How to Use Pinterest to Build an Audience (For Writers)

Updated 2/8/25

Pinterest was conceived as a kind of virtual bulletin board - a place to store all those neat images you run across when you are looking for something else on the net.

Pinterest is also a great tool for storing blog posts, websites, and all those useful articles you read online and then can never find again.

Surprisingly, it's only relatively recently that people have begun to use Pinterest as a marketing tool. (When I started using Pinterest, there were no ads!)

To be honest, while Pinterest has great potential, it's not as easy to use as Facebook or Twitter. As a form of social media, it's a little awkward, and there is much less likelihood of something going "viral." However, Pinterest has certain advantages shared by no other form of social media.

• It's easier to find information on a page of images than on a timeline
• Pins can be arranged thematically. This makes it easier to group specific types of information
• Images are memorable. An image that is interesting is more likely to catch a reader's attention than text
• Pinterest is highly addictive. Users re-pin images like mad, and they tend to stay on Pinterest longer, as well as visit it more frequently

How to use Pinterest

1. Set up your profile. Your full profile will appear on your home page, so design it carefully. First, upload an attractive, colorful image. (Square is best, as it will end up as a circle.) You can provide your location, your website (a must!), and a short bio. The bio is very important. Make sure you mention your publications, genre, and anything else potential readers might be interested in. For contact information include your Twitter handle.

2. Get followers. Like any other form of social media, you can get followers on Pinterest. There are several ways to go about this:

• Include a Pinterest follow button on your blog posts
• Add a profile widget to your blog. This also leads visitors to your Pinterest page. But it is more comprehensive than the follow button because it’s bigger and can display up to 30 of your latest pins. (I have gotten significantly more followers from the widget than from the button.)
• Make sure to include your Pinterest link to all your other social accounts
• Follow. Received wisdom is to follow 200 boards, then wait to see who follows you back and drop anyone who doesn't respond. The way you find boards to follow is by typing keywords into the search bar. Follow any boards that share your interests. (There are numerous writing boards. )

3. Use keywords. According to Bibliocrunch, the number one priority for using Pinterest is to have a “search mindset.” This means utilizing keywords in the descriptions of your boards and pins so that people searching for similar pins and boards can discover you. Fortunately, finding keywords is very easy. Type a general search term into the search bar, for example, Romance. The screen will refresh to give you popular categories under Romance. If you click on Books, more sub-categories will appear below the search bar,  — Contemporary, Paranormal, Historical, Worth Reading, and so on. Each time you click on a sub-category, increasingly specific terms will appear. Those are your keywords. Use them to hone your descriptions the same way you honed your search.

You can also broaden your audience by using the Keyword Tool. This allows you to search for the most popular keywords on Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Bing. An added feature of this tool is that it allows you to search by country and language.

4. Set up collaborative boards. Pinterest allows pinners to set up boards that allow many contributors. Some of these boards have hundreds of thousands of followers. (To find collaborative boards, go to Pin Groupie, a site that allows you to search collaborative boards by topic, number of followers, and number of pinners.) Increasing the number of pinners will increase your visibility. You can invite collaborators by email address or name. (Click the Invite button on the upper right to view your options.) You will have to follow one another to collaborate on a board.

If you want to join an established board, some collaborative boards provide contact information in the description. Check Pin Groupie for collaborative boards in your category to see which ones accept new pinners. (You can search for "writers," "writing," "authors" for general boards, or search your genre for more specific ones.)

5. Choose your images wisely. Pinterest is a visual medium. So, spend some time finding a captivating image for your pin. (See 43 Sites Where You Can Get Fabulous Free Photos for some great free sources.) The optimum image size is 600 x 800. It will resize down to 192 x 256, but will be restored to its full size when it is clicked. (If you are using Blogger, set your image size to large.)

Infographics have a great deal of success on Pinterest, as do images that also contain written information. Images that are informative as well as eye-catching will warrant more than a quick glance, and drive more traffic to your blog, story, or article.

Helpful articles:

All About Boards - Basic information about Pinterest boards.

12 Ways to Get More Pinterest Followers

How To Use Pinterest’s Group Boards To Get More Exposure For Your Business

Disengaging from Readers: Dealing with Trolls, Cyber-bullies, and Other Web Cranks

It is received wisdom that writers must actively participate in the online community by joining discussions, replying to comments made on blogs, posting their views on forums, and so on. These interactions, collectively referred to as "engagement," are presented as requirements for building an audience.

