Pinterest and Promotion

by Sara Rosett

 

I love Pinterest. 

I’m on the site a lot, but it’s okay. I’m working when I’m pinning.

No, really. It’s true.

While writing my last two books, I started pinboards for each of them, pinning inspiration for settings, character, and even research articles. (See, pinning is work!)

It was only later, as I neared the completion point for my first ebook that I had a brainstorm: why not use those pinboards for promotion, too?

It was brilliant! The pinboards were ready-made promotion tools. How many times had I wished I could see the places an author described as I read a book? Now I could show my readers the gaudiness of Vegas and the decaying grandeur of Venice.

There are a couple of advantages to using pinboards for book promotion:

A pinboard about your book lets you promote your book subtly. You’re pinning and you’re getting the word out about your book, showing people what your book is about, but not with that in-your-face aggressiveness that is such a turn off.

A pinboard about your book is so much more interesting than just posting your cover. Lots of authors post covers on Pinterest. I have a pinboard called "My Writing Life" with my covers, but a pinboard devoted to a book is a new twist. Being a little bit different will help you standout.

A book-based pinboard is like a bonus feature for readers. You know that feeling when you finish a book and wish there was more? A pinboard gives readers an extra dose of your fictional world. 

My very first e-book, Elusive (Book #1 in the On The Run series), has a link at the end of the book to the Elusive pinboard.

It feels right to try some new things right now. I’ve never self-pubbed a novel. Short stories and short non-fiction, yes. But an original novel? Nope. New territory. The book itself is a departure from my usual cozy mystery territory. 

In Elusive, free-spirited Zoe Hunter's ex-husband disappears and his business partner is murdered. Then several million dollars vanish from the business account. Being a prime suspect in both a murder and a fraud case motivates Zoe to figure out what happened, and she embarks on a journey that takes her from Las Vegas to Italy. 

Elusive is very different from any book I’ve ever written. I’m so excited to be doing something new, and, at the same time, I'm crazy-scared, too!

It feels a bit like that scene in the third Indy movie when he closes the book and takes the step off the edge of the cliff…and lands on the invisible staircase. I hope there is a staircase there for me in this ebook adventure.

No matter how it turns out, I’ll always have Pinterest. :)

Here's my Elusive pinboard. Elusive is available at Amazon and Smashwords. B&N and other retails to follow shortly. 

How do you use Pinterest? (Besides, for fun, of course.)  

When not pinning, Sara writes mystery (Ellie Avery series) and intrigue (On the Run series). As a military spouse, Sara has moved around the country (frequently!) and traveled internationally. The photo at the right was taken during trip to Venice, which inspired her new thriller, Elusive. Publishers Weekly called Sara’s books, "satisfying," "well-executed," and "sparkling."

Sara loves all things bookish, considers dark chocolate a daily requirement, and is on a quest for the best bruschetta. Connect with Sara at www.SaraRosett.com or sign up for her newsletter list here. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Goodreads.

Scoop.it Tips For Authors

by Sara Rosett 

Have you heard of Scoop.it? It is a curation site designed to help you share interesting articles and links from the web. It’s like Pinterest for articles.

I’ve been using Scoop.it more and more as I try to simplify my online life. We’re talking about transitions here at GBC and I thought instead of focusing on the thing that comes to mind first —moving boxes and U-Haul trucks—I decided to explore another transition: how I shifted from traditional blogging to micro-blogging.

When my first book came out out way back 2006 (i.e. in the dark ags, pre-ebooks) I was blogging my little heart out at my own blog, Rosett Writes. I’d joined Girlfriends Cyber Circuit and happily blogged about friends’ books. I joined with four other mystery writers and created a “grog,” a group blog called Good Girls Kill because we were nice women writing murder mysteries.

And, oh yeah, while all this blogging was going on, I was also writing books.

Then one day I realized I was spending more time thinking about my blog posts than about my WIP (work in progress).

Not a good sign.

I closed down my individual blog and said a temporary good-bye to the Girlfriends. (I rejoined later after the Circuit was remodeled into GBC). My group blog died a natural death as we all reached a sharing saturation point and mutually decided it had been a great time, but we were tried of the weekly post commitment.

Truthfully, I didn’t think I had much left to say, either witty, funny or informative. Blogging had wrung me dry and I wanted to concentrate all my writing energy on my books. And I also had a feeling that I wasn’t reaching readers with my blogs. It seemed much of the blog activity was authors busily commenting and connecting with other authors—not a bad thing, but I wanted to reach readers.

I didn’t want to abandon all on-line activity and kept up with Facebook and Twitter. I wanted something a little more interactive, but without the huge time commitment of daily blogging.

Enter Scoop.it.

I’ve always posted lots of links to book-related news and blogs, so I created a topic on Scoop.it last year called All Things Bookish, a topic broad enough to attract readers and writers. I love the magazine-style format and the easy integration tools.

I post pretty much anything that I think is interesting in a book-related way:  articles about writing, photos of amazing libraries, and publishing news. Recently, I posted an article about how to create a computer screen saver with your ebook covers as well as an article about swimsuits that resemble book covers, which was got some attention.

Five Scoop.it Tips for Authors:

Think carefully about your topic title— you can’t edit the title of your Scoop.it topic once it’s entered. Decide if you want to go broad (Publishing) or niche (Cozy Mysteries). You can create several Scoop.it topics and they will all appear on your account with you as the curator. 

Install the Scoop.it Bookmarklet—I use the Scoop.it bookmarklet to “scoop” an article or photo to my All Things Bookish page, then I edit the appearance of the scoop: pick a pull quote, change the headline, and even select which photo I want to run with the mini-post. Scoop.it has apps for the iPhone and Android phones, so you can update your site from your phone. 

Link to your other social media accounts—This is my *favorite* thing about Scoop.it. I’ve linked Scoop.it with my Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts as well as my website through Wordpress. I can post the same link to them at once. Pinterest isn’t supported yet, but there is a workaround. Once the post appears on my All Things Bookish page, I can use the installed “Pin it” button on the post to send it to Pinterest.

Website Widget--There are Scoop.it widgets and buttons for your website and blog. I send my most recent posts directly to a section on the lower section of my website home page. It keeps it my webpage updated with fresh content.

Connect—You can connect with other curators and find topics similar to yours. Scoop.it emphasizes that they help you curate content, bringing you lots of articles and links related to your topic. You can create streams with info related to your topic. I haven't found their content that helpful, but you can just ignore it, which is what I do. 

If you want more control on the appearance of your Scoop.it account or more detailed feedback on visitors, you can upgrade your account, but the free account works fine for me.

You can check out my All Things Bookish topic or see the most recent posts on my website. 

I’m curious to hear from you...do you blog? Why or why not? And, what tricks and tips have you found to save time with blogging and/or social media?

~Sara

A native Texan, Sara is the author of the Ellie Avery mystery series and the On The Run travel thrillers--watch for the first in the series, Elusive, out in September. As a military spouse Sara has moved around the country (frequently!) and traveled internationally, which inspired her latest travel thrillers. Publishers Weekly called Sara’s books, "satisfying," "well-executed," and "sparkling."

Sara loves all things bookish, considers dark chocolate a daily requirement, and is on a quest for the best bruschetta. Connect with Sara at www.SaraRosett.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Goodreads.