BOOK BOMB! Residue by Steve Diamond

Residue
Residue (Jack Bishop Book 1)
Kindle Edition
by Steve Diamond
Today we are Book Bombing Steve Diamond’s debut novel Residue. I was one of the alpha readers, and this is a great read.
For those of you new to the Book Bombs, how it works is that we get as many people as possible to buy the book on the same day from Amazon. This will cause it to go up in the sales rankings. The higher it ends up, the more new people will see it and check it out. A good book Bomb will introduce an author to hundreds or even thousands of new readers. The more exposure the better. Success breeds success, a deserving author gets new fans, and most importantly the author GETS PAID.
So please tell your friends, share the link, spread the word, bother random strangers on public transportation, etc.
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On these Book Bombs I always try to pick an author who I think deserves a career boost. Steve has been published for a while, but only in short fiction (which is also very good). This is his first novel, but I really enjoyed it. (note, I’m one of the cover blurbs). Many of my regular readers might recognize Steve’s name from the Writer Nerd Game Night serials where he wrote Ikoma Uso who was like a magical samurai Dexter, and he was also the coauthor on the Tombs and Santos stories like Son of Fire, Son of Thunder.
Basically, the dude has mad writing skills.
I’ve known Steve for years. When we first met I was a breakout author and he was a book reviewer doing an interview. We ended up in the same game group. Then we found out we were both accountants (accounting and fantasy writers have a surprising amount of career overlap). A couple years later I wound up hiring him as my assistant finance manager (we were Utah’s Small Business of the Year!) and eventually Steve was the guy who replaced me when I retired to become a full time author. He still has my old job.
Now you know why he got redshirted in Grimnoir, and a casino named Diamond Steve’s was blown up in MHL.
So, now the question is, how many finance managers from the same company can we turn into bestselling authors? Can we continue the cycle? Can we sell enough copies of Residue that Steve will be forced to hire another aspiring author/accountant to be his assistant?
It is the circle of life, my friends.
(actually, interesting side note, I don’t think it is that company that is magic, so much as that company’s Human Resources director is like a good luck charm… Because before he was my HR director, at a different company he was Brandon Mull’s HR director, and now he is Steve’s. So obviously the secret to becoming a bestselling author is having Mike Weimer as your HR Director)
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So please tell your friends. BOOK BOMB!
Throughout the day the stats will update. Amazon updates hourly, but they’ve added this weird delay thing, so we probably won’t see much movement of the numbers until later this afternoon. Man, I miss the immediate ratings jumps all day during the old BBs. It was like the wild wild west. šŸ™‚
Right now we are at:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,182 Paid in Kindle Store
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,756 in Books
EDIT: Called it, there is a big old long delay now. This morning’s sales are finally starting to register. We should see them keep ticking up until the middle of the night. Way to go guys!
Ā EDIT 2: Damn… Looking good.
Ā EDIT: Ā The next morning’s rankings. I went to bed and missed getting a shot of the highest number. I heard it got into the high 300s on Kindle overall. That’s another downside of this new 7 hour delay. I’m not staying up that late to see. šŸ™‚

 

More reading stuff, eARC give aways
Updates for the Week

88 thoughts on “BOOK BOMB! Residue by Steve Diamond”

  1. Then we found out we were both accountants (accounting and fantasy writers have a surprising amount of career overlap).

    My first thoughts were: See Enron and Worldcom. šŸ˜€

    1. This is actually my first comment to auditors that walk in the building, “Hi, my name is Steve Diamond. I’m the Finance Manager here, and I love creating fiction!”

      That’s what auditors want to hear right? Have I been doing this wrong?

      1. Were you wearing your wizard’s robe and hat? Auditors like a little levity. It lightens the mood when they have to call the FBI.

      2.         You’ve been doing it wrong.  You’re supposed to say that to the stock analysts.

    2. Perhaps accountants are driven to fantasy writing. From Monty Python:

      Anchovy: But don’t you see, I came here to find a new job, a new life, a new meaning to my existence. Can’t you help me?

      Counsellor: Well, do you have any idea of what you want to do?