There are scads of articles for how to maximize "engagement" on the net, however, for the purposes of authors, most of these recommendations are completely misguided.

Before I get into why these internet pundits are wrong, let me clarify what that term "engagement" actually means for writers.

Engagement, as a marketing term, means getting someone to buy something or exhibit interest in your product in some tangible way. If you are a writer, engagement means getting someone to buy your book, or write a review. If you are a blogger, it means traffic to your blog. If you have launched an author website or Facebook page, it means having people visit, read your page(s), and make return visits.

In short, engagement boils down to numbers.

Keeping that definition in mind, how does it benefit you, as an author, to enter into an online fracas with a person whose sole purpose in life is to annoy people? In fact, some of these "trolls" are even willing to pay for the pleasure of harassing writers. Now, if you were riding on a bus and a complete stranger sat down and starting berating you, you would simply get off the bus. It would be useless to try to argue with them. When someone does that online, it is equally as pointless.

If you are a budding author here are a few simple rules to follow when embarking on "engagement:"

1) If someone makes an insulting comment on a public forum about your book, or anything else you've written, do not reply, even to defend yourself.

2) If someone writes a spiteful comment on your blog or Facebook page, delete it.

3) If someone writes an inappropriate review, personally attacks you, or uses your book for a negative ad campaign, make a complaint. Do not address the "reviewer" directly. (Some of these "reviewers" get paid for driving down the ranking of competing titles by posting negative reviews. Recently, on Amazon, I found 22 identical negative reviews for books on pain management, all of which were posted within a two-day period. I flagged every one of those reviews as inappropriate.)

4) DO NOT argue with people on blogs, or any other public site. Your remarks will come back to haunt you.

5) DO express your thoughts in interviews. Interviews do more to help build your profile than leaving a comment on a blog, and interviews have the added benefit of providing a buffer. (Suggestion: Book reviewers frequently post author interviews.)

6) DO reply graciously to people who give your books a thoughtful review, or who leave good comments, but only if the site is moderated, or if it is your own blog, website, or Facebook page.

Reward people who behave themselves. Ignore those who don't.

Platform, Shmatform: Social Media - How Numbers Lie

Updated 8/23/24

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Below is an absolutely fabulous blog post by Rob Eager, which appeared on Tools of Change a couple of weeks ago.

The article struck a chord with me for two reasons. The first is that my stats teacher said exactly the same thing to us on the first day of classes. (I think they all do.)

The other is that my experience coincides with Rob's. For example, one of the newsletters I edit has 35,000 subscribers. Only 12.3% of them open the newsletter. Of those, roughly 1% actually read more than the first article. While I love telling people that over 100,000 people subscribe to the three newsletters I edit, it certainly doesn't mean I am actually reaching nearly that number of people.

The same is true of Facebook. With over 17,000 "likes" on the FB page I manage, how many of those people actually look at any given post? I am lucky if it is a tenth of that. And very few of those people click on the link to the main site.

And don't get me started on how many of those people actually purchase anything.

Does this mean you should stop posting on Facebook, tweeting, and so on? No. The numbers may ultimately be meaningless, but prospective agents are always impressed by four or five zeros after any integer.

Apparently, none of them has never taken a stats class.

_________________________________

Numbers never lie…unless you’re talking social media: Measuring results in our rush to be followed, liked, and shared

By Rob Eagar on TOC

Back in college, I took a class on statistics and never forgot the first lesson my professor taught us, which was, “Anyone can manipulate numbers to make them mean whatever they want.” I see this point magnified today by the mass adoption of Twitter and Fakebook, err – I mean Facebook. We’re at a period in time where numbers can mean so much and simultaneously mean so little.

The more people use social media, the bigger a desire to be followed, liked, and shared. We live in an age where online popularity has the ridiculous ability to control major business decisions or determine someone’s career. Yet, there’s never been a time when big numbers can be inflated so easily and deceptively. For example:

1. According to the New York Times, people can buy fake followers on Twitter for $18 per 1,000. I’ve also seen shady businesses on Ebay offer fake Facebook followers for a similar price range.

2. Facebook claims to offer an effective advertising medium, yet their average click-through rate is .0005 (5 in 10,000) In addition, a Reuters poll found that 4 out of 5 Facebook users have never bought a product or service as a result of advertising or comments on the social network site. 

