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!

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.

Helping You Stay a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon … or … Part II of Helping you become a #1 Bestselling Author

A year ago, I wrote about Amazon categories in this space. It has gone on to be one of my most viewed posts over the past year. A recent conversation has led me to resurrect the post. If you didn’t see it, you can find it here.

To summarize that article, I laid out a step-by-step procedure to develop the best category for your book on Amazon that will help it show up on the bestseller lists. You have control over that process. It takes a little bit of time and research, but, in the end, it will help you become more recognizable and (I hope) sell more books.

I'm Still Writing, How About You?

You’ve heard it all, Amazon is bowing to the Big Six, Barnes and Noble and Amazon are destroying self-publishing and the traditional publishers are taking over the industry while charging $25,000 dollars to get your book out.

Enough!

Dudes, who cares. Has anything really changed? Can you still put your product through the grinder and be making money in twenty-four hours? YES.

Can you upload to Kindle today and see sales by tomorrow? YES.

So what are we doing? We’re spending all our time lamenting about how the industry is disappearing. We won’t be able to sell books. My sales have plummeted in October so it must be because Amazon is not counting my sales!

That’s a pile of crap.

New Book Release

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. With a move to a new house and the holidays, time gets away. So you better look out now!

During this time, I also collaborated on a new book that was released on Black Friday ... 

The Indies Unlimited: Tutorials and Tools for Prospering in a Digital World, Volume I

Here's the book description from Amazon:
 
Whether you are an author wanting to expand your book’s market or an entrepreneur selling candy-coated knitting baskets, you will benefit from an enhanced social media presence.

In Tutorials and Tools for Prospering in a Digital World Volume I you’ll find 62 step-by-step tutorials and tips/tools for everything from establishing a presence on multiple social media platforms to tools for optimizing your web presence to bonus tips tailored specifically for authors.

The award-winning and best-selling multi-national staff of Indies Unlimited brings you the ultimate guide for slapping social media into submission.

Knowledge is power. Fish is brain food. If you don’t have fish, you should at least have the Indies Unlimited Tutorials and Tools for Prospering in a Digital World Volume I. It smells way better than fish, and doesn’t require refrigeration. How can you go wrong?


 So, if you know anyone who is trying to make it in the digital world, whether it be self-publishing or any internet based program, this would make a great Christmas present. 

You can find it on Amazon right here.

What to Make of Author Rankings on Amazon

As if we didn’t have enough things to make us crazy, Amazon has come up with a new one—Amazon Author Rank. This is different from the “sales” rank for individual books on individual platforms. The new ranking compiles all your books sold on Amazon—Kindle, hardcopy and multiple titles combined.

 

You can access this new ranking on your Author Central Page. A new tab, “Rank” appears right next to the old “Sales Info” tab. Click on that and you’ll see how you rank from Amazon’s perspective. As with anything Amazon, it changes hourly and with sweeping changes. 

New Review for The Card

I just received a new review for THE CARD, posted on Amazon and Hide and Read a review blog site. She rated it at three stars, which I'm really okay with because of the excellent comments. Every reviewer has their own process and scale in which to rate books.

Take a moment and check out the review, I especially liked this opinion straight from the review:

 "...This novel takes us inside the world of baseball, or specifically, that of bat boys, with the introduction of Van's new job. For young sports fans, this may present a point of interest, especially as it is told through the eyes of a neophyte who is both awed and enthralled by each new experience. This "insider look" is one of the high points of the novel and ... "

A big thank you to Hide and Read for taking the time to read and post a review.

*   *   *   *   *

Jim Devitt is the author of the #1 Kindle bestselling novel, The Card, and a weekly contributor to the indie writing and publishing resource, Indies Unlimited.

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.

The Card now a #1 Kindle Bestseller

A huge thank you to everyone that has helped make this possible. Today we reached number one in our category for the PAID Kindle top 100, beating out some well known authors including Mike Lupica and Tim Green. We even hit #5 in the overall teen fiction category, right behind a little known book called Eclipse (Twilight Saga).

If you want to see it for yourself, you can check it out here. I don't know how long it will last, Amazon's rankings are very fluid. Of course, if you haven't picked up a copy of  THE CARD yet, you can always get one today!

New 5 Star review for The Card

Before I get into the review, I have to say a big THANK YOU to all the blog reviewers out there. They do an incredible job of reading and reviewing hundreds of books. They do this without pay and on their own time. It's amazing what they accomplish. Please take a moment to visit their sites, they truly love having new visitors!

Now, to the most recent review. THE CARD received 5 out of 5 stars from Silver's Reviews.

The review is now posted on her site and on Amazon and Goodreads.

An exert of the review, "...The author had good development of the plot and the characters and definitely had you guessing until the end."

Thanks to Elizabeth for the great review and thank you to everyone for continuing to support this first in the Van Stone series.