precious moments of your time but lets be honest, surely there are worse things in the world to get so irate over?!
 
#22 ·
I'm not upset in the least - I've loved talking more about my book and the sales have been going up the entire time you've spent trying to slam it. Any publicity is good publicity in my eyes so thanks.

Like I say, if you'd read it and could speak with any sort of credibility then fair enough I'd be upset with your damning appraisal but, given the hypocritical slamming of me for my small number of postings when you've only read one or two preview pages, it doesn't really hold an awful lot of weight.
 
#26 ·
Well this escalated quickly.

To original poster: Posting links to your own products on your first post on any forum is going to get you some hate.

Even if your story was good (I have no idea - personally I'd go rather read Tucker Max if I wanted amusing stories of guys being guys), it's a crappy way to market that's going to annoy people.

You talk about sales going up, but spamming forums with your first post is incredibly short sighted. If you really wanted to market your book the right way I'd suggest you contribute to forums before advertising your book.

I'd also suggest you not get into fights with people who flame you for advertising your book with your first post.

Firstly, you came here spamming your product with your first post instead of contributing, so some anger is justified.

Secondly, I wouldn't pick fights with writers of big snowboard blogs, especially when you came HERE spamming your ebook first.

What happens if he writes a blog flaming you using your real name and every time a future employer googles your name his post comes up on page 1.

Do you think employers are going to sift through the flaming to find out what's real or just move on to the next candidate because they don't want to be involved in drama?

I repeat. You. Came. Here. Don't expect love when spamming forums is your tactic for getting people to buy your book.
 
#27 ·
Thanks for the advice dude, I am not in any way worried about future employers seeing what this idiot has to say!

I'm just a dude who wrote a book about something we all enjoy, boarding holidays, and thought I'd try and get it in front of the right people who might be interested in it. If people want to visit the link after reading my post then so be it and if they don't then no worries. There's no need for such an extreme reaction to some words on a screen when there are clearly bigger problems in the world.

If the mods want to take it down as spamming then fair do's but as yet they haven't so clearly its not that bad.

I never picked a fight with anyone, I merely responded to the salient points in each post - choosing to ignore the extremely unnecessary comments about killing myself. Are you suggesting that that sort of language is fair and justified?
 
#39 ·
If the mods want to take it down as spamming then fair do's but as yet they haven't so clearly its not that bad.
For the record, the reaction of the membership is a far better (and more entertaining) disincentive than some mod deleting a thread. We get too much of this first-post-buy-my-whatzit, and most perps are shocked at the reaction as if they're the first person who thought to do this.

Your ebook is at least nominally related to snowboarding so the reaction has been relatively civilized. Believe it or not.
 
#28 ·
You work in marketing and you're surprised by the extreme reaction when you try to sell people using your first forum post?

I don't know what marketing you do, but doing the same as 500 other people who come into popular snowboard forums asking people to buy their product with their first post is not how to do smart marketing.
 
#29 ·
I can maybe understand the odd bit of displeasure but telling me to kill myself is a little bit much surely?!?!

I do the sort of marketing which has budgets to reach a large audience, something which I don't have for the book so was just trying to use the various mediums I had at my disposal!
 
#38 ·
I literally don't even know what that means. And proud of it.

As I've said, read the book, don't read the book - I'm really not fussed. What worries me more is the level of ferocity and anger you lot feel towards something so very little! At the end of the day I'm a grown man who can very easily brush this sort of thing off from people very happy to hide behind computer screens laughing at their own insults and giving themselves a hearty pat on the back for every new one they come up with as their ego is boosted by their soaring post rate.

I received a PM from a 12 year old kid yesterday who had been on the receiving end of a similar pack-like written assault merely for starting a new thread about a new pair of goggles he had gotten and wanted to share how stoked he was with like-minded people! He got well and truly slated for it and I'm guessing that none of the idiots that took part even once thought about how old he might be or how those comments might affect someone of that age. Isn't the point of forums exactly that, for folk like him to come on and chat about his passion with those who share it rather than having to fend off people like you guys who for some reason take such extreme offence to a post about a pair of goggles?

