Pinterest for Authors: 5 Ways to Use for Promotion

I admit, I'm a Pinterst addict. Shhh. Don't tell anyone. Nah...go ahead. Tell everyone. I've been using Pinterest for maybe a year, but seriously starting utilizing it in the past four months. I have sat at my computer some days not realizing I've spent 4 hours or more pinning images. I currently have 53 boards and over 3,500 pins and counting. It's amazing how quickly the images add up.

Since my emergence on the Pinterest scene, I've come across some great marketing strategies. So I want to share with you some of the amazing ways I've seen authors utilize Pinterest to strengthen their readership and promote their books and writings, as well as some of the ways I'm currently using Pinterest to promote my own book.

First, what is Pinterest?
It's a cross between a virtual pin up board and a scrapbook. Once you create your account, you are able to create boards for different interests by organizing photos and illustrations from websites and blogs. For instance, I have boards titled Shoegasms, Kick Ass Boots, Yummy Desserts, and My Beautiful Book Covers. Each album contains photos (pins) of items that fit the description. You can also allow others to contribute to your album if you desire, which fosters increased sharing and interaction.

So what five ways can you use Pinterest to promote your book or writing?

1. Create an album like I did for book covers. You can name your album whatever you choose. Then pin book covers to that album. Make sure and leave a great description of the book, so if someone is interested in purchasing it or getting more info, they can do it easily. It's best to leave shortened url links as they look better. Try using Bitly or Tinyurl.

2. Create an album for the characters in your book. I'm currently in the process of doing this one. I'm finding it hard though to find characters that fit what I think the characters look like, or if I want to even go that route. I may just find items that fit the scene or setting associated with the character. I haven't decided. Or you can create fashions, clothes or accessories that your character would likely wear. You can choose whatever you like and create an entire world for your character with an album. Another great tip: add your readers and fans to the album as contributors and have them come up with images they think represent the character. It's a great way to get your readers involved and stay connected.

3. Create an inspiration board. I have one titled, Why I Write. It contains images and photos of things that inspire and motivate me to write. I hope that other writers, authors and aspiring writers can use the same images to help them too. We all need a little motivation sometimes and it helps readers to know that we don't wake up everyday revved up and ready to type away. Some days, it takes a little prodding. You can also use images that help you write, such as a beautiful desk, gorgeous stationery, funky pens or quotes about writing.

4. Create a Favorite Books album. I have one titled, Page Turners. It's an album of all the books I couldn't put down or books I just absolutely love. Make sure and describe your images appropriately with the author and title. This helps because authors may search for images of their own books, how nice would it be for an author to see that you've pinned their book and leave a comment on your pin? It's also a great way to give book recommendations to readers. People don't want to be inundated with your self-promotion, they want resources and info they can use.

5. Get your readers involved. Ask your readers to contribute to your album for the next book. Ask them to come up with images that you need to add description to your characters. Maybe your character wears a certain type high heel shoe or drinks a certain vintage wine but you can't find it. They can help you with the research and pin it to your board. Readers would love to contribute their input and feel like they helped in the making of your upcoming book.

BONUS* I couldn't resist. Actually, five just sounds better than six.
**Create a board for your videos. Yep, you can pin videos. I have an album for all my book trailers called Video Voyeurism for Books. Sound naughty doesn't it. I love it. You can also create an album for trailers that could help writers, video book reviews, book signings, workshops, or just a video message to your readers.

Must do's once you're on Pinterest

* Use large images, they visually look better. Use catchy album titles that sound attractive and appealing.

* Put a Pinterest widget on your blog or website so people can follow you on Pinterest. (mine is below near comments for pinning and at the top for following me)

* Reciprocate. Just like in the blogging community, people like to have comments and likes, but they also want their images repinned. Don't just put up photos and think that's it. You must engage by repinning other photos and following their albums.

* Try to use as many images from your own blog or website, it helps generate traffic, which could land you a new follower or reader. You can track how many people come to your blog from Pinterest by using your Google Analytics.

* Share your Pinterest albums with your other social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

* Use your time wisely. Pinterest can be a time sucker just like an other social media tool. Your objective is to promote, engage, connect and WRITE. Can't write if you're stuck on Pinterest all day.

