All posts by Jordan

News & Contests

Predicting the future: plans for 2013!

1 Comment

Happy New Year! I hope your holiday was fantastic, and didn’t involve, I don’t know, your first trip to the ER in 25 years or something like that (yay! Pleurisy!). I love a fresh beginning (and a clear bill of health 🙂 ), but I don’t particularly feel inclined to make New Year’s Resolutions (basically ever). However, I do have big plans for this year.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve really become devoted to scheduling to help achieve my goals easily, and this year is no different.

2013 fireworks

Blog schedule in 2013!

Last year, I created a blog schedule with themed days, which I sometimes even stuck to. Each month, I’d write out post ideas for each of those days. This made blogging pretty easy! So I’ll try to continue that pattern this year, but I’m changing up my days a bit. In 2013, we’ll look at:

  • Mondays: ups & downs of the writing life
  • Tuesdays: the Neverending TBR pile
  • Wednesdays: Writing craft
  • Thursdays: TBA
  • Fridays: all kinds of fun

I’ll also be working on several writing guide PDFs this year, including last year’s marketing series, and updating some of the older PDFs throughout the year.

Writing in 2013

Naturally, I’ve got big plans in writing, too. I actually made up a day-by-day production schedule last month—leaving the end of the year a little open, but still. Kinda scary, huh?

If I can keep up with my schedule, I’ll finish two new books and a short novella this year. Unfortunately, I’m already behind in my schedule (I really hope this isn’t indicative of the future!), so I’ll probably be playing catch up a bit this month—but I’ll writing that novella and starting on one of my novels. My production schedule also takes into account lots of editing and critiquing—but I actually tried not to push myself too hard.

Writing slower

Yes, shockingly, one of my goals for 2013 is to write slower.

I wrote two new novels in 2012, in a combined total of less than six weeks. I kind of love letting my fictional worlds consume me, and I found that writing so much, so quickly had some definite advantages in quality (no, really!)—but also some distinct drawbacks.

To put it bluntly, writing isn’t my only—or even my most important—responsibility. I’ve got three small children, and I’m not going to plant them in front of the TV forever. So one of my most important goals this year is to be more careful about my writing time. I’ll still shoot for a decent amount of words when I’m drafting, but it’s less than half of my 2012 daily drafting goal. I really don’t want to spend more than ~4 hours a day on my work, and most or all of that while my kids are at (pre)school or asleep.

I absolutely believe you have to guard your work time—but novels aren’t the only things I’m working on right now, and I’m pretty sure my fictional characters can wait much better than the real characters who awe weawwy, weawwy hungwy!

What do you think? What do you hope to achieve in 2013? Come join the conversation!

Photo by Kotomi Yamamura

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Mechanics

Mele Kalikimaka!

1 Comment

WORD NERD ALERT!

Wherein we learn I’m crazy and also Merry Christmas.

“Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii’s way to say Merry Christmas to you,” crooned Bing Crosby. It’s the “island greeting” for Christmas—but did you know it’s just “Merry Christmas”?

“Borrowing” isn’t just something your neighbor does with your lawn tools—it’s also an important linguistic process. In linguistic borrowing, the actual loan word (or phrase) is taken from the donor language, and often its sounds, spelling and/or pronunciation are adapted into the receiving language’s system of sounds.

The Hawaiian language has a short list of consonant sounds—eight, in fact: p, h, m, n, ? (the glottal stop; the sound between the vowels of “uh oh”), l (sometimes rendered n), w (sometimes rendered v) and k (sometimes rendered t).

What are these “sometimes t or k” letters? Most languages have more than one “allophone” of a letter: American English, for example, has 6 different pronunciations of the letter [phoneme, to be exact] /t/—as in cat, top, button, water, winter, and stop (more explanation below the bulleted list here). In Hawaiian, /t/ can be pronounced /k/ and vice versa. That particular variation is very rare.

