About

Not the Brochure is a humorous nonfiction-style book by Steven Erkman about life working in American campgrounds as a camp host and “workamper.”

The core idea is the contrast between expectation and reality. Campground brochures show peaceful forests, friendly visitors, and relaxing outdoor vacations—but the author shows what it’s actually like behind the scenes.

The book is made up of real-life stories from his time working in campgrounds, including:

Dealing with eccentric or difficult campers
Day-to-day chaos of campground operations
Unexpected and sometimes absurd situations that come with RV and campground life
The humor and unpredictability of people when they’re on vacation

Overall, it’s written in a light, storytelling style, almost like sitting around a campfire hearing “you won’t believe what happened at work today” kinds of stories. It’s less about instruction and more about entertaining, real experiences from life on the road and in campgrounds.

In short: it’s a behind-the-scenes, funny look at campground life—and how it often doesn’t match the peaceful image you see in the brochures

Why it exists

Most people only see the campground brochure version of RV life.

The smiling couples sitting outside perfectly clean campers.
The peaceful campfires.
The sunsets.
The happy retirees casually roasting marshmallows while nobody appears to be arguing about sewer hoses.

And honestly, sometimes campground life really is that beautiful.

But behind every peaceful campground photo is a completely different world that most guests never see.

There are workampers trying to fix broken water lines at sunrise.
Managers solving problems that make absolutely no sense.
Golf carts mysteriously disappearing.
Campers who somehow lock themselves out of their RV while standing inside it.
Ducks taking over swimming pools like tiny feathered gangsters.
And maintenance workers quietly questioning every decision that brought them to this exact moment in life.

After years of working and traveling as camp hosts and workampers, I realized something:

The real stories were far funnier, stranger, and more human than the polished version shown in the brochures.

This book exists because those stories deserve to be told.

Not to complain about campground life — because despite the chaos, I genuinely love it — but because the unpredictable moments, ridiculous situations, strange encounters, and unexpected friendships are what actually make this lifestyle memorable.

The brochure gives you the postcard version.

This book gives you the version involving overflowing dumpsters, confused tourists, malfunctioning golf carts, rogue ducks, impossible maintenance requests, and people trying their very best in wonderfully absurd situations.

In other words:

This is the campground life that workampers know actually exists.

And somewhere out there, every camp host reading this is probably nodding nervously and saying:

“Yep. That happened to me too.”

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Author

Meet Steven Erkman

Steven J. Erkman is a workamper and camp host who lives where other people vacation, which sounds relaxing until you realize it involves raccoons, sewage systems, and explaining basic logic to grown adults on a daily basis.

Over the years, he has dealt with exploding plumbing, missing golf carts, wildlife with attitude problems, and guests who are absolutely certain the rules don’t apply to them. Somehow, he survived long enough to turn it all into a book.

When he’s not putting out campground fires (sometimes literally), he’s writing about them—because therapy is expensive and this seemed more productive.

Personal perspective

Clear storytelling

Thoughtful design

Reader-first experience

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Approach

Written by & for Workampers

The brochure shows campground life as peaceful and predictable.
This book shows the strange, funny, chaotic reality behind the scenes — as experienced by the people actually living it.

What also makes the book appealing to curious readers is that: