Your Book's Pinterest

Great idea. Thanks for sharing.

I heard pinterest is a very powerful marketing tool right now. So why not? Please weigh in on how it goes. Very curious to see.

For me, Pinterest has been an AMAZING marketing tool. Good luck!

TheHungryFreelancer said:

For me, Pinterest has been an AMAZING marketing tool. Good luck!

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How are you using it? I love pinterest and I use it most days, but I don't think it's generating any sales for me at all.

I have a pinterest and it's more author driven than specifically to my books. I do have an album for most of my books. I don't go on it often. I guess I should! I would love more info on how others are using it to market their books.

I'm on Pinterest as well, but haven't been using it that much. I have a board for my book that has a collection of photos of the various settings.

The biggest problem I have with Pinterest is when someone follows me, and I'm only interested in a few of their boards. If I follow just a few of their boards, that doesn't count me as a follower, but I don't want to follow the person and have all their irrelevant stuff in my feed.

I'd be interested in hearing how others handle this.

nkkingston said:

How are you using it? I love pinterest and I use it most days, but I don't think it's generating any sales for me at all.

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I don't just share my books, but I do pin every book that I publish. Additionally, if I write a blog post about a book, I pin that. If someone writes a post about my book, I pin that. I also write several "pinnable" blog posts each week to drive traffic to my blog. There are links to my books from that site, too.

Another thing to remember with Pinterest is that your description is important. Never just put the title of your book. You want to describe the book if possible. When people search Pinterest for something, like "books on depression" or "zombie stories," the search will be more likely to turn up your pin.

I don't see anyone here having a Pinterest link in their signature ... I'd like to see some of your boards.

My Pinterest

As usual with social media, though I've set up various book related things, I mostly use it as a punter, so it's full of fan art and pictures of space and recipes and idea for home improvement. The advice about describing the books is really useful. I'm off to tweak my descriptions

Here's my pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/celestecarrara/

I didn't know that about the descriptions for the pins! That's great info and I'm going to make sure I do that!

Out of curiosity, if you follow all of someone's boards, then unfollow the ones you don't like, does it still count you as a follower, or just as it would if you'd only followed individual boards to start with?

nkkingston said:

Out of curiosity, if you follow all of someone's boards, then unfollow the ones you don't like, does it still count you as a follower, or just as it would if you'd only followed individual boards to start with?

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Good point. It would probably count as a follower. I've just been too lazy to do that.

If you follow just a few boards, it will still count you as a follower.

Here's mine: RebelNun

TheHungryFreelancer said:

If you follow just a few boards, it will still count you as a follower.

Here's mine: RebelNun

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The person whose boards you follow will show up in your list of followers, but I don't think you show up on theirs unless you "follow all". At least, that's been my experience. Anyway, I gave it a test by following a few of your boards.

My profile: http://www.pinterest.com/kdoyleauthor/

It counts you as a follower if you even follow one board. Just one.

My Pinterest

TAMaxwell said:

It counts you as a follower if you even follow one board. Just one.

My Pinterest

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I followed a few of your boards but I don't show up in your list of followers. See the first bullet point in this blog post that discusses the issue.

WriterBN said:

I followed a few of your boards but I don't show up in your list of followers. See the first bullet point in this blog post that discusses the issue.

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I see you, and I'm not even logged in. Scroll down. The top people are the ones who follow every board, while the bottom ones follow only a few. Goes from newest to oldest on each group. You're right after my friend JR, who was my first follower.

TAMaxwell said:

I see you, and I'm not even logged in. Scroll down. The top people are the ones who follow every board, while the bottom ones follow only a few. Goes from newest to oldest on each group. You're right after my friend JR, who was my first follower.

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Sorry...I think I need a new eye exam Found it this time.

It's all right. Pinterest works weird and doesn't make sense in some ways, and I'm an addict so I know them all.

WriterBN said:

The person whose boards you follow will show up in your list of followers, but I don't think you show up on theirs unless you "follow all". At least, that's been my experience. Anyway, I gave it a test by following a few of your boards.

My profile: http://www.pinterest.com/kdoyleauthor/

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You show up as one of my followers, but I won't show up as one of yours unless I follow yours. Following other people won't ensure that they follow you back. It's not an automatic process. While most people will thank you by following you when you follow a board, not everyone will.

What a fabulous idea! I have a Pinterest account for myself for gardening, recipes and such, but I never thought to create one under my pen name for my books! Genius! I'm going to go set one up today! Thanks ECathers!

Pinterest, I guess for me, is still just a curiosity. Not sure how it could be used as a marketing tool.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Pinterest, I guess for me, is still just a curiosity. Not sure how it could be used as a marketing tool.

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Same as any other social networking site, really. You can get followers just from having something in common with them. Pinterest has better connectivity and visibility with random people versus people you know. And because Pinterest is a completely visual system (everything must have a picture and can link anywhere you want with two clicks [thumbnail > large image > site]), you're putting your cover out there to draw people in versus just text or an obvious sales link.

There are group boards that all you need is an invitation to pin to. For example, I follow a popular group board that has 15000+ followers, is open to anyone who asks, and is self-promotion friendly. If I asked for an invite, I could post there and pin a picture of and link to my book (if I had one). That's getting my book out to potentially 15000+ people with one picture. Any of them could repin it themselves if they were interested, spreading it to their followers. Or they could follow me and increase my potential fanbase. I could also pin sales and giveaways there to attract more interest.

There's also no private message system, so all communication on it is visible to anyone. By being open and friendly, you can build a positive platform for yourself.

By making boards related to your books in progress, you can get fans/followers hyped about what's coming soon.

There are probably other ways to market/promote on Pinterest, but that's all I got right now.

TL/DR: Maxwell likes Pinterest way more than is healthy. She is nuts, but Pinterest is just as good as any other social networking site.