Guest Poster: Rachel Thompson Author Of A Walk In The Snark

Sometimes I think I'm too jaded. Then I think no, it's just the lighting ~

Rachel Thompson, A Walk In The Snark

If you’re at all familiar with @RachelintheOC via my Twitter feed, my blog, or my new book A Walk In The Snark, you probably know me as that redheaded Queen of Snark in a sea of blondes (OC does stand for Orange County, CA, home of the Tragic – I mean Magic – Kingdom), after all. Essays like Stupid Pants Syndrome, Men are from Seinfeld, Women are From Friends (Mancode), and I’m Fine. Deconstructed. (Chickspeak) certainly cement that fact.

But how did I get here? For millions of bloggers, those were the key questions I asked myself: how can I take my stories and put them into a book? Should I even bother? Will it translate?

Will anyone buy it?

I could have crawled up into a ball of indecision in my dirty martini (extra olives, of course) right then and there, but I knew a thing or two about social media and marketing (as well as writing, of course), so I pushed forward with my vision for my book. I knew I had written something people could relate to. How?

To keep my sanity as a WAHM (Write At Home Mom), I wrote my first Mancode essay on my RachelintheOC.com blog about one year ago (April, 2010), titled it “Men are from Seinfeld, Women are from Friends,” and the response was overwhelming, immediate. Clearly, it wasn’t just my guy who went to the grocery store flummoxed by my note: BUY BREAD and would return instead with soup made in China I then had to check for lead content. Honestly.

Twenty-ish Mancode posts later, I had hit my brand, my goldmine. How? That essay alone has been mentioned or retweeted hundreds of times—and not just by frustrated women! Dudes with a sense of humor, too. Thrilled and grateful at the response, I knew I was onto something.

I expanded into Chickspeak, rounded it out with parenting, some real-life poignant stories of lost love, and felt I had enough to give readers a glimpse of me. Off it went to a professional editor and graphic artist…and I had my book!

Why do men want to change the world but not the toilet paper?

There are some poignant pieces mixed in where you see that being a redhead in a sea of blondes (I do live in the OC after all) is not all beaches and martinis. But hey, that’s real life, baby.

Clearly, I’m not talking rocket science here. I’m a humorist. My goal is to make you laugh, think, (okay, maybe cry occasionally) and give you a respite from your daily life of having to do laundry or yes, change the toilet paper roll!

I’m hard at work on my next book, The Mancode: A Survivor’s Tale. My husband is a good sport and to be honest, this Mancode stuff has been great shorthand for our going-on-nineteen-years marriage. Read the essay about Refrigeratoritis—you’ll know exactly what I mean.

How about Bestseller For A day? I’m so excited to be a part of this premier program sponsored by the Indie Book Collective! Designed to propel an indie author to the top of the Kindle Top 100 charts, I need your help purchasing my eBook anytime between now and midnight Wednesday for just 99 cents—NO KINDLE REQUIRED! Improving an indie author’s Amazon ranking goes far in showing traditional publishing that indie is here to stay. Help out the little fish. J

Thank you to Andrea and A Chick Who Reads  {not sure which link?} for supporting me and my book A Walk In The Snark, and the Indie Book Collective on our upcoming Bestseller For A Day promotion this Wednesday, April 6^th where my book will be just 99 cents! Help me launch up the Amazon charts this one day only! Tell your friends, your mom, even your dog! Remember, you don’t need a Kindle to read my (or ANY) eBook. Just a computer or a smartphone.

As our Bonus Buy (2 for the price of 1), you can also purchase a fabulous collection of short stories and poems by fab fellow author Kimberly Kinrade. Her book Bits of You & Pieces of Me is also just 99 cents BUT if you return to the site and fill out our fairly painless form, Kimberly will rebate the purchase price. #Woot! Also, you get five entries into my contest to win up to FIVE $10 Amazon Gift Cards!!

Please email me if you have any questions or comments at RachelintheOC@gmail.com or come visit my blog anytime RachelintheOC.com or Twitter or Facebook or GoodReads. I’m everywhere (except, ya know, the kitchen). I also teach writers epublishing, social media and other cool stuff over at the Indie Book Collective so find me there as well.