Jim Devitt's Blog, page 4

Laurie Boris wins Literary Fiction Award

Congratulations to Laurie Boris for winning the 2013 Best Indie Books in the Literary Fiction category from The Kindle Book Review.


Along with the award, she will receive $300 in prizes. Laurie is a fellow contributor on Indies Unlimited and one of the best Indie writers around. She is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, former graphic designer and a baseball fan!

Here is the book description from Amazon where it is averaging 5 Stars  A family accidentally learns that their matriarch, Estelle, not only has breast cancer but also intended to take it to her grave. Now that the secret is out, Estelle decides to ask Liza, the daughter-in-law she once called a godless hippie raised by wolves, to kill her. A horrified Liza refuses but keeps the request from her husband and his brother. As the three adult children urge Estelle to consider treatment, their complicated weave of family secrets and lies begins to unravel. Can they hold their own lives together long enough to help Estelle with hers?  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!

Social Media Spec Sheets - YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest

Let’s continue with our cheat sheets for social media profiles. Last week focused on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. 
 
Today, we’ll give you the specs for YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
  




 


As writers, we know how to convey emotion and drama through our words, but media is stealing the show on the social media sites.

Photos and videos are where it’s at when trying to get noticed.


I hope that these charts will come in handy. Just remember, as soon as you get this down, they may be obsolete as the sites continue to change to mimic and outdo each other.




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!

Social Media Spec Sheets - Facebook, Google+ and Twitter

Keeping your social media profiles updated and in order can be a real pain. We’ve all done it—you decide that you want to change your banner on your Facebook Page and three hours later you have it just right! What a waste of time.
 
Most of us are managing multiple social media sites for our writing business. Each of the social media sites has its own way of doing things and it can take a while to gather the info to properly format your pictures. Meanwhile, while you’re gathering that info, Facebook and Google have changed the layouts and specs!

In an effort to save us all time, I’ve put together a few graphics to help you through that process. 
 
I put this together for an Indies Unlimited post a while back and figured its worth sharing here as well. 

Today, I’ve broken down Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. You’ll find the basic specs for each platform, updated as of August 2013. 

Enjoy!


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!

When Did You Start Writing?

Every writer has a story. In almost every interview, one of the questions asked is, “When did you start writing?” People who say that they’ve always wanted to write or they began when they were very young blow my mind.

It wasn’t like that for me … or was it?

I never really thought about it much until that question popped up a bunch over the past couple of years. I couldn’t remember wanting to write. However, some things are inevitable. While unpacking boxes recently, I came across a paper that I had written for school when I was ten.


The Life and Times of the Number Two Son of the Devitt Family.

We’ve all written school papers, however, when I came across this one, I had to laugh. On the title page, I found something that blew me away. Here’s the ‘Front Matter’:

Author: Jimmy Devitt
Publisher: Jimmy Devitt
Photographer: Devitt Family

WHAT!? Who would have known that at ten years old, I would have realized that I was going into self-publishing? After all, this was something like 40 years ago.

Now we fast-forward to high school. Here’s where writing changed my life, literally. I entered an essay contest in the Seattle Times, writing on the topic, “Why I wanted to be a Bat Boy for the Seattle Mariners.” Long story short … I won. I became the visiting clubhouse batboy for the Seattle Mariners, working on the field for Major League Baseball. For the next eight years of my life, I worked with the likes of Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver, Mark McGwire, Nolan Ryan and the rest of pro baseball.

The weird thing is, until recently, if you would have asked me about how I got started in writing, I would have said it started late in life.

So, in conclusion, I’ll end with immortal words of Jimmy Devitt in the last lines of “The Life and Times …”

"… That’s about all I can tell you now. If I went on I’ll have hundreds of pages. So, now I’ll have to say goodbye. I hope the rest of my life is better from now on. There’s not much more you can get out of me now. So here’s Jimmy Devitt saying goodbye, “Good-Bye”.

  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. This post originally appeared recently on Jim's column on Indies Unlimited. 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!

The Card featured on Shades of White Matter

Krista Tibbs gives a shout out to The Card over on her blog ... but the Chipmunks? Really?

Check it out here where she asks about what songs describe my work ethic ...



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!

Do We Sit Too Much?

We're surrounded by it … technology. Because of technology, we've been seduced into a sedentary lifestyle. You can spend the majority of your day in a chair watching TV, working at a desk, playing video games, reading, banking … even shopping.
Our bodies are made to move! Two major contributing factors to the obesity epidemic in the US are lack of physical activity and SITTING too much. Here's the clincher, a recent study involving over 17,000 participants found that there is a strong relationship between sitting and all health causes of morality, even if you are exercising.
Scientists believe that too much sitting impairs the body's ability to deposit fat from the blood stream, which can lead to a greater chance of cardiovascular disease. In addition, they have found that too much sitting can impair the function of your good cholesterol.
The results indicate that your every other day gym routine does not cancel out the effects of too much sitting during the day.
Here's 5 ways you can break up your sitting periods:
         Stand up and move whenever you have a drink of water at work         Stand up and talk on business phone calls         Walk to a co-workers desk instead of emailing or calling him/her         Take the stairs whenever you can         When watching TV, get up and move during the commercials

It's time to start paying attention to the amount of time that we spend in our chairs. Don't let your hard work at the gym go down the drain because you sit the rest of the day. Get up and move for a healthier life.

