Ever find yourself logging on to your Pinterest account for quick inspiration--and 46 pins, a glass of wine, and 30 minutes later you've been sucked into a Pinterest hole? Why not maximize on this addicting platform and utilize its features to benefit your launch day? There is no reason your character inspiration, book and giveaway promotions, and #novelines should not be shared with the Pinterest world.
Here are four quick ways to help you gain more momentum on Pinterest when it comes to your author platform:
Cast board
If your novel was optioned for a movie, who would the director cast for the different roles? It’s always fun to match your reader’s favorite celebrities with their favorite fictional characters. Pin a few different casting options and tell us why they are the perfect fit.
Setting board
Include your inspiration behind the setting of your book. Help your readers get excited about the neighborhood, kitchen, and living room that your characters live in.
Writing Inspiration board
What inspired you most while writing your book? Pin the places, characters, writers, and books that pushed you to finish writing. Take advantage of the caption feature on each pin, and create fun blurbs describing why each image inspired you.
Dedicated Quote board
Develop some shareable memes around your book for social media that include your book cover and some of your favorite lines from your book. This is an awesome way to pull in your audience and entice them with a few of your favorite snippets. If you don't have any promotional materials for your book--no worries! Pin quotes that remind you of each of your characters.
A few ground rules to Pinterest before you get started: Be selective and consistent while pinning. It is important to be choosy--to curate effective and high-quality boards so that you are not flooding your followers timelines with redundant images. And the more active you are at pinning or re-pinning noteworthy content, the more likely it is that you will gain new followers on Pinterest.
Here are a few of my favorite author Pinterest accounts that you should check out:
Happy Pinning!
I've been collecting images on Pinterest as I do research for my first novel. Somewhere, I read that one useful book promotion is to offer a link to a secret board of images as one way to promote your book. Here's my collection: Not Easy, Not Simple
Good ideas, but only 1 glass of wine?
I am looking forward to following your suggestions about book promotion on Pinterest. Will start with my previously published book to practice. ~:0) Thank you for your tips!
My book cover artist turned me on to Pintrest. It was a way we could communicate across an ocean and half a continent. After reading this post, I see the potential for my inspiration boards. Pintrest is a beautiful universe of colorful people, but I'm not sure the galaxy of readers is large. Still, I'm already using it, but it wouldn't necessarily be recognizable to my followers.
Just what I need. More work to do, but I'll get on my boards and start making comments.
Wow, Rachel, I never thought of a board for book cover ideas. What a great one!
Here's links to my work in progress inspiration boards:
Behind the book-Nadia-https:/
Behind the book-Harbingers of El Tinor- https:/
I'm using Pinterest for many things like pinning my interests/hobbies (manga, anime, Asian dramas), inspiring reading and writing quotes. But I also have two behind the book-creation inspiration boards for my work in progress novels.
I am writing a historical novel, so I have been pinning old photographs from the period, including people, costumes, locations, and military arms. My "Here We Stand" board is https:/
Very clever! I've never had a pinterest account but I might start one for my book.
Pinterest is amazing and mesmerizing, I am totally hooked on the site. It is a self-study of one's inner self, feelings and loves. All of my people are up, Sentinel, Duke Anton, Allyce, and the Queen, etc.
There are a lot of cultural references in my debut novel--movies, celebrities, etc. I made a Pinterest board for the novel (The One That Got Away) and tried to find images for each cultural reference. When I get my author copies I'm going to see if I can put page numbers from the book next to each image.
There are some really great ideas in this blog and the comments. Thank you!
I make a single pinboard for a novel in process that serves as a moodboard. It'll have pieces of visual research, art that is somehow evocative of something in the book, images of historical figures or events or whatever. And when i'm stuck on a draft i can almost always just scroll through the pinboard and find some kind of ekphrastic jumping-off point or inspiration.
I also have a pinboard which is images of the covers of my books/anthologies i'm in, and a pinboard of book covers with design elements i like, so that i have handy visual references when having a conversation with a graphic designer.
I will admit, i don't use Pinterest to collect or organize quotes or text-based anything. I keep all that in a research folder in the project's Scrivener file. Images of quotes feel like bumperstickers to me, and are almost always presented without context or sometimes even without accurate attribution.
Pinterest really is a great tool for writers, and a fun way to engage in a visual way with readers/fans/fellow writers.
Great suggestions! I also pin books on my kindle, books by authors in my lit group, ideas for writing retreats, photos links to each blog post, writing quotes using my own photography, and recipes from the ranch (which I call my website). Recipes can suck me in, but I try to stay away from the Pinterest vortex. Pinning is quick! It's not as interactive as my other social media, but I don't think it needs to be (unless I develop clones and assign each one a social media to manage).
I use Pinterest for many things. It's a place I can find good recipes, ideas for making my home more organized and beautiful, and it's also a place I can share my books, characters, and the sites where I do research for them. I follow a few geeky fandoms, and have boards for those. I've gotten many followers because of them. For example, when someone follows my board for Thranduil, the Elven King from the Hobbit films, I follow them back. When I see a new picture of Thranduil, I send it to them. It's a way to begin a relationship with a potential reader, yes, but it's also a way to make a new friend.