Author: Jim Devitt

Jim Devitt’s debut YA novel, The Card, hit #1 in three separate categories on the Kindle Bestseller list in early January and was a finalist in the Guys Can Read Indie Author Contest this past summer. Devitt currently lives in Miami, FL with his wife Melissa and their children. Learn more about Jim at his blog and his Amazon author page.

Stop the insanity – Using the right words in the right places

It’s RBI not RBI’s

I’m not big on posting boring lists, but today, I’ll make an exception. We all run across words, phrases and issues from time to time, that don’t make a lot of sense. Okay, I’ll come right out and say it, they are flat out WRONG. I don’t consider myself an expert on grammar or proper use of words so I’ve kept an ongoing list of the top pet peeves/mistakes I’ve made in the past. Here we go and, hopefully I hope, you’ll find a couple that will help.

Let’s start off with my biggest offender in the early days. My first manuscript was full of this one. Continue reading “Stop the insanity – Using the right words in the right places”

New Changes on Twitter

Twitter is our best friend and one of our greatest tools in the indie writing world. With great weaponry comes great responsibility. I’m not here today to tell you how to use a hashtag or tell you to not spam repeatedly, but to give you some insight to some cutting edge changes in Twitter that will go into effect almost immediately.

Let’s start with the new Stories function. Starting now, you can package the best of Twitter into a weekly email digest, delivered to your email inbox. This gives you access to the most relevant tweets and stories shared by the your Tweeps. Many of us use TweetDeck or HootSuite for that function, but this might help us catch a few things that we miss with the constant bombardment of Tweets. Continue reading “New Changes on Twitter”

Writing – The Final Frontier

Please bear with me. I’m in a weird mood this week. Last week I wrote about a long-term outlook on this writing gig. You guys had some great comments on that post. The gist of what you were saying was 1) If I spend so much time getting other to notice me, I won’t have time to write, and 2) Duh, thanks for reminding me, I can’t get rich quick with this thing.

Our Message to Other Worlds

If you’re like me, writing is really important. I want to make a career of writing. I want to leave an imprint with my writing. I want to make people laugh, cry, think and dream. I’m not saying that I do, it’s what I strive to do. This past week I started to think about writing in the grand scheme of things. Get a load of this for a sec:

Continue reading “Writing – The Final Frontier”

Developing Long-term Relationships for Constant Success

“How do I get people excited to buy my book?!”

It’s a marathon, not a sprint

If you have a book out there, or, if you have a book that will soon be released, I’m sure you’re asking yourself this over and over.

We’ve all been there. In March I wrote an article here at Indies Unlimited on having others promote your book—how to get reviews. In the post, I even offered you my spreadsheet of blogger reviewers and all my little notes and results. Many of you took me up on that request. I hope you were able to make sense out of it. The offer still stands—if you want it, contact me and I’ll get it to you. I still believe that this is a viable option for marketing your book.

Today, I say, “Whoa, Nellie.”

That March post was good and right on the money—IF you are looking to find the short-term answer to a long-term problem. You see, there is no “one-way” to do anything. In our world of self-publishing and indie writing, we have to incorporate some sprint training (the former post) into our marathon training—today’s message. Stay with me until the end where I’ll give you a step by step plan. Continue reading “Developing Long-term Relationships for Constant Success”