Jim Devitt's Blog, page 3

Seven Things to Avoid When Self-Publishing

This post received a lot of eyeballs over on Indies Unlimited earlier this week, I thought I would share it in this space as well. Having just published my Christmas novel, So This is Christmas , I’d like to write about some of the things you shouldn’t do when publishing your book. 



If you are publishing a Christmas book, don’t think that picking it up in August to revise and edit is enough time. Aaaaaaagh. I wrote the book last year with the thinking that I could put it out for December 2012. Hah! I shelved it and brought it back out for revisions and editing in August. All of the sudden—it was Thanksgiving.Don’t assume that a 25,000-word novel takes less to edit, revise, distribute to beta readers and everything else, than a 60,000- to 90,000-word novel. I waaaay underestimated this one. It doesn’t matter how long your novel is, it still has to be perfect to publish—and that takes a lot of time. Meanwhile, some of the tasks associated with publishing take the same amount of time regardless as to the size of the novel—cover art, blurb, synopsis, product description … should I go on?Don’t decide at the last minute that you are going to get cute with formatting. Yeah, I know, you think that the pretty little addition will make your book. That is, until you realize that you now have an eBook that needs to be compatible with about seven different Kindle formats, including the nearly obsolete devices (as in my personal Kindle.)Don’t forget to put a footer in each version of your manuscript, indicating which editing round you are on. What, you don’t have multiple rounds of editing? I must be doing something wrong.Don’t forget to take OUT the footer indicating which editing round you are on in the final formatted version for upload. See #4.Don’t publish a book at or near a holiday. If you are like me, a holiday junkie, this will be a disaster. There’s way too much pressure to get the book out early and when you finally get it published, all you want to do is pimp, promote, and check Amazon (of course!) In my case, I didn’t pimp, promote or check Amazon (that part is a good thing.) However, you only have one launch and I didn’t do anything in advance. There are a ton of articles on Indies Unlimited about how to do this the right way; you should pay attention to those. It was so bad; someone else posted my new novel on my OWN Facebook page before I did.Don’t invite relatives to stay with you during a book launch that lands on a holiday. Oh, wait, I didn’t invite them. That about sums up everything above. I’m supposed to go on with my merry holiday and pretend to not agonize about the birth of my new book.So there you have it. In the end, I’m still very happy with the process of self publishing, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimitedand occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo! Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

Another Five Star Review for the Holiday Novel - So This is Christmas

Hi, All!

Another Five star review hit Amazon! Check out Michelle's review at So This is Christmas

Here's an excerpt to get you started:

"... This is a great book to get you in the Christmas spirit any time of year. It brings out the true meaning of Christmas..."

Thanks, Michelle! Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

New Five Star Review for So This is Christmas

The first reviews have started to hit Amazon for my new Christmas novel, So This is Christmas, Tony Valente gave it five stars and you can see his review here. 

Here's an excerpt of his review:

"... After reading this book, I now know that Jim's two kids are some of the luckiest kids in the Christmas world. In every page, you can feel his love for the Christmas season. More importantly, he brings the magic of the season into the modern era ..."

Thanks, Tony, for the great review!

You can purchase your copy of  So This is Christmas by clicking this link or the one on the sidebar. Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

So This is Christmas Hits the Virtual Bookshelves

It's finally here! The release of my new Christmas novel, So This is Christmas.


“… Christmas is about love and giving. It’s a time to remember past traditions and make up new ones…”


The Anderson family loves Christmas. You could even call them Christmas junkies. After moving up north, Mark, Carla and their children Cindy and Tony, finally get their postcard Christmas of warm fires and snow.


As the big day approaches, it’s a joyous time for everyone, except for Tony. Adjusting to a new school can be hard on a nine-year old and he’s ruining Christmas for everyone. In this holiday story, the magic of Christmas comes to life in the most unusual of places.


For young and old alike, this magical tale of finding Christmas spirit is sure to become a new tradition for Christmases to come.


This is a family affair, Melissa, my wife, did the original artwork for the cover!
Currently, it is available on Amazon. The paperback edition is still in formatting and will be available soon. Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

Refresh - The Addiction of the Indie Author

I had to share this. Anyone who has published a book and distributed it on Amazon or Smashwords can relate to this. 



