Among the most popular social media today is Pinterest. If you haven’t used Pinterest before, it’s fairly simple (and cool!). Imagine that you have a bulletin board hanging on your wall. When you see something you like – a favorite quotation, a scenic picture of a place you want to go, a pic of your favorite actor – you clip it from the magazine or newspaper and pin it to your bulletin board. With Pinterest, you do the same thing, except you’re pinning pictures from different websites on a virtual bulletin board, and the photo includes a link to the website it came from. You also can have several bulletin boards (one for each interest) on your virtual wall. Other people – even if not on Pinterest – can peruse these boards as well.
As an author, you definitely can leverage Pinterest to sell your books. This works particularly well for nonfiction books.
Suppose you write books about skiing. You could create several (bulletin) boards at your Pinterest home page. One might be on different ski trails, another on skiing gear, another on downhill skiing topics, another on cross-country skiing topics, maybe one on skiing celebrities. As you write blog entries about these various topics, be sure to include a picture with that post. When the blog entry goes live, pin it to the appropriate Pinterest board. Along with that pin, you can add text that pitches your book, such as “Learn more about Colorado ski trails at (URL)”; the URL then would send them to the Amazon.com page that sells your book.
In addition to blog entries, you might pin your books’ actual covers with the link leading to their Amazon.com page. Or if you’ve written an article for another blog, a newspaper, or a magazine, pin that. You might even pin other articles that people have posted.
Pinterest works as a sales tool because interesting photos grab people’s attention. Once they see something that piques their interest, they’ll take a closer look by clicking onto your blog or web page. In addition, each Pinterest photo gives you another entry point on search engines to your book. As search engines include your picture on their “Images” listings, this can lead to higher blog visits and ultimately book sales. Hashtags also can be used on Pinterest.
If you set up a Pinterest page for your books, be sure to use the same name as you do across your author’s platform. So, if your blog is called “Ski Demon”, then use “Ski Demon” for your Pinterest page. Also, should you already have a Pinterest page that you use for personal purposes (with boards for favorite hairstyles, great kitchen designs, and everything Rick Astley), don’t mix it with boards promoting your books. Instead, to avoid confusing those visiting your home page, create a new Pinterest page.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.