3. In addition, researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found that less than 1% of fans of the 200 biggest brands on Facebook actually engaged.

4. A guy claiming to have 50,000 Twitter followers bragged that he could use his influence to generate a bunch of sales for my new book. I put him to the test, let him send out his “tweets,” but never received a single order related to his audience. 

5. The average open rate for arts email newsletters is around 25%. So, an author who claims to have 6,000 newsletter subscribers is probably reaching around 2,000 readers. The click-through rate is about 3%.

I’ve seen some bloggers (I don’t mean to bash, so they’ll remain nameless) promote an artificial number on their blog that combines all of their different social media followers and subscribers into one large number, which is designed to make you think their platform is bigger than it really is.

When the human ego merges with social media, there seems to be no limit to the level of nonsense that people will create. Numbers that are supposed to mean so much can actually mean very little.

As my statistics professor warned, be careful about putting too much faith in numbers. Just because someone displays 10,000 Twitter followers or Facebook friends doesn’t mean their sphere of influence is at that level. In an age where numbers are easily manipulated, we’re better off focusing on the only numbers that really matter, which is how many books sold, how many new readers added, and how many dollars deposited into the bank.

Random House Still Trying to Outrun Amazon

This fascinating little industry tidbit (below) appeared in Publisher's Weekly a couple of weeks ago. Wattpad, for those of you who are not familiar with the site, features free chapters of self-published books. It boasts a readership in the millions. (Its Alexa ranking in the US is 2,553, which is very good.) This makes Wattpad an excellent platform for new writers, who generally care more about getting noticed than raking in the cash. (That comes later.)

Given Random/Penguin's recent launching of its various e-imprints, Loveswept among them, I was wondering how it was going to compete with the lure of Amazon's KDP Select, a program that has dominated the self-publishing scene for more than a decade. KDP Select allows writers to give away their books during 5 out of every 90 days in exchange for exclusive distributing rights. As a promotional tool. nothing beats giving something away for free, so Amazon, which has an immense reach, drew writers to it in droves.

Random/Penguin's strategy, apparently, is to give books away for free before they are released. Chapters will be published on the Wattpad site in serial form, another tried-and-true method for hooking readers.

The progress of Knox's novel, Truly, is something the industry will no doubt keep a close eye on. If Random/Penguin's strategy works, it will solve the pesky problem of how to build an online readership while undercutting Amazon's most successful marketing scheme.

Random House's Loveswept Partners With Wattpad

Publisher's Weekly, Aug 19, 2013

Thanks to a deal between Random House's digital-only romance imprint, Loveswept, and Wattpad, author Ruthie Knox will have her new series appear in serialized form on the online writing (and reading) community. Through the deal, Knox's novel Truly, which is the first title in a planned series, will debut on Wattpad as a free story in the fall, before being released as an e-book by Loveswept in August 2014.

Chapters from Truly will begin appearing on Wattpad on September 3, and continue to appear until the conclusion to the story is posted on November 4. Throughout the process, RH will invite Wattpad readers to take part in choosing the cover for the e-book. The effort, RH said, will also allow a high level of author access to Knox as readers will be able to use Wattpad's platform, which has mobile engagement, to contact her

Allison Dobson, v-p of business development and digital publishing at RH, said that Wattpad offers an "innovative approach to content creation and distribution," noting that the site already draws "millions of voracious readers" from all over the world.

Using Alexa to Boost Your Platform

Of the many ranking systems used to evaluate websites, Alexa, an analytics service owned by Amazon, is one of the most popular. In a nutshell, Alexa measures traffic to a website – the more visitors, the higher the rank. (Low numbers indicate a high rank. #1, the highest position, is occupied by Google.) Alexa provides data on 30 million websites, and has over 7 million visitors monthly.

How can you make Alexa work for you?

If you have just launched a website, don't even think of trying to improve your Alexa ranking. No matter what you do, your rank is going to be abysmally low (your number will be in the multi-millions), and there is no amount of backlinking, blogging, or giveaways that will get you under 100,000, which is the cut-off point for viewing demographic statistics.