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!

Social Times picks up Devitt Quote

I just got a heads up that I was quoted in Social Times, a division of MediaBistro. The post included my piece on social media monitoring for businesses. 

Thanks to Debra Eckerling for considering me for her post. You can find it here at http://socialtimes.com/7-free-social-monitoring-tools_b134790


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 Perks added to Campaign for Immediate and Affordable Healthcare

We've just added some great new perks to our campaign on Indiegogo to help bring Immediate and Affordable Healthcare to Everyone. For those that may not know how it works. In crowdfunding, you contribute to help put projects into motion and then you are rewarded with perks.

Here's some of the things that we've just added:

Future 1st Round Hall-of-Famer and Seattle Mariner Legend Ken Griffey Jr. autographed baseball














Mr. October New York Yankee Reggie Jackson autographed ball


Boston Red Sox Legend Carl Yastrzemski autographed ball













St. Louis Cardinal star Mark McGwire autographed ball

















Please stop by the page, just click here, or help spread the word. Thank you!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!

Please help us bring immediate and affordable healthcare to everyone ...

Hi, I'm reaching out to you today for your help. The systemic problems of our healthcare system has led to families going bankrupt, doctors shortages and unbearable wait times to see health care professionals.

I've worked in Healthcare for over 20 years, starting out on the clinical side, treating patients. Before long, I ended up in practice management and saw first hand how broken the healthcare system is.
The Affordable Care Act will insure millions more, which means the already overloaded healthcare system will become more overloaded.
We believe that we can help fix the system with Telemedicine.
Telemedicine is one of the most powerful tools healthcare providers can use to improve patient care, increase access and lower costs. Telemedicine exists today, but primarily in remote populations or for doctor to doctor consultation in areas where there's a shortage of expertise.
The fact is, everyone should have access to Telemedicine. Today's generation uses and trusts mobile applications to do just about everything. We can use the same technology to deliver healthcare to your living room. 
Please visit our campaign page to learn more and to see some of the great perks we're giving away with your contribution. Thank You!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!

What Are We Doing This For?

Photo Credit: Jim Devitt (in honor of Tony Valente and his 100 mile ride around Crater Lake this weekendAbout a month ago I attended the biggest healthcare finance management conference in the United States. I’ve attended this meeting for the past four or five years. Matter of fact, I presented at this same conference last year.

Here’s where it gets interesting. You see, we create a lot of noise about what we do—we reach out to help each other, we post best practices, and we even buy each others books!

For as big as the Indie revolution is, we are actually a small, tight knit group. The reality is, through this blog and others like Indies Unlimited , we've seen dramatic growth in readership over the past year and a half, yet, how big of a group do we really touch?

In addition, for the most part, we’re all on the same page. Yeah, every once in a while, there might be a little controversy about what is being posted, but it is very difficult to gauge how much we are influencing the Indie world. We’re here because we want to be. We’re here because we’ve chosen this path. In some cases, we’re here because we have to be.

My buddy, Tony, is riding around Crater Lake this weekend. Is this going to have an influence on others? Take a look at his blog and you can tell me what you think. His readership may not be huge, but it's growing every week. Most of the time we don't realize the type of influence we have on others.

This takes me back to last month's meeting that had nothing to do with writing. Last year, I met a writer for a healthcare finance publication. He attended my workshop on improving cash flow and he was kind enough to publish some bits from the workshop. He even had me write up something for his publication during the year. I hadn’t talked with him for about nine months.

I ran into him last month. Here’s how the conversation went.

“Jim, you inspired me.”

“Huh?” 

“No, seriously. After spending time with you last year at this meeting, I listened to what you said about indie publishing. Since then, I’ve gotten the rights back on a previously published book and released it as an indie, I’ve written another book that launches next month, hard copy and eBook, and I have another in the final stages of editing to be released before the end of the year.”

*standing with mouth gaping*

Who would have known?

That helped me realize that many people don’t yet know the what, how, where, and why of what we do. Some days we might feel like we’re preaching to the choir. However, someone out there is listening, making decisions based on what we share.

So what does that tell us? We need to write every post as if it might change someone’s life. We need to ask questions that some might think are stupid. We’re not preaching to the choir, we’re shouting from the mountaintop about something we’re passionate about. We must not forget that.

Sometimes … we might even influence someone’s life!


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(a version of this post appeared there recently) and 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!