It is Book Bomb Day!
A Book Bomb is when we pick out a deserving author who could use a publicity boost, and get as many people as possible to buy their book in the same day on Amazon. The more people who buy, the higher it goes in the sales rankings. Once it gets on some bestseller lists, that gets it in front of even more new eyes. Success breeds success, the author gets new readers, and most importantly, the author GETS PAID.
Today’s Book Bomb is for my friend Christopher Ruocchio’s debut novel, Empire of Silence.
Don’t let the debut novel thing scare you. This book is excellently written. It’s like a Roman version of Dune. I’ve been listening to the audiobook and I’ve really enjoyed it.
I know Christopher because he works in the office at Baen Books. However, you’ll note that this book isn’t from Baen. Ironically enough, he’d just barely sold this book to a different publisher about a week or two before Baen hired him to work there. He’s a great guy and fun to hang out with, but I don’t pick BBs based on niceness, but rather because I think the book is awesome.
I hope you like it. Please help spread the word. The key to success in a Book Bomb is momentum. The more people who jump on board, the higher it gets in the rankings, the more new people see it. I’ve put on a lot of these over the years, and we’ve had some great results. So please tell your friends, share the link, etc.
I’ll be updating the sales rank throughout the day. I started launching these the night before the actual BB date because Amazon has a long delay before the sales start to register.
At 8:00PM MST:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,033 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #107 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #178 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
- #263 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #275 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #647 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
- #862 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
And I don’t usually do this section, but since I mentioned Audio:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
- #131 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Science Fiction > High Tech
- #328 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Fantasy > Paranormal
- #410 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Science Fiction > Adventure
EDIT 1: So I wake up this morning to find that we are rolling! Up 20,000 spots on Kindle, 50,000 in hard cover, and 110 in Audible.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,967 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #15 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #30 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
- #36 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #120 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #292 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
- #362 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
HOWEVER! I just learned of something even more important. Author Dave Butler (a prior Book Bomb recipient for the excellent Witchy Eye) has thrown down the gauntlet. Dave has declared a challenge. If we can get Christopher onto the Amazon Top 10, Dave Butler will wear a toga to LTUE.
This is serious business. Dave said in honor of Empire of Silence he will even wear it in proper House Marlowe colors (it’s from the book, trust me).
So if you participate and spread the word, not only do you get a book and help out a great new author and all around good dude, I will take many photos of Dave Butler in a togo to share with the internet.
EDIT 2: Still climbing
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,233 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #12 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #19 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
- #20 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #69 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #178 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Hard Science Fiction
- #190 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
EDIT 3: For the dinner time crowd, still climbing
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,732 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #11 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #12 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
- #15 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Military
- #92 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire
- #99 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet
EDIT: So I went to bed early so I missed get shots of the high, but we broke into the top 10 in genre, and bumped up everything else. Nice.
Too late! I already read it. And it was great!
Sounds interesting. Grabbed the Kindle and Audible versions.
Got it! I’ll add it to the read list.
An amazing book! Just getting to the end of it now, can’t wait for the sequels.
$13 for an eBook? I enjoyed “The Parliament of Owls” in the eARC of “Space Pioneers” from Baen, so yes, I’m very interested in the book. However, I plan to wait until the publisher wakes up and comes to their senses.
Yeah, few people will pick up a debut book at that price in the modern era. It’s hard enough getting readers to spend $4.99 and a Pumpkin Spice Latte costs more than that! Poor guy. How are pubs still this clueless?
It isn’t the fact that it’s a debut novel that’s the issue. It’s the greed. My personal take is that charging mass market paperback prices for eBooks is fair. They still have to be written, edited, and proofread. That takes people’s time and the authors, editors, etc. should be compensated for it.
MM paperbacks right now are priced at $8. Charging any more than that tells you the publisher worships the false god Mammon, and not the true gods of quality storytelling and entertainment. I’ve also noticed that publishers who try this sort of gouging encourage people to shop elsewhere, in places such as Tortuga and Port Royal.
You know what a personal pet peeve of mine is?
When I do a Book Bomb to try and build some momentum to help out a struggling new author, there’s always, always, fucking always some dude who feel the need to come in and shit all everyone’s enthusiasm by giving us his personal manifesto about eBook pricing.