      Anchovy: Yes, yes I have.

      Counsellor: What?

      Anchovy: (boldly) Lion taming.

      Counsellor: Well yes. Yes. Of course, it’s a bit of a jump isn’t it? I mean, er, chartered accountancy to lion taming in one go. You don’t think it might be better if you worked your way towards lion taming, say, via banking?

    3. Once upon a time I pointed out to John Ringo that technical & marcomm writers should be allowed into SFWA. After all, we’re professional writers, and we write either science fiction (tech pubs) or fantasy (marcomm).

    4. Yeah,, I read that and had to wipe my laptop screen.

      I’m very glad my diet coke was safely swallowed.

  2. Larry, does it matter *which* Amazon store gets used to purchase? Reason I ask is because if I want the Kindle version, I have to use the .au store.. and there is no paper copy .au store, so I’d have to use either the .com or .co.uk stores.

    1. I don’t think their rankings feed into each other’s lists, but buy it however is most convenient to you. The important thing is getting the author new fans. The sales rank bump is secondary.

  3. Steve, I know an accountant who has a certificate stating that the accountant has “Successfully Completed Insider Trading.” The company forgot to menton that it was the anti-insider trading training module. Oops.

    1. Seattle officially named the trolly for the area south of Lake Union the “South Lake Union Transit”.

  4. On a personal note, Steve Diamond is an old school gentleman. My family and I attended a writing convention where Steve was a panelist. My daughter was writing a novel at the time, and rather hesitantly asked Steve if he could take a look at the first few pages. Steve spent a good amount of time, probably 1/2 the next panels duration, out in the hall talking with my daughter about her writing. He was encouraging, helpful, and extremely generous with his time and expertise. My daughter had a fantastic experience that day and she continues to write now, in no small part because of all the help and encouragement from people like Steve, Larry, Dave Butler, and many other who are so free with advice and help.

  5. Larry, I realized this morning that MHI passes the Bechel test (that may not be how to spell it, but I don’t care about the test anyway. I just want to write and read good stories).

    MHI has multiple named women characters. Julie, Susan, Holly, and the Elf Queen.

    MHI has scenes where these women talk to each other. Julie and Susan have words several times.

    At least one of MHI’s scenes above are not about the man (Owen). Julie is trying to kill Susan, Susan is trying to kill everyone else, and between firing and clawing they are talking about Julie’s dad and Susan’s new unlife as a master vampire.

    So there, feminists should love the book.

    1. There was a recent Japanese anime show Shirobako about 5 high school girls pledging to break into Anime business. A couple of years later when the show starts, all but 2 are in the business in some fashion. And when they went to a bar after seeing an anime movie, all they talk about is how many cuts (keyframes) and not a single comment on anything other than work.

  6. Oooh, I’m always in the market for a good paranormal horror book! (And they are rare. So I’m looking forward to this!)

    Also: Dammit, you talked me into breaking my oath to NOT BUY ANY MORE KINDLE BOOKS until I’d read most of the (many, many) I’d already bought…

  7. @correia45
    You might want to mention that if you buy the print version, you can purchase the Kindle edition for FREE.

      1. Yes, on a lot of books. I buy more physical than ebooks and my wife reminds me to check every time as she is almost exclusively Kindle now, save for specialist material. It lets you know at time of purchase.

        1. Link for info: Kindle MatchBook. Only for “qualifying titles”, meaning the publisher/rights holder has to give Amazon permission, and sometimes it’s a discount instead of free, but for this specific book, the eBook is free w/ the purchase of the paperback.

  8. Boom! Purchased on the UK Kindle store. (I hope that helps)

    I’ll read this as soon as I finish “A Long Time Until Now”.

  9. People must have started early today or Amazon’s algorithms are even scarier than I’d thought. The book popped up on a list of things I should get when I visited Amazon early this morning. Then I remembered the book bomb and bought it. Good luck.

  10. Is this the same Steven as Steven the Bookstore Guy at Elitist Book Reviews?

    Oh, and bought the book on Kindle.

      1. EBR is one of my go-to places when I can’t decide what I want to read next.

        Love what you and the crew have been doing there.

