Words of Wisdom from Elmsworth

Elmsworth is the main character and leader of the menagerie of ornaments in So This is Christmas . With so many Christmases under his belt, he has become a sort of mentor and sage for all the other ornaments. Of course, this leads to a few words of wisdom throughout the book. I thought I would share a few of them with you today.

Paperback Edition of "So This is Christmas" Available on Amazon

Front and Back Cover layout

The long wait for the paperback version of So This is Christmas is over. You can now order your copy from Amazon. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you can have your copy in your hands in two days with free shipping!



Thanks for your patience and 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!

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. 

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!

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.

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.

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 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!

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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 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.
  

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.

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’:

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 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.

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 Unlimited and occasionally as a contributor on Yahoo!

New Perks added to Campaign for Immediate and Affordable Healthcare

Tweet #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:

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!

What Are We Doing This For?

Photo Credit: Jim Devitt (in honor of Tony Valente and his 100 mile ride around Crater Lake this weekend

About 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?

If you want a bit of nostalgia, it doesn't get any better than this!

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - My Oh My (Official Video)

Hot off the presses (or electrons) First Chapters!

Here's your chance to sample 22 different indie authors. 

First Chapters

Available now on Amazon, just click First Chapters

First Chapters is an introduction to twenty-two cutting edge indie authors. Some of them are award-winning, some are bestselling, and they all, at one time, joined forces at IndiesUnlimited.com: a site dedicated to the indie author movement. This volume includes a wide array of genres and unique voices. We are sure you will find something inside to please every appetite.

This volume includes chapters from authors DV Berkom, Melissa Bowersock, Laurie Boris, K.S. Brooks, Lynne Cantwell, Martin Crosbie, Jim Devitt, A.C. Flory, Yvonne Hertzberger, Stephen Hise, Mark Jacobs, Chris James, LA Lewandowski, TD McKinnon, Rich Meyer, Melissa Pearl, Lin Robinson, Kathy Rowe, Carolyn Steele, Krista Tibbs, Dick Waters, and Carol Wyer.

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!

How do You Write the Chapters of Your Life?

Are you happy with your life? Do you ever wish that your life were different? Are you where you want to be with your writing, business, love life or just about anything else?

Most of the people that visit this blog are writers or readers. That pretty much sums up the entire population because if you are not doing one or the other or both, you are probably dead. As readers and writers, we are very familiar with novel structure. It's a series of chapters. You start with the introduction of a main character that experiences a transformation through a growth process that may involve mystery, romance, action, heartbreak, death, illness or exploration. The concepts are limitless.

Our lives can be looked at the same way.

The Many Faces of Jim Devitt

As many of you know, I worked the visiting clubhouse for the Seattle Mariners a Major League Baseball team. Since I worked for the visiting teams, I would wear the uniform of the visiting team. That put me in a bunch of different uniforms. 

I figured I would share some of those looks, both good and really bad. Yes, it was the late seventies, but that's no excuse as to how geeky some of these pictures are ...

Here's a little pre-game action while sporting the Kansas City Royals blue traveling uniform.

The Post All-Star Game Bounty

Being a batboy at the All-Star game did have some perks. Besides the great people and awesome times, I walked away with a couple of choice items. It's not every day that someone gets their own bat made for them!

 

Both Louisville Slugger and Adirondack custom made commemorative bats for me as the batboy for the National League. Although the relationships I forged I'll never forget, I did get a couple of nice things from some of the players.

I went from player to player getting autographs from the entire National League All-Star team on the official 50th All-Star game ball. That ball is loaded with baseball greats, you can find the list of All-Stars in my previous post here.  

The All-Star Game

Game day had finally arrived. Adrenalin was my main power source after sleeping at the Kingdome for three straight nights. The Groundskeepers had the field looking better than ever. Red, white and blue draped the gray concrete in every imaginable space.

As the day marched on, players arrived and a constant buzz of activity nested on the field. Dignitaries and stars came and went. I saw more people in the clubhouse than ever. In today's game, I don't think you would ever see access like in those days.

In one quiet moment, I walked through the dugout out on to the field. The television crews were laying cable and positioning cameras and I looked to my left and noticed an older man sitting by himself on the dugout bench.

In the Clubhouse and On the Field Before the All Star Game

The All-Stars had arrived and the Kingdome became the center of the baseball universe for three days. This was not the All-Star experience of today. Keep in mind, this was 34 years ago, the spectacle of the All-Star Game would grow over the next couple of decades. There was no Home Run hitting contest, no futures games or fan-fest.

The events leading up to the contest consisted of a batting and infield practice open to the public—that's it. No television directed drama, just a simple practice. Still, 15,000 people showed up for that event. It was cool for me, because I got to shag balls in the outfield during the batting practice, alongside greats like Dave Parker, George Foster and Dave Winfield.

My All-Star Experience - The Players Arrive

My days in the clubhouse reached a fever pitch about this time 34 years ago. I picked the right year to become batboy—the year Seattle hosted its first Major League All-Star Game. As the visiting clubhouse batboy, that meant that I would perform batboy duties for the National League All-Stars.

The players started filtering in a couple of days before the game. Players and their equipment would arrive at all hours of the day and night. This began a three-day stint of living in the Kingdome for me. Bags would arrive from a foreign city and team. I would look in awe at the arrival of these players from the "other" league.

The Fair Use Doctrine From Jane Friedman's Blog

Here's an excellent post by Jane Friedman and Bradlee Frazer on copyright infringement and fair use of copyrighted material.

http://janefriedman.com/2013/07/15/the-fair-use-doctrine/

It's definitely worth the few minutes it takes to read. You could save yourself a big headache down the road.



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!