If you’re not using Pinterest as a book marketing tactic, you might want to give it a try — it’s one of the largest social networks. According to the Pew Research Center, 42% of all online women and 15% of all online men use Pinterest. In case you’re not familiar, it’s a virtual pinboard where you can pin images from other sites, linking back to the original source. Other users can re-pin those same images to their boards.
While Pinterest is one of the most popular social networks, not every author will find a relevant audience on this platform. Most of Pinterest’s users are female, and the demographics skew younger, so some genre authors might have a harder time building a fan base on Pinterest than a romance or new adult author, for example.
Here are some great examples of authors who’ve been able to build an audience on Pinterest — or use it to inspire their own writing and creativity. We’ve included a variety of authors who write in different genres to help you find inspiration when creating your own Pinterest boards. You can also jump to a specific strategy:
- Character Inspiration
- Story Visualization
- Free Content
- Interview Compilations
- Fan Appreciation
- Blog Post Promotions
- Book Covers
- Writing Inspiration
- Book Club Inspiration
- Recommended Books
- Book Marketing Tips
Character Inspiration
Dhonielle Clayton – Young Adult
We love seeing what inspired the opulent fashion of the characters in Dhonielle’s The Belles.
Leigh Bardugo – Young Adult
Leigh’s character inspiration boards let readers see what her characters look like and what kinds of clothes they wear.
Marie Lu – Young Adult
Marie shared the character visualization she drew on while writing the second book in The Young Elites trilogy.
Jennifer Niven – Young Adult
Jennifer lets readers take a peek into her main characters’ playlists.
Kiru Taye – Romance
Kiru keeps a Pinterest board dedicated to character and location inspirations.
Story Visualization
Jody Hedlund – Christian Fiction & Historical Romance
Jody created a board for each of her books, which provide visualizations of various scenes and characters.
Lucinda Brant – Historical Romance
Lucinda’s novel-specific boards include a wealth of information about the time period, from jewelry and items characters used to paintings and maps depicting the settings. Each pin has a detailed description of how the image relates to the book.
Meg Waite Clayton – Historical Fiction
For her historical fiction novel The Last Train to London, Meg collected historical photographs, postcards, and cityscapes to inspire her writing.
Helen Hoang – Romance
Helen created boards specific to her books, each filled with scenery, character, and theme inspiration.
Sarah J. Maas – Young Adult
Like Helen, Sarah created boards for each of her books that are a mix of inspiration and fan art.
Alexandra Bracken – Young Adult
Alexandra’s boards are a mix of story visualization specific to certain books, and more generalized bookish inspiration.
Free Content
James Patterson – Thrillers
James has a board specifically promoting book previews available for readers to download for free.
Katie Ganshert – Christian Fiction
Katie has a board featuring short stories she’s written that readers can get for free.
Kellie Coates Gilbert – Women’s Fiction
Kellie created a board that she shared with over 70 other authors, where they can pin updates on book promotions they’re running so followers can keep up with all of them in one place.
Rick Riordan – Young Adult
During a special promo called “Sneak Peek Greek Week,” Rick shared excerpts on the Greek gods that populate his books!
Interview Compilations
Hugh Howey – Science Fiction
Hugh has compiled his interviews and photos from book signings on one board.
Elizabeth Gilbert – Memoir and Literary Fiction
Elizabeth has a dedicated board linking to her interviews and other chats.
Diana Abu-Jaber – Memoir
Titled after her memoir, Diana collects all interviews, readings, and other news related to the book.
Fan Appreciation
Sylvia Day – Romance
Sylvia has a board to share photos fans have taken of her books.
Beth Revis – Young Adult
Beth has a board dedicated to the fan art readers have created, and gives readers instructions on how to submit their own fan art in the board’s description.
Johanna Basford – Coloring Books
Johanna’s Colour Club board includes pages fans have completed from her coloring books.
Blog Post Promotions
Marissa Meyer – Young Adult
On this board, Marissa features links to blog posts that she’s guest-written for media outlets.
Book Covers
J. Daniels – Romance
Many authors have a board showing off their cover designs, and J. Daniels’s board is a great example of this.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Fantasy
Silvia also shows off the various — and beautiful — versions of her book covers.
Celeste Ng – Literary Fiction
On her board, Celeste features favorite book covers from other authors.
Writing Inspiration
Corinne Michaels – Romance
Many authors have boards with quotes that inspire them, which gives readers great insight into their writing process.
Tomi Adeyemi – Young Adult
Tomi has quite a few excellent Pinterest boards — this one features writing prompts and tips as well as industry advice.
Kami Garcia – Young Adult
Kami has compiled several boards for writing tips. This is a great example of how to use Pinterest as a productivity tool, not just a marketing tool.
K.M. Weiland – Nonfiction
On her board Writing Resources, K.M. Weiland collects pins on character development, scene creation, and more.
Book Club Inspiration
Debbie Macomber – Women’s Fiction
Debbie created a board intended to inspire people who run book clubs (or want to start one).
Recommended Books
Becky Wade – Christian Romance
Many authors have boards for books they recommend. This is a chance for authors to cross-promote each other’s work.
Tom Ryan – Young Adult
Tom shares his reading wish list — which includes mostly thriller and mystery novels — with his followers.
Moni Boyce – Paranormal Romance
Moni has a great board dedicated to romance novels she recommends which are written by authors of color.
Book Marketing Tips
Jane Friedman – Nonfiction
Author and publishing consultant Jane Friedman has numerous boards dedicated to book marketing strategies, industry insights, and advice for how to succeed in the publishing industry.
Patricia Saunders – Poet
Patricia has a dedicated board for bookmarking interesting articles she’s found on book promotion.
What are some great examples of author Pinterest boards you’ve seen? Share the links in the comments below!
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This post was originally published on February 25, 2016, and has been updated with new examples and ideas.