Thanks to my Dad for finding this and passing it along!

 Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimitedand occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo! Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

New 5 and 4 Star Reviews of The Card

It's been over two years since I published THE CARD . Even though its been awhile, reviews continue to post on Amazon. Most recently, there has been two five star and one four star review posted to Amazon. Here's a glimpse at what others are saying:




The good news? The sequel to The Card is in the final stages of editing and revisions! The new Van Stone adventure, The Scorecard, is optimistically scheduled for publication just after the first of the year. We'll keep you up to date on the progress as it happens. Thanks for all your support!


Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

Review of Deadly Faux by Larry Brooks

I have been a fan of Larry Brooks since I began my dream of writing professionally. His concepts on Story Engineering have helped me tremendously in my process as a novelist. His website, Storyfix.com is a wealth of information for any seasoned or beginning writer. You might have seen me mention Larry and Storyfix in the past, having posted about his site several times, the first being more than two years ago. If you want to get it right, check out Larry’s take on the Six Core Competencies, Plot Points and Story Structure. You can find it all on his website or, pick up a copy of his Story Engineeringand more recently, Story Physics: Harnessing the Underlying Forces of Storytelling.
This is not a case of, “If you can’t do—teach” as Larry has published six novels. His most recent, Deadly Faux, is the second with protagonist Wolfgang Schmitt. After a ten-year break, Brooks returned with a sequel to Bait and Switch, and his reluctant undercover FBI agent in this new thriller. The following is my review posted on Amazon.
 Larry Brooks hits it out of the park. I’m a big fan of Nelson DeMille and at times, I forgot that I was reading Larry Brooks. His development of the protagonist, Wolfgang Schmitt leaves you wanting more. In Deadly Faux, Wolf gets in deep, using only his witty dialogue and ballsy attitude to turn the tables on the mob. 
Full of everything that makes a good book—plot, concept and premise—Brooks sprinkles in a handful of great characters and believable action. 
Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, Brooks throws a curveball, keeping you on the edge of your seat until the last page. The writing is sharp, smart and fresh. This is not my first Larry Brooks novel, but by far, it’s his best.  
In conclusion, I want to thank Larry for all the nuggets that I’ve mined from his teachings and stories. For full disclosure, (not that it matters because my review would have been the same) I received a complimentary copy of Deadly Faux from Larry. If that diminishes anyone’s opinion of my review, then how about this—I purchased a copy of his Story Engineering years ago which I kept with my laptop and writing notebook. Someone broke into my car and stole all that stuff. After that, I purchased a second copy of Story Engineering. So there, I’ve purchased one of his books twice, so were even.   Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

Focus

It gets crazy with all the events, work, social media, family commitments, and pure clutter that crop up every day. Not that some of these things aren’t important; they are. However, to be successful in writing, you need focus.

With focus, you become more efficient and the process becomes repeatable. Focus allows you to concentrate on what your abilities can do, and where they can take you. We have many excuses—time, money, insecurity—the list goes on.



The most important thing is to remove as much clutter as you can from your mind. Once you do that, you can do your best—without hesitation. Once you develop a habit of removing clutter and focusing, you can expect to be successful AND do it again and again.

Writing is the same as any other skill or talent. The more you do it, the better you get. The more you expect to be successful, the more you focus, the more repeatable that process is.

Some people approach writing success as the finished product. Instead, it needs to be every small battle that you encounter, chapter by chapter. Some days that might equal 500 words and others it might be 4,000. Or, it could be how your character gets from point A to point B, how your mystery will evolve or developing the traits and look of your character. Each one of these things puts you closer to the ultimate goal. Each step is a battle to win.

Engage in each part as if it were a battle and then build on each success along the way, trying to win the next battle. Looking forward to the enjoyment of the battle, focusing on the goal for the day, will help you develop a repeatable process that becomes familiar to yourself.

In our lonely world of writing, it’s important to remember where the successes came from. It came from a lot of hard work and focus. Think of the writing process in segments. Break it down into weeks. Strive to be better each week. Ask yourself, at the end your sixth week, “Am I further along and one week better than when I was at week five?” Focus on looking forward to the upcoming week and become one week better.

