The way that authors market their books has changed dramatically in the past decade or so. As social media has become ubiquitous, publishers, agents, and authors alike use these platforms to connect with potential readers, showcase their writing, and build their personal brand online.
Pinterest is one such platform. It’s visual, exciting, and unique — well worth using to connect with your future readers. Read on to learn how authors can get the most from Pinterest when marketing their book.
Pinterest is just one element of your social marketing strategy. Check out these tips on using social media to engage your audience to enhance your wider strategy online.
Use a business account to cement your Pinterest presence
As an author, you might already have a Pinterest account. But if it’s not a business account, it’s time to upgrade. Business accounts are 100% free, but come with a plethora of other features.
For starters, you get built-in analytical features. These let you spot which Pins are performing well, how well your profile is performing over time, and so on.
Further to this, business accounts also let you use a number of tools and features personal accounts don’t have access to. Video posts, protected boards, customizable profile tabs and, of course, Pinterest Ads. These are all perfect for helping you grow your Pinterest audience.
Build your brand with an author pinboard
Pinboards are, as the name suggests, digital boards on which you place pins centered around a particular topic. You can have as many pinboards as you like, and they’re perfect for building up your author branding too.
This guide from Author Media offers some useful advice on the basics of setting up an author profile, but beyond that you should focus on cementing your author branding. Your author pinboard is ideal for showcasing elements of your personality, your writing process, your inspiration, and so on. Your readers want to know the author behind the words, and your pinboard is how you achieve that.
Include photos of yourself, your writing space, and your bookshelves — a look at your own books shows readers what informs your process. Treat your author pinboard as a personal visual blog and keep your followers updated with your work as you go.
Create a dedicated pinboard for your book
In the same vein as the above, you should also create dedicated pinboards for your books too. While your author pinboard serves as a showcase of your author branding, your book pinboard helps get it noticed by prospective readers.
These pinboards can include the following:
- Extra information on topics, themes, interviewees, and ideas that you reference in your books.
- Updates on your book: new developments, interesting facts about people and places, and other useful information your readers might want to know. This is especially useful for scientific non-fiction, where new breakthroughs might impact your work.
- Reader and publication reviews: don’t let your social proof sit — cascade it across your pinboards to get it seen by more people.
These are just a few ideas for your book pinboard. Think of other useful augmentations to your book that relate to your genre. For example, if you’ve written a book about the Troubles, regular updates on legal cases surrounding the events provide extra value for your reader beyond your book.
Optimize for your genre keywords
Pinterest is a unique social platform, quite unlike other social networks out there, and it offers a lot of scope for marketing. This blog from Stephan Spencer highlights some useful Pinterest tricks you can use, but perhaps the most notable is the idea of optimization.
Pinterest is essentially a visual search engine. By optimizing your Pins and boards according to your genre and niche keywords, you can drive more traffic to your profile.
This starts with your images. While the optimum image size is 2:3 ratio, different audiences prefer different types. Split-test your Pinterest images to find the size that your target reader engages with most.
Next, look at your Pin titles. Use words and phrases that are accurate and descriptive. Focus on your book’s genre, as it is this that your prospective readers will search for online. This will help your relevant Pins appear higher in search results for your target audience.
Think about keywords related to your genre that help drive engaged traffic too. For instance, let’s say you’ve written about the Vietnam War. Pins related to music or film from that era would also drive clicks from people whose interests overlap with that niche.
Pinterest is a strong marketing channel for authors looking to market their book in 2020. It’s highly customizable, SEO-friendly, and rapidly growing. Follow the tips above and create a Pinterest marketing strategy that gets your book seen in 2020.
Author Bio:
Hollie Jones is an expert lifestyle blogger who lives for writing. Hollie’s drive, passion and background come from the arts and media sectors. You can read her latest blog posts on Hollie and the Ivy, where she shares tips and advice about her passions while having a lot of fun along the way.
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