Pinterest-How Can It Help Authors?

"A giant time-suck." Sure. Pinterest can be that. But so can facebook. So can Twitter. Then again, both those tools can be invaluable to writers if you know how to use them and Pinterest is no different.

With all social networks, it's the 'social' that most writers seem to have trouble grasping. It's not 'buy my book, buy my book' all day long. It's be interesting. Be funny. And pics of hot guys certainly help too! Interact with your fellow writers, because guess what, THEIR readers just may become YOUR readers too if they like how you interact with their favorite author. They just may head on over to check out your profile page or author page and see what you're all about.

Pinterest is no different really. Yes there are more pictures of hot guys. There are more pictures of everything really because that's what pinterest is. A huge place to post and save pics of everything you're little heart desires!

So how is this of any use to writers? Well, there's the obvious, you can create a board for your book covers. Good start. But that's not all by any stretch of the imagination! You can set up boards for each of your books, sharing pics of characters, settings, foods, clothes all either used in your books or as inspiration for your scenes and characters. Along with the things you have up that are just things you love as a person, not just an author. A really delicious pic of a cake can draw in a pinterest user to you. They see what else you have to offer and oh lookie, they discover you're an author. A potential reader right there.

Keep your content fresh to keep visitors coming back. I find this is actually easier with pinterest than any other social network because the whole site is chock full of images. Repinning things is great, but venture out a bit from people you follow to the category and everything tabs on pinterest so authors aren't just pinning the same things from each other. Venture even further than that for yummy, sexy, interesting pics. Google Images, different websites. Variety is key in keeping your content fresh.

And how great are those sensual, romantic pics to get the creative juices flowing? Writer's block? Just spend some time looking through gorgeous, sexy images of couples in various states of sensuality! It was while on pinterest that I got the idea to write little flash fics based around those images here on my blog, giving my blog followers here a little taste of my writing (see previous post Food For The Muse).

And as always, interaction is key here on Pinterest too! Comment on pics you like! Interact with your favorite pinners. Follow writers and non writers.

Pinterest is still a new medium we're all enjoying and still getting used to. I'm sure we haven't even begun to see how this new social network can help us as writers but those are just a few ways in which I've found they've been useful for me! Hope you join up if you haven't yet!

Come follow me there at: http://pinterest.com/nancy777ca/