5 Ideas for Using Pinterest as an Author

Pinterest for authors

Today’s guest post is by Amanda Luedeke (@amandaluedeke), a literary agent with MacGregor Literary, Inc., and author of The Extroverted Writer: An Author’s Guide to Marketing and Building a Platform.


Social media sites come and go, and Pinterest is the most recent one to see a major usage spike. Consequently, businesses and brands and marketing teams are feeling the pressure to infiltrate the site and use it for their purposes of getting you to buy, want, and need things or experiences that you normally wouldn’t consider.

And people in publishing—including authors? We’re feeling the same push to be present on that platform.

Let’s be clear about what Pinterest is: Pinterest is a site that allows users to “pin” images found on the web to virtual pinboards. There’s minimal text involved because it’s a visual site. It’s all about virtual scrapbooking and visual inspiration. To give you a better idea of what/how Pinterest is used, I’d say right now it’s probably the biggest fad among brides-to-be. They can have their wedding pinboards where they gather all of the pretty photos they see online and use them as wedding inspiration.

So, why are authors feeling the pressure? I honestly can’t say, and if you’re reading this, baffled by corporate America’s desire to turn Pinterest into a marketing mecca, then you and I can have a drink sometime and shake our heads at marketing teams who feel they have to have all these online presences. Personally, I think your time would be better spent with more tried-and-true sites.

But if you really connect with this medium and want do some professional pinning, here are five ideas.

1. Create a novel inspiration pinboard.

Tease your fans by creating a pinboard that showcases photos of people and locations that inspired your upcoming book. This would also be a great thing to pass on to your publishing house’s design team. It would give them a helping hand when creating the perfect book cover. (I’ve also heard of authors looking to their fans to help “cast the roles” of their favorite characters. It’s a neat game.)

2. Create a novel comparison pinboard.

Think of the authors within your genre who write stories similar to your own. Gather their book covers, author photos, and whatnots, and put them on a pinboard. This can be your “If you like ________, you’ll also like my book!” board. (If you have a published book, be sure to add it to the pinboard as well!) You never know when it might hook some potential fans.

3. Create an upcoming cover art pinboard.

Fans love leaked images, so when you begin working through cover designs with your publisher (or even if you e-publish!), be sure to “leak” the images to your pinboard. Ask for fan input and make them feel part of the process. Plus, Pinterest is designed to make it easy for users to share images. If you start seeing your book’s cover appear on multiple boards, you know you’ve got a winner.

4. Create a blog pinboard.

Some authors see success with Pinterest when they consistently pin photos from their blog posts. This requires you to (a) maintain a blog, (b) include photos with each post, and (c) properly pin those photos. But the general idea is that if you end up with some photos that attract attention, people will click through to see where they originated. 

5. Encourage wish lists.

This is an idea I stole from the clothing store Express. During the 2012 holiday season, they offered a shopping spree to one lucky Pinner who put together an Express wish list. At the time this was written, Pinterest’s search engine was totally unreliable, so if you try this idea, you’ll need to develop some way for Pinners to let you know their boards exist. But the basic idea is that you ask Pinners to create holiday (or Valentine’s Day, etc.) wish lists in which they pin books that they want, including some of yours. One lucky winner will receive a prize. The ultimate payoff with this tactic is that it encourages family and friends of these Pinners to actually go out and purchase some of these wish list items as gifts. That’s what happened to me. I made my Express pinboards, and though I didn’t win anything, I received three Express items that holiday season from family and friends.

Proper Pinning 101

  • Create great, concise descriptions of each pin, using hashtags, keywords, links, and more.
  • Pin book covers from sites in which the book can actually be purchased.
  • Tag every book cover pin with genre, author, and title information.

What ideas do YOU have for using Pinterest? Let us know in the comments. 