You might notice in our list of sounds that there’s no s or r, both of which are kind of important in Merry Christmas. Hawaiian conveniently “maps” those sounds into the nearest relative, usually in terms of where the sounds are produced in the mouth. So R >> L. (I’ll spare you the productive phonetic reasons, unless you’re interested.)

So that gets us to Melly Chlistmas. Uh, yeah, this doesn’t sound much closer, does it?

Melly to Mele is pretty easy, right? There’s no ‘y’ and although the ee sound we make in Merry is closer to Hawaiian ‘i’ than ‘e,’ Hawaiian tends to prefer symmetrical vowels, so ‘mele’ is good enough.

Let’s tackle “Chlistmas.” The Ch makes a ‘k’ sound already, so Klistmas isn’t too hard to come up with, right? Well, in Hawaiian, native (i.e. not borrowed from other languages like this is, but oh well) words do not have clusters of consonants at the beginnings of syllables. (English has “phonotactic” rules, too—native English words don’t start with sd or ts, etc.)

So we need to break up the “Kl.” I don’t really know why we get an ‘a’ in there, and I could make some wild conjecture about vocalic position throughout the phrase, but that’s just crazy talk. We get an ‘a.’ Okay. One gimme.

All right, we’re at Mele Kalistmas. Now, we don’t have an ‘s’ in Hawaiian, and who says the ‘t’ in Christmas? Well, it’s possible that they did take the ‘t’—which you remember can also be a /k/ in Hawaiian—but I think it’s a little more likely that the /s/ sounds in Christmas got “mapped” into /t/. Notice how /s/ and /t/ are produced in essentially the same place in your mouth (the alveolar ridge) by the same part of the tongue—the only difference is the manner (plosive/stop vs. fricative). And if /t/ = /k/ in Hawaiian, apply a little transitive property, and add in some harmony with the beginning of the word . . .

Oh, sorry, I said no wild conjecture. I changed my mind.

We need a few extra vowels now, since we’re only at Kalikmak, or by syllables: ka-lik-mak. In Hawaiian, another rule is that a syllable can’t end with a consonant. So we add more vowel, repeating the one right before: ka-li-ki-ma-ka. (More syllables is BETTER!!!! Pfft, English, with its wimpy two syllable holidays.)

And now, I think we’ve done it. Merry Christmas —> Mele Kalikimaka!

So yes, I’m crazy. But any way you say it, I hope your Christmas is merry and bright! And I’ll see you back here next year!

Photo by Consuela Yokomura

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
News & Contests

Tension, Suspense & Surprise: Now in PDF!

13 Comments

If you’ve joined my newsletter, you already know that my popular blog series on writing, Tension, Suspense and Surprise is due out in PDF form this month. Well, Merry Christmas—it’s here!

Tension, Suspense and Surprise looks at how to draw your readers in and keep them reading with specific, powerful writing techniques—not gimmicks. No matter what your genre, these tools are vital for a compelling read. Tension, Suspense and Surprise is also tied for my longest series, with 35 PDF pages packed with information and ideas to make your stories better.

…. So, where is it, you ask?

This time around, I’m experimenting with something a little different. To get the FREE PDF version of Tension, Suspense and Surprise, all you have to do is “Pay” with a Tweet, Facebook share or Google+ post. Click the right button below and post to Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Then you’ll automatically get your free PDF!

DUE TO COMPLAINTS about the ads from the Pay With a Tweet service, I’m testing a different service, Pay with a Social Post. Let me know if you have any problems.

Really? That’s all?
Yep!

Do I have to use the button, or can I just post about it?
Using the button makes the whole thing automatic. I won’t be monitoring social networks for these mentions and then trying to hunt you down to send you the PDF. Plus, the automatic post generated with the button makes sure that other people can find this great, free information, too. It’s a Christmas gift we can all share!

Can I “pay” with a Facebook post?
Yes! You might want to edit the automatic message, which includes my Twitter handle. If you’ve already Liked my Facebook page, you might also be able to tag me!

To “pay” with a Facebook post, you MUST MUST MUST use the button for the automatic delivery to work!

