The Secret Adventures of WriterGirl

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Into the Fire by Thirteen Senses.







Variant by Robinson Wells. Buy it. TODAY. Here's the scoop. Well, let me recap from where I heard the news. From Larry Correia's blog:

Mark your calender. On Thursday, November 10th, I’m going to book bomb somebody, and not only that, I’m going to ask all of you for help spread the word because this particular author is in dire need of a boost.

I’ve already plugged Variant by Robison Wells once before. I know many of you read it and liked it. Rob is a friend of mine and a member of Writer Nerd Game Night. Variant is an excellent read, sort of a sci-fi take on Lord of the Flies with a twist, and don’t just take my word for it, it made the Publisher’s Weekly list of the top books of the year. (which is quite the honor, despite PW hating Hard Magic and giving it a sloppy review that made it obvious their lazy ass reviewer only read the first 1/4 of the book. Ultra good Grimnoir and ultra evil Imperium my ass) :)

But I digress. Variant was one of the best books I’ve read this year. I stayed up late to read it in one sitting.

Normally I wouldn’t bomb the same book again, but Rob is also going through a really tough time. A little while ago he was diagnosed with a severe panic disorder. Basically, something in his brain chemistry has gone out of whack, and his fight or flight reflex is constantly switched on. As a result this has really screwed up his life. He has been trying to get it under control and his doctors have been experimenting with different treatments trying to find the one that will click.

Recently, Rob was laid off from his day job as a result of his illness. This is a real financial hardship for him and his family.

What many people don’t realize about writers is that we keep our day jobs until we have about five or six books in circulation, and sometimes longer depending on how well they are selling. Writing isn’t the most steady of paychecks. (I’m doing well enough now that I could just be a writer, but I happen to love my day job, so I plan on doing it for probably another year). You’ve got to earn back the advance and even then you only get paid every six months. Variant is Rob’s first book on the national market. He had a ways to go before he would be able to quit the day job, but his illness totally wrecked that plan.

So I want to book bomb the HELL out of Variant. I want to shove that thing up the bestseller lists on Amazon and I want to give my friend a hand.

That was blatant thievery of most of his post, but it's for a good cause, so I hope he forgives me.


What is a book bomb you may ask? You've seen how I rank my reviews based on "current Amazon ranking" right? Well, that is a bit of an deceptive determiner because it changes hourly on some secret voodoo algorithm of theirs that they guard like the holy grail. But in essence it is based on how many books are bought on their site in a given time frame then stacked against all of the other 6,000,000 books or so available on Amazon. (plus some more voodoo magic, I'm sure).

The higher you creep up on that number, the most Top 100 and Top 10 book lists you show up on. So you will appear on something like "#9 in Books > Nonfiction > Insect Stuff > Mating Calls of the Bioluminescent Glowworm." :)

So the goal is to bomb the heck out of this book today, get it as high as humanly possible, and help out a debut writer in need. This is what is going to feed his family. And you know what? It has already been vaulted to #256 today. DO YOU KNOW HOW HUGE THAT IS? Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer is at #3,660 right now. Early yesterday VARIANT was lost in obscurity in the #100,000+ range. An incalculable difference is being made right now before your eyes.


And besides all this it sounds like a good book. A really good book. I'm about to put my money where my mouth is.



So sally forth! Tell everyone you know. Today is the day for a book bombing!