Instead of trying to improve your own ranking, you can use Alexa much in the same way other businesses do. (If you have published a book, in any form, you are a business.) Let's say you would like to increase your visibility as a writer (i.e. build your platform). If your blog isn't getting a lot of traffic, it makes sense to either guest blog or write articles for sites that get significantly more visitors than yours. The easiest way to research the most-trafficked sites for posting guest blogs and articles is by looking at their Alexa ranking. 

I have used Alexa ranking to help decide where I guest blog. Whenever someone publishes an article on the top sites for books, articles or blogs on my topic, I immediately look up their Alexa ranking. If the rank is high (i.e. the number is under 100,000), I check to see who visits the site. If the site appeals to my demographic, I submit a guest blog or article. Chances are, the article will be accepted, because I'm submitting an article geared towards the needs of their market. I also use Alexa to decide where to submit my short stories and poems. (If nobody visits the journal's website, that means nobody will read my story. And if a lot of people visit a site, I will submit, even if there is minimal or no pay.)

Writing requires time and effort. Make sure you get the most out of your labor by placing your work where it will work for you.

Resources:

Alexa - This is where you go to search Alexa rankings. 

This article explains some of the misconceptions about Alexa ranking:

Top 6 Myths about the Alexa Traffic Rank

Flogging your Blog

If Venus could do it, so can you.

Updated 5/19/26

You’ve set up your author’s website (you have, haven’t you?), and you’ve begun a blog. You are happily blogging away, secure in the belief that every time you hit “Publish” your thoughts are winging their way through the blogosphere, reaching millions of people who are hungry for your knowledge, wit and/or wisdom.

The millions are not hungry. If anything, they are overfed. According to NM (that’s Nielson/McKinsey) Incite — a company formed to “discover industry-specific consumer insights and build relevant, differentiated and emotionally engaging brands … with the vision that real-time, authentic consumer expression in social media transforms how marketers build strong brands, create passionate and engaged brand communities, and ultimately achieve superior sales outcomes” (so many buzz words, so little content! I am sure you could write a better sentence than that!) — there were 181 million blogs around the world by 2011. Five years earlier there were only 36 million. Imagine how many there are today. (600 million if you really want to know.)

On second thought, don’t imagine. Stastista.com, a statistical news source for technology statistics, reported that there were around 496 million blogs from Tumblr alone as of January 2020. But that’s not nearly as impressive as the number of daily blog posts. (If you really want to get depressed, you can go to Worldometers and watch, in real time, the daily world blog count — even as they are being posted. It’s hypnotic. Go there now.)

Where was I?

If you actually want people to read your blog, then you will have to “drive” them to it, either in your cybercar, or using a cyberwhip (whatever makes you happy). Do the following:

1. Set up your blog as part of your author’s website. Then duplicate your blog on a separate site. The most popular are Blogger and Wordpress.com. (Note: Blogger's recent "update" has made it almost unbearably glitchy.) Both are free and relatively easy to use. Why duplicate? You may want to expand the scope of your blog beyond your website. Your author website will, of necessity, be about you and your books, but what if you want to blog about something unrelated or tangential? Your standalone blog might end up being more popular than your website, in which case you can use it to drive traffic to your website — and vice versa. (Hint: Creating a subdomain for your blog is another viable option. If you have paid hosting, subdomains are free.)

2. Blog regularly so search engines can find you. It stands to reason that the more you blog, the more traffic you will get. But reason isn’t synonymous with practical — or efficient. If you blog every day, you won’t have time to eat, let alone write anything else. Two or three times a week is enough. And use your imagination. While long, informative posts typically generate the most traffic, brief observations, lists, and even short commentaries on articles that you post a link to (along with a snippet), all generate interest. Some of my most popular posts are humorous. (My daughter says I am “cheeky.” Humph. But take the hint, and be yourself.)

3. Once you have accumulated ten blog posts, start registering your blog on blog directories. Register your independent blog, not the one on your website. The automated software that the largest blog directories use cannot detect embedded blogs. Blog directories are not as effective as they used to be, but they can still generate significant back links. Here is an article with a good list of top blog directories:

31 Best Blog Submission Sites In 2026

4. Write guest blogs and repost. Writing posts for blogs that get significantly more traffic than yours is a good way to generate initial traffic. The easiest way to find blogs on your topic is to do a google search on “top ____blogs.” (Google will suggest a year. Choose the most recent.) You will have to investigate which of those blogs accept guest writers. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that some will actually pay you! You can also repost on platforms like Medium. 

