Comments on: Guest Post: How Writers Can Use Pinterest

By: John Burridge

John Burridge — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:09:42 +0000

I love using Pinterest.

It’s great for getting a good feel for character description, setting, and period details.

I find it’s less great for prompts about verbs, conflict or emotion. Maybe I’m using the wrong search words. For example, searching for “jealousy” will get you 100 copies of the same picture of three toddlers, plus angry brunette women looking at busty blonde women (I’ve yet to find an angry average guy glaring at a younger guy with fabulous abs).

By: Cat Rambo

Cat Rambo — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:37:17 +0000

Yeah, social media will swallow all the time you’re willing to pitch at it. I try to monitor how much time I spend on it as well as whether or not it’s actually driving traffic to my website (presumably a couple of those visitors might buy one of those books.)

The thing I like is that you can tie these together, so effort in one social network can be used to create a presence in another one. Twitter, for example, can be set up so your tweets there also show up on your Facebook page and blog; the same with Pinterest.

By: Kaye Draper

Kaye Draper — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:37:00 +0000

I like pinterest precisely because it IS EFFORTLESS and doesn’t take up a lot of your time. I first joined to pin some jewelry that I made, with links back to my etsy site. But then I created a board of Urban Fantasy books and included my favorites just for fun. Other people started following my board and I had re-pins from it, so I thought, why not include my writing blog. I pinned my blog header pic to the board. So, while I’m not a published author with a bunch of book covers, I am using common intersts to hopefully bring more traffic to my blog. I also have a board titled Inspiration- where I post pictures that I find that remind me of my works or give me story idea. I think there are endless ways to use this to bring more traffic to your website, or spread the word about your work (if you are published). After you sign up, it takes no time whatsoever to “Pin” something. There is an add on that goes on your toolbar, so if you are surfing the web for something else and you see something you want on your board you simply click “pin it” choose what board you want it on, and go on your way. Easy as pie

By: Elizabeth Moon

Elizabeth Moon — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:42:10 +0000

If only days could expand to provide the time necessary to tend to all the social networking opportunities…and still leave time for writing the books and doing the few household chores I can’t get out of or ignore. Pinterest sounds interesting, but…one more thing would push me over the edge. Twitter, bless it’s tiny little heart, is at least fast and almost effortless and lets me spread the word about new posts on the blogs. LJ, with all its problems, is still where I have the biggest bunch of followers. I’ve got people all over the place I try to keep up with, and people who expect me to let them keep up with me…but the days still have only 24 hours and I still have to write the books and take a shower and sometimes even sleep.