Pinterest is becoming increasingly popular with authors in helping them to gain the interest of fellow writers and readers in their work and this in turn helps promote their books. Here’s how.

Firstly you need to set up your Pinterest profile, and as an author it is best to use the business profile. It is best to use the name and photo from all of your other social media networks and under no circumstances should you use your book name. You want Pinterest to grow with you and you also want people to instantly recognise who you are.

Many authors are now actually planning their book using Pinterest so that people can view the creative process. The author can create a board for the book, and add anything to it that they are researching. So for example in terms of location, they can add photographs and images of selected scenes, then for characters, they can pin photographs of people who give them inspiration for a particular character trait. The ideas for posting on the book board are endless. As well as the author being able to see the book in pictures, the people visiting the site will also be able to see this and can become interested in the book even before it has been written. In a way they can share the creative process with the author and be part of it.

What Pinterest is also really useful for is interacting with other writers; you gain ideas from each other. You can even create groups, so you could have a group of romantic writers, a group who are ghost writers etc. This is a fantastic way to gain support and to share creative ideas.

You can also create a blog Pinboard. So any photographs that you post on your author blog you could pin here. This is a great way to direct people to your writing content and further social media sites.

What is a really good idea as a writer is to create a themed board, so if you write historical fiction pin photographs from history that will give ideas for upcoming books as well as gaining the interest of like-minded people. Similarly the non-fiction writer can also do this, so for example if you write about gardening you can post photographs relating to all things garden related; the choice is endless.

Remember to keep it personal; people want to learn about you as a person so remember this when pinning. Just remember to add things that you find interesting or will be of particular use in future. If you find them interesting, the odds are that any potential readers will do so too.

Finally remember that Pinterest is not a marketing strategy, you are not trying to sell a book so don’t try to. Just engage with people and have fun pinning. In doing so you will find that your creativity will flow and people will become interested in you as a writer.