And it doesn’t matter if it’s $12, $8, $6, or even $1.99. The actual price doesn’t matter. It’s all about the opportunity to bitch. I’ve seen these same posts for every BB I’ve ever done regardless of price.
If you don’t want to participate then don’t. If it’s over the price point that you are willing to spend, then don’t buy it. That’s awesome.
Do I think that price is too high, yeah, if I was in charge it would be lower. But I’m not. And neither is the author I’m trying to give a boost to.
So rather than be an ass and poop on everyone else who doesn’t have a problem spending decent hamburger combo meal prices for a 200,000+ word book, just don’t buy it.
Got it, and am enjoying reading it right now. Did I look at the price and say “wha? Really?” Sure.
But every book bomb I’ve picked up has been good stuff. Worth what I paid for it, and in many cases more. I can afford to have one less takeout night this month. It was a gamble, but one justified by previous experience.
Second what Larry said. If it’s too much for you right now, no worries. Everyone makes that determination for themselves. But it really is a good book, and I’m glad I picked it up.
Got it, but it will probably be a while before it bubbles to the top of my reading list. I’m still going through all the books I picked up at DragonCon. The reviews on it make it sound like something I’ll like, but without Larry’s recommendation I don’t know if I’d have been willing to spend $13 on an e-book, especially for a new author.
If you read it and enjoy it, leaving favorable reviews is another great way to help authors out.
Which I did, although I’d bought it a few weeks before the Book Bomb, so I couldn’t help that way.
Bought it. And since Im holed up with a broken foot, likely to read it quickly . May wait a day extra to post a review – sometimes Amazon thinks you are just shilling for an author if you post too fast.
I’ve read it. It’s great.
Just down loaded it and looking forward to reading.
$12.99 for an e-book? You’re lucky I support new writers cuz that puts a serious dent in my Japanese porn budget. This better be good or I’ll make you do a signing in Uvalde.
Got the ebook. Already had the audiobook. But yeah. $13 is a bit much but Larry hasn’t lead.me wrong yet. . .
Does the hardcover or the Kindle version pay the author more, or is their cut about the same?
Depends on the publishing contract. Usually hardcover.
Hardcover being ordered then. Thanks!
Does the Kindle version have DRM? I’d love to support a new, highly recommended, author, but DRM is an instant no.
I know I can strip DRM from an Ebook. That’s not the issue. I choose not to monetarily support the usage of DRM in the first place.
(And a big thank you to Baen for not implementing DRM. It turns out that when you treat your customers well they actually want to pay you for it instead of asking searchook for a list of pirated versions)
I have absolutely no idea.
Amazon usually explicitly states when there is no DRM. There is no such statement on the listing.
Thanks, SPQR. I wasn’t sure how Amazon worked with that. I went ahead and grabbed the hardback instead.
I bought the hard cover. If it’s good I’ll leave a review.
Good luck to the author.
Magnificent worldbuilding. Reminds me not only of Dune but also Faded Suns RPG with a bit of Warhammer 40k.
But I wanted to strangle the main hero. Yes, yes I know he was i supposed to be young and rebellious but still the angst, suffering, and annoying idealism… bleh.
Lets hope there will be more explosions in the next book.
Ordered the MM paperback. It looks good, but I can wait.
Larry,
I know how much you love figurines.
This one will have you spasm in sexual “I must have!”
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cf/fb/6e/cffb6ee0a76675b342452b4ef29df296.jpg
heh heh
You know you want it!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cf/fb/6e/cffb6ee0a76675b342452b4ef29df296.jpg
Off topic/heads up.
[Lurker – first post. Ignore if this has already been posted.]
I know various Puppies use WP – article on recent security concerns:
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2018/09/mass-wordpress-compromises-tech-support-scams/
https://archive.is/aVGjm
May look like tech-babble for the layman, but points to note:
During the past few days, our crawlers have been catching a larger-than-usual number of WordPress sites being hijacked.
The number of WordPress sites that have been compromised is increasing in the last few days, suggesting that these are ongoing campaigns.
First comment has suggestions on beefing up WP security.
Bit late to the party here, but I recommend anyone still interested to get the paper or kindle versions rather than audio. The levels are not fit to compensate for the narrator’s habit of starting every sentence with an expectoration, then dropping to a near-mumble after. Literally gave me a headache.