The thing that got me the most about the PM, though, was that the kid was asking me to stick around and contribute to the board in the future. He, a 12 year old boy who you had all rounded on, was mature enough to see past all that and still maintained that people, for the most part on here, are nice. I'm sure I'll get some filth-laden response which, once again, showcases the socio-economic level of some of the folk we are dealing with on here but hopefully it might encourage some of you to relax a little bit... If the mods or admin are reading this - maybe its time to have a word before the site ends up on the news as another story of some poor little kid getting driven to doing something drastic over comments made by some self-righteous, small-dicked prick like BA!
 
#54 ·
Wtf? Now you're insulting the socio-economic level of the people on this forum?

That's a load of crap.

I don't know what marketing school you went to, but you're out of touch if you seriously think this is how you market an ebook online.

1) You post on a forum using your first post to sell when any first year marketer knows it's about all relationship building before the sale.

2) You get offended and start using a me vs. you stance when people call you out for spamming (which you were since it was your first post).

3) You get into a flame war with someone who runs one of the biggest independent snowboard blogs online that currently gets 1-2 million visits per year.

Not to mention you somehow think calling him a loser who sits in front of a computer all day is a good insult? Wtf, he runs a snowboard blog, that doesn't even make sense.

4) You start insulting the forum for not having the right socio-economic level.

Not that someone's income matters, but who do you think is going to be searching for ebooks about ski bums getting up to stupid shenanigans? People with 5 million dollar houses?

You just alienated the biggest portion of your audience.

Quit now before you make it worse.
 
#57 ·
Man someone is a butt hurt little troll.

Lets see what we have here for insults. I'm poor, live in a basement, have never left this country, have not traveled, masturbate profusely, live on the Internet, have a small penis, am a bully, love Internet porn, am I missing any more here?

It's now that I'll point out the people that use these comebacks generally are some amalgamation of all of the above and upset that someone has ousted their Internet prowess with ease.

So why don't you tell us how upset you are that no one gives a flying fuck about your poorly written book? Just an FYI everything you had happen to you in that book at the ripe ole age of 30 I did when I was 18. Didn't take me nearly a third of my life to find myself.

Also if junior decides to off himself from being mocked then Darwinism is working perfectly well and the fittest are surviving. I'm all for that. But to quote the great Walter, "12 year olds dude, 12 year olds!".
 
#67 ·
When you meet, be sure to check for police and camera crews in the area first.
Have a seat... Im Chris Hansen....

This thread is hilarious.

I reckon most those posting this crap won't have passports...
... says the guy who is still drifting around at 31.

I love how Europeans think they are hot shit because they travel "abroad"

If The US wasnt so big, diverse and and F'n awesome, my passport would be as worn as you wannabe high coulture jamokes. Congratulations you drove 100 miles and got a new stamp in your diary.

As for the twelve year old kid. Tough shit. The internet is a wild place. If you dont want a handy from a tranny, then dont go to a truckstop strip club.
I saw some things on the internet I cant unsee when I was twelve. The kid will be fine.
 
#69 ·
Have a seat... Im Chris Hansen....

This thread is hilarious.



... says the guy who is still drifting around at 31.

I love how Europeans think they are hot shit because they travel "abroad"

If The US wasnt so big, diverse and and F'n awesome, my passport would be as worn as you wannabe high coulture jamokes. Congratulations you drove 100 miles and got a new stamp in your diary.

As for the twelve year old kid. Tough shit. The internet is a wild place. If you dont want a handy from a tranny, then dont go to a truckstop strip club.
I saw some things on the internet I cant unsee when I was twelve. The kid will be fine.
Dude I ain't drifting - I'm currently sat in my office in Melbourne where I live now. Pretty long drift from London! I don't think I'm 'hot shit' for doing it - I just get a kick out of seeing new places and experiencing new things. I totally agree with you on the US being awesome - I'm out there for 3 months next year and I would love to meet up with every single one of you.

Also, did you mean high couture or high culture because you seem to have invented a word there, genius.
 
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