Extroverted Writer by Amanda LuedekeWant to learn more about author marketing? Check out The Extroverted Writer from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

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Esther Aspling

Thanks for the extra insight. I’ve been using Pinterest to link to my blog, but these other ideas really make the site new again!

http://forthisisthetime.blogspot.com

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[…] How authors, especially novelists, can start using Pinterest in a way that's a natural outgrowth of their work.  […]

Liz Long

It goes along with your novel inspiration tip, but taking and uploading photos of my city (used as inspiration for novel’s city) is a great way to remind yourself of how things (or people) look when sketching everything out. I shared a few points in my post that hopefully authors can use like yours. http://lizclong.com/2012/10/10/why-pinterest-is-my-new-favorite-writing-tool/

Fiona Ingram

An excellent example of an author using Pinterest successfully is Lucinda Brant, a Georgian romance novelist. She finds the most incredible images of clothes, landscapes, furniture etc., and links them to characters in her books.

Amanda Luedeke

I’ll have to check her out!

Lucinda Brant

Here’s the link http://pinterest.com/lucindabrant Enjoy!

Emily Scott

Thanks for the tip!

Lucinda Brant

Thanks so much for the mention, Fiona. I’m so pleased you enjoy my 18th Century Pinterest boards.

Kevin Lynn Helmick

I enjoy searching vintage photography there, as well book cover art, movie posters that I like, etc. but yeah, I don’t see it as effective marketing for my books. Just a well of images and art for me to look at and share. I could be missing the point.

I’ve never thought of using images to illustrate characters and setting of my books, story board. That’s might be useful and certainly fun to do and see if that would equate into attention and sales.
I doubt it though.
Like most self-marketing it would probably just eat up writing time.
In my experience nothing seems to work better than word of mouth by readers and reviewers on selling books. I buy and read based on buzz mostly. And I sell the most that way too.
Just keep creating a solid product to read

Amanda Luedeke

You have to do what works for you, Kevin. Marketing is a huge component these days, but recognizing when to NOT pursue a particular avenue will save you a lot of hassle and time.

Deb Atwood

I’ve been totally confused by Pinterest. Thanks for providing concrete examples that authors can actually use.

Anne R. Allen

How do you deal with copyright issues for Pinterest? If, as you suggest, you use the photo of an actor you’d like to cast in a movie of your book, do you write to that actor’s agent for permission? The film studio? How about getting permission to use another author’s cover image? Do you write to the publisher? I know bloggers have been hit with hefty lawsuits for using copyrighted material. Does Pinterest get some kind of blanket waiver? If it doesn’t, a lot of these ideas might lead to trouble.

Jane Friedman

Pinterest’s terms of use specify that people should only pin material to which they have rights/permission. As far as I can tell, the large majority of Pinterest activity involves pinning images one does not own outright, because that activity is in fact encouraged & welcomed by hundreds, if not thousands, of commercial entities. (Marketing & promotion, as Amanda points out.)

Using photos of actors, book cover images, etc—these are rarely problematic if the images are meant for publicity in the first place, and if they are widespread online.

I don’t deny there are murky waters here, but the most important thing is: Don’t make it appear that you own someone else’s work when you don’t, and don’t try to profit off it (e.g., publish it). That’s what leads to big trouble.

Pinterest advises, “We strongly encourage people to pin from the original source or permalinks, give credit to the content owner, and include a thoughtful pin description. If a user notices that a pin is not sourced correctly they should leave a comment so that the original pinner can update the source. Many publishers have also added Pin It buttons to their site, making it easier to identify content that is okay to add to Pinterest.”

Donna Martin

Hi Amanda!
This is a FABULOUS post! I’m just starting to become more involved in Pinterest and your list give me great ideas on how to highlight my (and other authors) writing. I think I will share this post on FB, Linkedin, Twitter and any place I can think of…;~)
I sent you an email about possible post dates for my blog and can’t wait to see what other writerly wisdom you will share with my readers. Thanks Jane for hosting this!
Donna L Martin
http://www.donasdays.blogspot.com

Amanda Luedeke

Thank you for reading!! I’ll check my email 🙂

Emily Scott

I had never thought of using Pinterest this way! What a awesome idea!

Rachel Leigh Smith

I use Pinterest for images that go with my WIP’s. Each novel has a board where I pin character templates, settings, important clothes, even a house floor plan if necessary. It’s mostly for my own use, but somehow I’ve managed to get over 400 followers without doing anything. Less than a hundred of them are Facebook friends.