Do you use Pinterest? What are some of your favorite Pinterest albums? If you've used Pinterest to market your book tell us how?

Top 25 Blogs for Writers

Most of you know that I have a passion for writing and that I have a few books being released soon. But I wanted to share some of the resources I use as a writer, especially other blogs I frequently visit that are geared towards providing writing resources for creative minds. Hopefully it can be of use to an aspiring writer, author or blog reader. So here they are, my top 25 blogs for writers. Plus, two bonus blogs I just had to squeeze in there. They are listed in no particular order.

• Allison Winn Scotch (formerly known as Ask Allison, site provides publishing and marketing info)
• Apostrophe Abuse (teaches the correct way to use an apostrophe)
• A Writer's Life (from the writer who created the books, the TV show Monk was based on)
• The Beacon Blog for Writers (resource for writers to help them get published)
• Cat's Eye Writer (for bloggers who write and writers who blog)
• The Creative Penn (provides resources for writers to write, publish and sell their books)
• Evil Editor (provides tips on defining your craft with better editing skills)
• Flogging the Quill (how to pursue the art and craft of compelling storytelling)
• Grammarphobia (readers ask grammar questions and get responses)
• John Baker's Blog (an author blog, has some great resources on writing)
• Kim's Craft Blog (tips about constraints and creativity, including memoirs, fiction & creative writing)
• Make a Living Writing (shows writers how to make a good living with their writing)
• Paperback Writer (writer of forty-five novels in eight genres, she talks about writing and her life)
• The Plotmonkeys (several bloggers talking about books and their lives)
• Scott Berkun (bestselling author and public speaker, share writing techniques for creative thinking)
• Six Sentences (write in six sentence exercise, and you can submit your own)
• Storyfix (tips to get serious about writing and writing stories that attract readers)
• Time to Write (inspiration, ideas and tips for aspiring writers, writers and creative people)
• Wordplay (provides resources to help aspiring writers become authors)
• Wordswimmer (insights into understanding the writing process)
• Write Anything (inspiration, motivation and writing challenges)
• Write Better (tips on communication, business writing and creative writing)
• Writer Beware (a publishing industry watchdog that helps writers avoid scams, pitfalls and schemes)
• Write to Done (effective ways to write better)
• Writers Write (resources about writing, books and publishing)
• Writer Unboxed (blog that dissects books and finds out what makes them great from a writer's view)
• Emerging Writers Network (info on how to work towards succeeding in writing

Do you visit any of the blogs on the list?

Do you have or know

 a blog I can add to the list?

BBAW: 10 Tips for Bloggers

Topic:  Share 3 things you are essential tried and true practices for every blogger and 1-3 new trends or tools you’ve adapted recently or would like to in the future.


Today is the end of the BBAW. It was so much fun. I met some new bloggers and learned a lot from their posts. So I decided to make my last post for the BBAW practical and easy by making a list of ten things of practical tips and tools for blogging. 


Tried and True Practices and Blogging Tools :

• Comment on other blogs ~ As I said before in my other post (How Do You Find Community), be reciprocal and leave a comment when you visit a blog. I read on some other blogs that comments should be thoughtful, meaningful and blah, blah, blah. But really just say, "hi, I am new to your blog and was lurking around and decided to comment" or whatever you feel like saying. I prefer a brief comment over no comment. And sometimes people just don't know what to say. If they say nothing, I don't know they exist and I can't reciprocate in commenting. 

• Be Consistent ~ Try to be consistent in all your blogging and posting. Blog as often as you can. And set a minimum and maximum number of posts you will do each week. And then let your readers know that's how often you will be posting. I for instance blog 3-5 days a week. Generally 3 if I'm not participating in a hop.

• Be Present ~ Even on the days you don't make a new post on your own blog. Use some of that time to visit other blogs instead. You may not have anything new for them to come back to and comment on but they will remember that even on your off days, you made the effort to come by their blog and visit; that's how you nurture relationships.

