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. 

Amazon Categories and how to become a Bestseller

Bestselling Author … Bestselling Novel … sounds good doesn’t it? A few weeks ago, I posted about reviews and their impact on ratings and readers. You can see that post here. Today, I want to discuss the elusive BESTSELLER.

This article was originally posted in Indies Unlimited a few weeks ago. Since then, several authors have followed these steps and created a bestseller for themselves in the matter of days. 

When you have achieved bestseller status, it is yours for life. No one can take it away. Conveniently, Amazon changes the rankings hourly. Now, many of you might look at that as a negative but all you need is for your book to hit #1 just one time, and even if it drops out after an hour, you’ve just achieved “bestseller” status.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Quarterfinals

My run in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is over. Am I disappointed? Not really. I knew going in that the judging criteria for this part was my weakest link. 

The “Excerpt” portion was limited to just 5,000 words and with The Card that included the development of the characters for an ongoing series. No excuses, it should have—and could have—been better. I went into this with eyes-wide-open knowing that I should have done a better job with this portion. I was hopeful that I might squeak by, but alas, it didn’t happen. 

 “Amazon Expert Reviewers” conducted the judging, which included one Amazon editor and one Amazon “Expert” reviewer. The Amazon “Expert” Reviewer is a status achieved by writing reviews for books listed on Amazon. 

After reading the reviews, I was:

1) Really encouraged at the response

2) Wondering what it took to get into the quarterfinals.

Jim Devitt goes live on Indies Unlimited

Recently, I've had the honor of being invited as a contributing author to join the staff at Indies Unlimited, a fast growing and influential site. Launched last fall by author Stephen Hise, the site is dedicated to the independent authors, publishers, reviewers and readers who are on the cutting edge of the technological revolution of indie publishing.

My first post is available today, and you'll find a post from me each Saturday.  I hope that you will find great information and fantastic ideas to help wade through the Indie Publishing world. If you are into traditional publishing, maybe you'll learn a few things along the way.

Please take a moment to check us out. Meanwhile, the #1 Kindle Bestselling novel, THE CARD, continues to enjoy its best run ever. Thanks to everyone that has helped keep us on the charts.