I don’t do Facebook, Google+ Twitter. Can I get the PDF?
You know what? Sure. Just email a friend about the offer (with a link to this page), and CC or BCC me: contest at jordanmccollum dot com. I’ll email the PDF directly to you as soon as I can.

Why are you doing this to meeeee?
Well, I hope it’s not too much to ask. I’ve given away free writing advice in blog series and PDFs for years now, and I’d love your help in letting more people know about this free info. If you find it valuable or even slightly interesting, why not share it with your friends?

Please share this useful, free writing advice and get your own copy today!

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Reading

TBR Tuesday: books I’ll read by the end of the world (or year) (or so)

So, either the end of the world or the end of the year is coming up pretty quickly here, and my reading list for 2012 is still pitifully short, so I’m pushing to read a few more books by the end of the year. And library deadlines help out, too.

First, I remembered and recorded that I read Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber. YA author Ally Carter mentioned this book on Twitter, and I like her books, so I decided to check it out. It’s an intense YA action thriller. I really enjoyed it—but I was torn between reading faster to enjoy the story and reading slower to enjoy the incredibly fresh writing. (I do want to note that there’s a lot of violence, language and sexual themes, so it’s definitely an older YA.) The sequel, Perry’s Killer Playlist came out last month. I’ll go stick that in my TBR 😉 .

Next, I’m in the middle of reading two library books: one on my Kindle, and one in paper. The paper one is due today, so I’m hoping I’ll have finished it by the time you read this: The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch. A bibliophile friend recommended it as a comp for my Nano novel. It’s a YA post-apocalyptic* novel set 15 years after the Collapse—so Stephen, our main character, never knew the world before. When his dad, the only person he has left, is gravely injured, Stephen, may just have to rely on on strangers who seem too good to be true in this world of chaos and backstabbing.

The story is engaging so far, and at times the writing really sparkles—which makes me all the sadder when it doesn’t. My husband devours pretty much anything post-apocalyptic and got to this one first. He liked it.

My Kindle library read is Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. Confession time: This was due back at the library over a month ago. However, if I keep the WiFi off on my Kindle, I can finish the book and the library is free to loan out that copy (I think?). On the other hand, if I get any Kindle books for Christmas (like I’ve asked), I kinda need to turn the WiFi back on to get them—which returns my library book.

Oh, the story? Pandemonium is the sequel to Delirium, a YA dystopian* novel about a society that has eliminated the root of wars, conflict and strife: amor deliria nervosa. AKA love. A surgical procedure at the age of 18 “cures” love, and 17-year-old Lena can’t wait—until the deliria strikes her.

I’m sad that I’m having such a hard time getting into this one. I really enjoyed the first book in the series, but Pandemonium is switching between two timelines and I’m not fully engaged in either one yet. I’m <10% into the book, so I’m definitely still giving it a chance. The writing—noticing a trend?—is absolutely striking, but even that I enjoyed more in the first book. We’ll see.

I guess I need a backup read-before-the-end-of-the-world book, and that’s an easy choice: Feedback by Robison Wells. I read Variant, the first book in this YA semi-dystopian* “duology,” last year, and it totally freaked me out. It tells story of Benson, an orphan in the foster system who ends up at an exclusive private school, only to find there are no adults anywhere. He has to find a place in the gang-dominated social strata while trying to figure out what the heck’s going on here.

Again, this is a book my husband got to before me. I recommended Variant to him a year ago, and on a business trip last month, he finally picked up my Kindle edition on his phone. The next morning, he texted me to say “There’d better be a sequel to Variant!” quickly followed with “Do you have Feedback?” I waffled for a few minutes only because the book was on my Christmas list, but then I broke down and bought it for him.

I haven’t had a chance to get to it (ahem, see above—books with deadlines), but I’m coming for you, Feedback. Soon. (Also, I’d still like the hardback for Christmas, since I have Variant in hardback, too.)

What are your last few reads of the year? Come share your favorites and your TBRs! And, um, if you know any good adult books? Because this is getting a little crazy here . . . (I swear, I’m a grown up who doesn’t even write YA! Much.)