5. Facebook. I hesitate to include Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg is on my list of “Underlords of Evil,” but nothing has generated more traffic to my blog than Facebook. The reason Facebook is so effective is because anyone can share your post, which has the effect of amplifying your blog’s reach by a factor of ten. Join Facebook groups on your topic and post in them. And make sure you include a FB share button on your blog.

6. Advertise, advertise, advertise. Whether it's Twitter (#MondayBlogs), or Reddit, or LinkedIn, or Instagram, or Flipboard, post links to your blog posts everywhere you can.

If all these steps sound a lot like how to break into the publishing world (fierce competition, shmoozing, submissions, rejections followed by an overwhelming sense of futility), then, by George, you’ve got it, you’ve really got it! But do not despair. The fabulous thing about the Great Equalizer (aka the Internet) is that, for the time being, it is a democracy. You get to run your own campaign, and the masses get to vote for you.

Helpful articles:

How to Promote Your Blog: 21 NEW Strategies

How to Promote Your Blog in 2026 (12 Ways I Get 584,863+ Readers/Mo)

How to build your own author platform – from scratch

All you need is a coffin, and a few nails.

Updated 5/1/26

The first time I heard the phrase “author platform,” it instantly conjured an image of myself, with a noose around my neck, standing in front of a crowd of people who were waiting for the Big Drop.

I hoped it would be a quick, painless death. So far, it hasn't been. I have spent many a grueling hour trying to build this “platform,” only to discover that I am not heavy enough. Day after day, I am left dangling. Gasping for air.

Those of you who were born prior to the invention of the horseless carriage may not know what an “author platform” is. So, I am going to explain it to you.

An author platform is Newspeak for “fame.” In concrete terms, it means people recognize your name. Perhaps you have won a contest, such as the Nobel Prize. Or maybe you have not sent your kid up in a balloon, or faked a moon landing like those chaps at NASA. People must know who you are in order for you to build a platform.

Nowadays, many agents will insist that you have a platform before they will even consider representing you. This is a catch-22. How can you be a “name” if you have not yet been published?

The fact is that you must start building your platform well in advance of contacting an agent or publishing your book. Achieving a following takes several years. But even if your name is not a household word by the time you publish, you can - and should - set the stage for future fame. 

1. Put up a website. I assume you have already done this. Without a website, YOU DON'T EXIST. Click HERE for tips on how to design an author's website.

2. Write articles and publish them online. There are plenty of online journals and ezines. Basically, you must turn yourself into an expert. Use ALL of your experience for this. Have you had a child? Several? Have you taught them to drive? Did you survive high school? Do you know how to make a smashing cup of tea? Have you recently discovered the cure for cancer? Pick your area of expertise. Everything counts. Read You're an Expert! How to Make Money Writing Nonfiction Articles for some great tips on making the most out of your expertise.

3. If you are a fiction writer, you also have the option of publishing short stories. Click HERE to  find a literary magazine that will give your story a home.

4. If you have a book ready for publication, and not even that agent in Zanzibar will answer your query letter, then you may want to consider going Indie. But, before you self-publish, you should post excerpts from your forthcoming book. (This is a great marketing strategy.) Many reviewers are willing to post excerpts from forthcoming novels on their blogs. Here is a list of 64 Book Bloggers Who Work With Indie Authors, many of whom are delighted to post excerpts. (Also see the Empowered Author list.) Most accept traditionally published books as well, and more than a few will be happy to interview you. (Be forewarned, book bloggers come and go like the wind.)

5. Do reviews/articles for sites that get a lot of traffic (e.g. Blogcritics). See: Precycling: A Great Way to Get the Most Mileage Out of Your Blogs 

6. Once you have published some articles give talks, webinars and/or interviews online. Read Arranging Your Own Book Tour.

7. BLOG!! I cannot stress this enough. Agents often request a blog URL. If you maintain a blog - on any topic - they will read a few posts. (So make sure you check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.) Readers will also look for your blog. One of the many benefits of a blog is that it allows you to acquire an email list. You may not need that list now, but I guarantee you will need it later when you send out your pre-order announcements. (You need pre-orders for your book.)

Even if you plan to publish your book the old-fashioned way (by either marrying or giving birth to an editor for a major publishing house), you will have to build a platform, so you may as well start now. The sooner you get an online presence, the easier it will be to promote your work.