Author: Laurie Boris

Laurie Boris is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and former graphic designer. She has been writing fiction for over twenty-five years and is the award-winning author of four novels. She lives in New York’s lovely Hudson Valley. Learn more about Laurie at her website and her Amazon author page.

Use Bitly to Track URL Traffic and More

You may have used bitly.com to shorten your URLs into cute little chunks, which let you craft Tweets that maximize the word limit. While this bookmarking site handles that function pretty spiffily, it can also help you track the effectiveness of your content and share links with others.

First, create a bitly profile if you haven’t already. It’s the usual deal: enter a user name and password, put in your e-mail address and verify it. I’ll wait while you do that, because I’m nice that way. Continue reading “Use Bitly to Track URL Traffic and More”

Does AuthorsDB Fit into Your Marketing Basket?

You may have seen social media flutterings about AuthorsDB, a website that lets you enroll your books and/or your writing services in their free database and get…(sigh) free exposure. Yes, for free. Totally free. What’s the catch? Glad you asked. Well, there isn’t really much of one that I could see, even after employing Rich Meyer’s due diligence procedures. The philosophy of the site, however, reminds me of my local food coop, where you get a discount equal to what you choose to put in: slicing cheese, tagging tomatoes, putting up flyers all over town, or working the cash register. Continue reading “Does AuthorsDB Fit into Your Marketing Basket?”

Could the “Amazon Family” Actually Be Good for Goodreads?

I like Goodreads. It’s a nice little site. Come visit if you’ve never been. Readers talk about books without all that pressure of having to put on pants and brush their hair. We form book clubs, discussion groups, have a little chat around the virtual fireplace. Literary movements have been and continue to be born there. Even though every time I log in, it reminds me that I’m a slow reader who is not living up to her ill-considered 2013 Reading Challenge Goal, as a reader, I like the place. And if, as an author, you don’t hard-sell or spam (you don’t, do you?), it’s a good place to launch a new book with a giveaway and interact with readers. Unless they are clearly abusive, no vague, Big-Brotherish policy steps in and strips away your reviews. Continue reading “Could the “Amazon Family” Actually Be Good for Goodreads?”

This is Your Brain on Revisions

Are your revisions going nowhere? Stuck in a plot hole, a muddled middle, a twisted thread? Try some of these fairly harmless, out-of-the box suggestions to get your project moving again, endorsed by actual, real brain scientists with degrees and everything. No, I didn’t make this up. No, I won’t give you their e-mail addresses. Not without some serious coin. Hey, amygdalas and those cool scanning machines with the flashy buttons don’t come cheap. Continue reading “This is Your Brain on Revisions”