If you concentrate on one week at a time without losing sight of the battles, you will get better at focus. With focus comes success. Combine those things and you’ll be publishing books more efficiently, with better quality, than ever before.

Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimitedand occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo! Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

Godspeed, Scott Carpenter

Yesterday, Scott Carpenter, an icon in the early days of space exploration passed. He was one of only two of the original seven astronauts. The Original 7 as they were known, were the Mercury astronauts that would be the first Americans to go into the heavens. 

In the early days of spaceflight, the Original 7 were a competitive group of test pilots and elite armed forces pilots. This group thrived on competition, whether it was drag racing their Corvettes on a deserted road in Florida or in the hotspots and nightclubs of Cocoa Beach. Scott Carpenter was one of them. The Original 7 enjoyed rock star status in the 1960's.

According to Carpenter, there were only two reasons to do things in life—to overcome a fear, or to satisfy a curiosity. He displayed this attitude throughout his life. He has the unique distinction of being the only astronaut to explore both the heavens above and the oceans below. 

His career in space lasted just four and a half hours, after which he declared that everyone should have an opportunity to go to space and experience weightlessness. He never flew in space again. Some blame him for missing his landing spot by 250 miles by firing a retro rocket three seconds late. Others declare him a hero for manually re-entering the atmosphere, using visuals when the navigation system went out. 

According to a letter that Carpenter sent to the New York Times in 2001, he stated, "the system failures I encountered during flight would have resulted in loss of the capsule and total mission failure had a man not been aboard."

Amid controversy, Carpenter turned to the oceans, spending a month undersea in the Navy Sealab project, becoming the only astronaut to become an aquanaut. 

Scott Carpenter Source, NASAHowever, most will remember him from his historic spaceflight in 1962. Many thought that he was lost, including Walter Cronkite, who expressed his concern as the nation watched the search and rescue operation. In grand American hero style, the recovery team found him, relaxed in his life raft, legs up on the transom, smoking a cigar.

Now the sole surviving Original 7 is John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. As the backup to Glenn on that historic flight, Carpenter called the launch from Cape Canaveral, uttering the phrase, "Godspeed, John Glenn." Since that moment, 'Godspeed' has become a constant in space flight vernacular. 

So, it's only fitting to conclude with, "Godspeed, Scott Carpenter."  Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

Is Success Just Around the Corner?

How close are you to success? Do you see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

We never really know, do we? We don’t know what is around the next corner. Just ask someone like Hugh Howey of Wool series fame. In his interview with IU he mentioned that he attributes a lot of his success to “… dumb luck. Things just take off sometimes.”

How do we know if success is just around the corner for ourselves? 

We don’t. 


I’m not a Starbucks Coffee fan, but its founder, Howard Schultz, once said, “I believe that life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all.”


As an indie writer/publisher/marketer/etc., we don’t have the “corporation” looking over our shoulders, giving us deadlines. Sometimes, discipline and perseverance are tough to find. I remember a story by Napoleon Hill that he penned in the early 1900s. During the gold rush of the 1800s, a man had set out to find his riches. After weeks of work, success. He struck gold! He sent a message back east to raise the money and bring out the equipment to mine the gold.

They mined the first car of ore and shipped it to the smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado. They went to work mining when suddenly the vein disappeared. They drilled on, trying to pick up the vein without luck. Defeated, they sold off the equipment and headed back east.

The individual who bought the equipment did a little calculating and took into account “fault lines.” He determined that the vein should pick up three feet from where the others quit. That’s exactly where it was and he made millions.

You can and will be successful. In so many cases, you are just three feet from the gold. We just need to see what other people don’t see and pursue that vision.  

We’re a different breed. Keep writing your goals. Keep getting better every day. It will change your life. Whatever you do, don’t be the one to stop three feet from the gold.

A version of this post appeared on Indies Unlimited. Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimitedand occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo! Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle Bestselling Young Adult novel, The Card. He's also a healthcare consultant specializing in helping healthcare companies and practices develop a social media marketing platform, and maximize cash flow. You can find him posting weekly to Indies Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!