*Some people classify post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels as the same thing, but they’re not. A post-apocalyptic novel takes place after an apocalypse (what a concept). Sometimes, after the apocalypse, a controlling society that appears perfect and espouses high ideals but actually has a deep flaw that usually means oppressing someone or something. That’s a dystopia, and while the society might still be dealing with the fallout of the destruction, it’s opposition to the dystopia, not surviving in the wreckage of a society, that forms the basis of the dystopian novel’s plot. Rob Wells himself stipulates that Variant and Feedback aren’t really dystopian.

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Marketing

A year of Marketing Monday: Thank you!

2 Comments

Thank you for reading Marketing Monday this year—can you believe it’s been a year? If you see a topic in online book marketing that I’ve missed, please let me know! Otherwise, here are a few highlights of our year in Marketing Monday.

  • Marketing 101: learn the very basic principles of all marketing, especially in reference to books. What is marketing, what’s branding, how to approach your audience, what they want and more.

free website guide

  • Awesome author websites: your website should be the home base of your Internet presence. Learn more about what your awesome author website should do, be and have to help you really reach your readers.

  • Effective blog tours: Even if you don’t have a blog, blogs can still help you find readers. Learn more about effective blog tours, good blog tour management and keep your tour interesting.
  • Search Engine Optimization for authors: this is where I began in Internet marketing! Want to get more clicks from search engine users? Search engine optimization (SEO) may be the answer for you—but is it a good fit for authors?
  • Social media marketing for authors: Pinterest, Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook—it’s enough to make your head spin! Find out how to use them, how authors can use them effectively, and keep your sanity!

Those are just the major topics we’ve covered this year. I have to admit, even I’m amazed at how much information this is!

As usual, I’d like to offer my marketing posts as a free PDF writing guide—but I need your help. Just tell me: would you rather see one gigantic PDF of all the marketing information, or several smaller PDFs for each topic? Come let me know!

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Publishing

When it’s time to let go: Abandoning a novel

9 Comments

After I let my Nano 2012 novel sit for a week, I guess it started to congeal. I couldn’t fathom ever coming back to it. I still liked the premise, but maybe there was more struggling/floundering in my first draft that I’d wanted, more [oh, we need a scene that shows X], more [agh what else am I supposed to do in here????] in it than I would’ve liked. The writing quality is actually okay (for a first draft), and nothing stands out as being bad or irreparable, but I just . . . meh.

I think almost all of us have novels we’ve abandoned. Maybe they’re in a metaphorical (or real!) drawer, maybe they’re “trunked,” maybe they’re on 3.5″ floppies somewhere. Usually, these are our earliest novels, our first attempts at wielding a full-sized plot or creating believable, sympathetic characters—and so they might not be very good. They might not be fixable, either. Or maybe we simply found a shiny new idea and pursued that.

It’s hard to abandon a novel—but harder still to work on something that doesn’t work at all. I did a “Half-No” for Nano 2010, and eventually finished that book, but basically the entire second quarter doesn’t work. I tried a major reset at the beginning of this year, nearly a year after I finished that book, and . . . I got nothing. Still.

Sometimes, of course, we have to work on difficult things, or things we don’t enjoy—maybe we hate drafting, or line edits make us want to scratch our eyes out. If we want to be published—trade, small or well-published as an indie—we still have to do the parts we don’t like.

However, that doesn’t mean we have to flog ourselves over stories that suck our souls dry. As Natalie Whipple pointed out last month (emphasis mine),

For example, I wrote something this summer that my editor passed on. And with good reason. I certainly don’t blame her, because looking at it now I don’t think it’s something I put my all into. I don’t have the proper passion for it, which means I’ll probably have to set it aside out of necessity. Because this business is too hard to waste effort on something you don’t 150% love.

So often, when I’ve lost the passion for a book, it shows in the quality. And if you don’t LOVE your book, why should anyone else?