• Following and Gaining Followers ~ Don't feel obligated to follow blogs if you aren't truly interested in them. If you join a blog you likely won't go back to, all you really did was make your list longer in your feed or add  to the amount of email you'll get. Secondly, don't get swept into the hype of needing large amounts of followers. If you comment and participate, they will come. But don't feel like you aren't productive if you don't have a lot of followers. For instance, have you ever visited a blog that had over 1,000 followers but not a single person commented on any of their post that week or the week before? It's usually because the blog owner dropped the ball somewhere and didn't nurture the followers they received. When I say drop the ball, I mean they didn't reciprocate. They didn't follow the people that followed them. They didn't comment on other blogs, they didn't reply to comments on their own blog or they weren't consistent in posting. Now I have been to blogs with 50 or 60 followers and they have a healthy 10 comments or so on each posts. That's a healthy blog. The owner is nurturing her blog in some form or fashion and her followers are receptive of that attention or he/she has something really important to say in their posts. As I said before I'd take a quick comment over no comment at all. 

• Ask a question ~ If you want comments, ask a question at the end of each post. Some people don't comment because they don't know what to say because you said everything already, you didn't pose a question or you didn't challenge them to come up with something different than what you already stated. 

• Great tools to use ~  Twitter, Facebook, Hootsuite, Goodreads, Shelfari, Book Blogs, Google Reader and StumbleUpon. I use each of these. But I consistently use Facebook, Twitter, my Google Reader and StumbleUpon. Now I don't actually use the Twitter site often, I use Hootsuite instead. It allows me to access my Twitter account and view it in an easier format. It also lets me schedule my tweets weeks in advance. So if I know I'm running a giveaway for a week then I will schedule my tweets for that entire week in advance. How to: After I make my posts, I'll schedule my tweet to post every hour on the hour for the entire week (you can also schedule every fifteen minutes). It lets my Twitter feed look up to date and I can concentrate on just replying to tweets instead of plugging my links. I admit it takes a little time, about an hour to schedule all of them for the week. But once it's done I can concentrate on other things. StumbleUpon lets you find other interesting articles or blogs as well. It also allows you to upload your own post from your blog so others can "stumbleupon" them. I would like to utilize technorati and digg. I haven't gotten the hang of them yet, but I'm trying to use these more consistently. But I also know I can't spend all my time visiting social sites. So it hasn't been a priority yet.

• Give blog love ~ Whenever possible, spread the blog love around. Tell your followers about other great blogs you visit. This can come back to you in ten fold. Linking to another blog increases the chances of that blog returning the favor in the future. It also increases traffic to your blog. Also update your blog roll or blog feed. We like to see which blogs you like, but don't list blogs that haven't posted in 3 months or so.

• Participate in hops, memes and giveaways ~ I find that I have garnered most of my followers through events like the (Armchair BEA), hops (such as the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop) and my own personal giveaways and other blog giveaways. I don't usually gain many followers through memes when I have participated. But some say it works for them. Some good memes would be In My Mailbox Monday, Feature and Follow and Waiting on Wednesday. I normally stick to hops and giveaways. You can find giveaways and hops by visiting other blogs by looking in their sidebar for buttons and announcements. Go to some of the blogs in their blog roll and see what's going on there. You have to search out other blogs to get info.

• Be you ~ Be yourself. Don't try to imitate another blogger. Just let people know the authentic you and if they like that person they'll stick around. But if you try to copy other bloggers in design, concept, etc, eventually you will burn out. It's always easier and better to be you even on a bad day, then it is to be someone else on a good day.

• Guest posting/ blogging: Try asking other bloggers if you can guest post on their blog and vice versa. It's a great way to gain new followers, get a new perspective on your blog for a change and it's nice way to get a break from posting even if only for a day.

• Bonus Tip: * Balance* ~ When it comes to blogging there is no such thing as balance for me. It's all about prioritizing. To say balance would mean making all things equal or giving each thing equal time. And that doesn't work for me because that's not how I live. I have a list of what's important and what goes at the top of my list. Blogging is not at the top of my list. At the top of my list is God, my family and my writing career. So I make decisions based on that and I fit blogging in where it needs to go. If I can't do something related to blogging, I just don't do it. I've found if you take a break and let your followers know your going on hiatus, they'll respect that and most will jump right back in where you left off once you return. So don't stress about it. And don't forget to enjoy yourself. Blogging should be fun.

Do you have any practical advice, tools or tips to share for blogging?