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.

A Big Thank You

The past few weeks I’ve written some pretty heavy stuff. The long and tedious “Department of Justice Investigation” post—did anyone actually make it through that? The detailed “Categories to #1” post was a mind bender.

I’m going to ease off the pedal today and try to keep this post under 1,000 words. Actually, this post is one of the easiest I’ll ever do. I want to pause for a moment and just say … THANKS!

Seriously, so many of you have been such a big help to me. Let me start with the Indies Unlimited contributing authors. Wow, I don’t think a better collection of authors exist that help others become successful every day of the week. Man, you guys are good. I’ve learned so much in the brief two months that I’ve been a part of this. Continue reading “A Big Thank You”

The Impact of the Dept. of Justice Investigation

The Indie Author in the world of Publishing

Last week, on March 24, 2012, we looked at a brief history of eBooks, Publishers and the Agency vs. Wholesale pricing model. You can review that post here.

Ironically,on Thursday March 29, 2012, the Huffington Post ran a story by Mark Coker the founder of Smashwords. Most of you are familiar with Smashwords as one of the first distributors to supply eBooks to retailers including, Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, the Diesel eBook Store, and Baker and Taylor. Continue reading “The Impact of the Dept. of Justice Investigation”

Department of Justice v. How we make a living

I’m shifting gears a bit today. This has been bugging me for awhile. You see, I’m a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon. Who am I? Nobody really—but that’s the point. Less than a year ago, nobody knew who I was, who Van Stone is or had never heard of The Card. Actually, to be honest, I had not heard of The Card yet either, because I hadn’t come up with the title yet.

How can that happen, you ask? Simple. The world of eBooks has allowed thousands of writers publish their material and either sink or swim in the big world of bookselling. Believe it or not—that may all be about to change. Continue reading “Department of Justice v. How we make a living”

Helping you become a #1 Bestselling Author

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.

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.

As with anything in our indie publishing world, you have to know the system before you play the game. First, when you uploaded and published your book, you picked five categories. These have nothing to do with how Amazon ranks your book—they’re used in keyword searches for someone browsing topics. Continue reading “Helping you become a #1 Bestselling Author”