  11. What the heck? Numbers are dropping – currently:

    Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #460,604 in Books
    Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,071 Paid in Kindle Store

    I’ve participated in a lot of Larry’s book bombs, and I’ve never seen the ranks go down. By now they should be way better. Weird

      1. Yeah, I mentioned that in the post. Amazon used to update for sales within an hour or two. About a year ago we noticed they added like a few hour delay. Then a few months ago we couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on, and we didn’t see any uptick in the numbers from the morning sales until late in the afternoon.

        The last few BBs, we saw the big jump show up later in the afternoon, so like a 6 or 8 hour delay, and then it climbed all night as the day’s sales appeared, with the highest number appearing somewhere in the middle of the night.

        Disadvantage is we don’t have the wild and crazy roller coaster all day. (I used to update the posts every hour) Advantage is that the book starts the next day up on one the bestseller lists, so the author doesn’t sell as many in one day, but gets a longer tail. Either way, it still works out to the author to be worth like ten good book signings.

  12. Done. Got the Kindle version. Looking forward to reading it after finishing rereading The Man in the High Castle.

  13. Rats! I bought the Kindle version before I read about the free Kindle version if you buy paper. I should know better than to buy before reading the comments. Even so, I am looking forward to the book and appreciate the suggestion, Larry.

    Good luck, Steve! Doing my part to get you unemployed.

    Cheers-

    1. Kindle Matchbook is a great idea (also a *brilliant* name), I’d been waiting for someone to do it for years before Amazon finally did (and I still want other retailers to do it). But it does still have a few drawbacks, including being unidirectional (Print->eBook).

      I got the paperback + kindle ebook.

  14. Done. Between “Residue,” MZB’s “A Long Time Until Now” and John Birmingham’s “Dave VS The Monsters,” that ought to keep me busy for a couple of days…

  15. Having pseudo-recently discovered the joys (and horrors) of new and indie writers, I purchased the e-book to give the author a go (platonically (mostly)).

    If this book screws me, probing the emotional angst of monsters and how humans trigger ’em, I won’t try out those Monster Hunter books.

    I’ll just wait for more product from real authors (like Ringo).

    1. Uh… That real author Ringo liked MHI so much that he is writing a series set in my universe. šŸ™‚

      1. Ehhh….I read his Facebook. Apparently your fixes and suggestions already wrote half that novel for him.

        I’ll look into yuz on Baen this weekend.

        Thank god for that Hugo crap. May never have discovered you and others otherwise.

          1. That’s proppin’ Correia (how is that pronounced?) fairly high, my friend.

            Ringo saw me through some parts of the military: dragging a novel around to so many places it looks like it barely survived a 451 episode. Opening it everytime saw fine sand and dust spill out somewhere. Initially making myself a butt of (many) jokes yet ending with everyone talking about the story as the book is passed around, developing even more character.

            I’m invested, man. I’m INVESTED.

            Or I have biblioPTSD. Somethin’.

            Should I start with Monster Hunter? And there’s Hoyt, who else?

          2. Replying to Christopher

            If you like Correia, try Jim Butcher and Tom Kratman

            If you like Jim Butcher, try Lois McMaster Bujold, start with the Warrior’s Apprentice

          3. Start with MHI:

            “On one otherwise normal Tuesday evening I had the chance to live the American dream. I was able to throw my incompetent jackass of a boss from a fourteenth-story window.”

            One, that single line has sold about 30 or so books for Larry in my old unit and company. Two, ask yourself if your wangsting snowflake of a misunderstood monster would start a book with that.

          4. @Christopher:

            “Correia” is pronounced just like Korea (the divided country next to Japan).

            I confirmed this with Larry in a face to face conversation.

          5. @Nathan
            I was in a Barnes & Noble, looking for new grist for the reading mill, saw the MHI cover and thought that at least somebody was intelligently dressed for monster hunting, then read the first line.

            I laughed so hard I had to sit down. That’s when I knew Larry was a keeper. I was holding the book so hard that I creased it (no way I was letting this one get away!).

