One Author's Experience with @Pinterest

I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to social media but I will try my darnedest. This month I’m going to talk about Pinterest as a novice. I have found it to be a lot of fun. I don’t let it take up too much of my time and I do try to use it to my advantage.

First know that Pinterest can suck you in. My husband has joined and the man spends hours looking at pictures and re-pinning them. As an author, most of us don’t have time for that, but I limit my time by only collecting things I feel represents me as a writer.

When you first start with Pinterest they automatically set you up with generic boards. You can use them or rename them, then create more as you develop your page. I chose the latter as I worked on my page because most of the ones they gave me didn’t work for what I wanted to pin.

Boards: I have a lot of them. Some have nothing to do with writing and a few are a stretch but they work and do bring followers. I recommend setting up one for your releases. I have my covers there with a link to a place where anyone can buy them. I also have one for my blogs. Each time I post a blog I pin a writing related picture and give my followers the link. I also have a board called writing tools. Pins on writing, grammar, anything I feel helps a writer. I have one for my characters, images of what they might look like, ideas for clothing in the future. I have one on wolves because I have a shape-shifter in my series. I have a fantasy one because I feel that falls into my realm of writing. I have one for the cosmos because I write SF/Futuristic Erotic Romance. The rest are just fun, recipes, cat and dog pictures – that kind of thing. These boards still work because it brings in followers who will see my posts on my books and blogs.

Pins: The more people you follow the more pins show up on your feed. The pins there are images you can re-pin to your board that will go across the feeds of anyone following you. There are so many things you can use these pins for. If you find pins from someone you can also follow those pins to their board and then see all the other pins they have. Looking around will also allow you to see how other authors have their boards set up. It might give you some great ideas.

I know writers who have a board for clothing and shoes their characters might wear. Locations where their stories take place. Pets their characters might have. Jobs they might hold. There is a lot you can do with Pinterest. All you really need is a good imagination and what author doesn’t have that?

See you next month!
Barb:)

Writing for Barbara Donlon Bradley started innocently enough, like most she kept diaries, journals, and wrote an occasional letter but she also had a vivid imagination and wrote scenes and short stories adding characters to her favorite shows and comic books. As time went on she found the passion for writing to be a strong drive for her. Humor is also very strong in her life. No matter how hard she tries to write something deep and dark, it will never happen. That humor bleeds into her writing. Since she can’t beat it she has learned to use it to her advantage. Now she lives in Tidewater Virginia with two cats, one mother in law, her husband and teenage son.