            I have no idea how many times I’ve read it, but it’s at least 10. When I get bored, and too lazy to risk accidentally reading Hugo worthy crap, I alternate between MHI, Grimnoir, Ringo’s death star trilogy, and Jim Butcher’s.

  16. I don’t know if it’s me or the percoset speaking (had a L3-L4 transforaminal discectomy this morning…so percoset is my friend right now), but I just bought it and I’m looking forward to reading it in the near future.

  17. Late to the party, almost forgot about the book bomb! Bought the Kindle version. Currently reading Spellbound….I’ll catch up with Residue as soon as I’m done with Adventures in Grimnoir (which I’m loving!)

  18. Larry,

    thank you for the reading recommendations. I have yet to be disappointed . Got Residue last night, am halfway through it and having a blast!

      1. Not to worry. My muse does all the writing, not I. I never compare my work to other authors when I read. I am not even sure how I would do it.

        However, I did just get finished reading TARZAN AT THE EARTH’S CORE by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and so you will have some stiff competition.

        See, now you have to buy one of my books, as a return courtesy, or, if you want something good to read, one of my wife’s. — jcjw

        1. Oh, good grief! I am hardly a saint. I am the chief of sinners. Watch your mouth.

          What I am is a gentleman, and I want to support anyone Mr Correia supports. I hope my meager contribution to your coffers helps.

  19. When I went to Amazon a few minutes ago I noticed it was at #666. Since that ominous number is a little too ominous for my comfort – I clicked buy.

  20. Finished the book and wrote my review. Corriea is off the hook. (Lucky son-of-a-).

    Time to gander MHI.

  21. I had a couple questions. I noticed that the stats are moving back down. What is typical for the statistics of a book after a book bomb? Do they generally level off at a better position than what they were? Does the author see a noticeable uptick in their pay for the month?

  22. I bought the book before reading the blurbs.

    “RESIDUE will scare you.” ā€”Dan Wells, New York Times Bestselling Author of I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER

    If your book scared Dan Wells…

  23. Bought it yesterday during the bomb, just haven’t had time to post here until now. Looking forward to this, looks very cool.

    Good god, my reading queue is so full of non-SJW stuff, it’s crazy! :-p

  24. “Now you know why [Steve Diamond] got redshirted in Grimnoir, and a casino named Diamond Steveā€™s was blown up in MHL.”

    Is the Steve whom Owen meets in a Mexican prison in “Monster Hunters: Vendetta” also based on Steve Diamond?

      1. Thanks. BTW, I just finished “Monster Hunters International” in the “The Monster Hunters” omnibus I bought on Kindle. It was a fun read. (Loved the redneck elves!) Thank you very much!

  25.         Might be a while before I read your book, Mr. Diamond, I’m kinda backed up.  But I did buy it.

            Btw, you have good taste in first names.

  26. A MINI REVIEW!!
    Mr Diamond, I read the first five or six chapters of your book last night. It is tightly plotted, well worded, and moves along at a brisk clip. The characters are likeable and the plot hook is effective, and tiny touches which I assume are clues to later and larger revelations adorn the hectic events.

    Larry Correia is right. You are a skilled craftsman.

    JCJW

  27. Any recommendation from Larry Correia or John Wright (or Sarah Hoyt, or Brad Torgerson, or badboy Vox Day) means I buy and read…by default. Thank you Larry!

  28. For some reason Residue just showed up in my recommended for you list on Amazon.

    Can’t imagine why šŸ˜‰

  29. “Then we found out we were both accountants (accounting and fantasy writers have a surprising amount of career overlap)”

    I don’t know about being authors but from experience I can say that the accountants (and lawyers) I meet backcountry skiing are completely insane. Don’t know about skydiving though, will have to ask around.

  30. Besides the fact that I like a good book bombing, I bought this one specifically because you killed the author off in Warbound. šŸ˜€

  31. Larry, when’s your next Red Shirt charity auction? I want to get kill in one of your books.

    1. I’ve got a handful of people left to kill off, then I need to pick another charity. I think I know what I’m going to do though.

  32. This was an awesome book! Looking forward to the next in the series, eagerly. Thanks for the recommendation!

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