The last one is my sister—I thought it was a great point! Occasionally, we might try something new, different, challenging, and that’s great. If it doesn’t turn out, or if you change your mind, at least you tried, and it’s okay to accept that it doesn’t work, and move on.

And you never know—maybe you’ll come back to it, say, while you’re exporting it from Scrivener to Word, and read a scene or two and fall in love all over again.

Soon, we’ll talk about when NOT to give up.

What do you think? Have you given up on a novel? Why? Come join the conversation!

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Reading

TBR Tuesday: top reads of 2012

5 Comments

I did a terrible job tracking my reading in 2012—after having to play catch up on my 2011 goal, and burying myself in writing, I just didn’t leave nearly enough time for reading, and when I did read, I neglected to tell Goodreads about it—so it’s like it never happened.

However, thanks to Goodreads, I can tell you a little bit about my favorite reads (that I recall…) this year.

Fiction: Young Adult

Again, I know I read more than what I’ve got listed, but as I look over my list, here’s what stands out:


Supernaturally by Kiersten White, #2 in the Paranormalcy trilogy


Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins, completing the Hex Hall trilogy

Both of these books are fun paranormal stories without really being “creature” paranormal romance. But I’d recommend starting at the beginning of the series for both of them, which makes the next book my top pick of 2012 YA:


The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson

This book is just. plain. fun. It’s about a Mattie, a rebellious teen and closet artist, whose stepsister Ella has absolutely everything Mattie could ever want, right down to the boy Mattie’s loved since she was 9. Mattie strikes back—she takes charge of her life and runs for class president. Against that boy she’s loved since she was 9. Besides, she doesn’t believe in happily ever after.

Nonfiction: Espionage

This is reeeally tough. I read and scanned a bunch of books on espionage and the CIA this year, and frankly, nonfiction is seldom as engaging as fiction. On the other hand, a nonfiction book that’s DRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY but really informative is something of a success, right?

So, my most informative book on espionage probably had to be:


The CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace

As you might have guessed from my intro, this book is, well, dry. It’s actually declassified, two long-lost manuals written for the CIA by magician John Mulholland, designed to train CIA operatives on sleight of hand to deliver pills, powders or liquids into a subject’s food or drink (or person!), or to abscond with things. The former was never used (according to the CIA), but the latter methods, if not the manual, doubtlessly were, and may still be.

But perhaps more important than the manual tricks it describes are the principles of “magic” that include misdirection and other techniques that help any spy.

On the other hand, maybe it’s less the book and more the fun of trying out actual spy trickery and sleight of hand routines yourself 😉 . I didn’t have time to really delve into another book by the same authors, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda, but I still felt cool when I got to decipher the one-time pad in its pages 🙂 .

I read a whole bunch of CIA memoirs as well, and garnered so much information on the actual training and daily life of real CIA operatives. However, the Most outstanding CIA memoir I read this year was . . .


The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio J. Mendez

Yep, that’s the dude Ben Affleck played in Argo. Mendez has released a whole book about on the true story of the rescue of the six houseguests (also titled Argo), but I read about that first in Master of Disguise.

Although the beginning of Mendez’s CIA career was a little tedious—forging passports and “chops,” the stamps used at border crossings, opening envelopes indetectably, etc.—some of the most entertaining and thrilling true stories of spy adventures I read this year came from this book. Plus, it was only $2.09 on Kindle! when I looked it up last night—you can bet I bought a copy. (My first read came from the library.

Honorable mention in this category definitely goes to See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism by Robert Baer. Where Mendez was actually technical support (though he frequently had to travel in the field), Baer was a real operative in the field for most of his decades-long career. This book was the best look into what a CIA operative does in the field that I read.

So, what are your top reads of 2012? What areas did you focus your reading time in? Come join the discussion!

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Marketing

Pinterest for authors

2 Comments
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Marketing: social media

Pinterest is the popular new kid in town when it comes to social media. It’s referring a huge amount of traffic to other websites, quickly becoming one of the most popular social media sites and sites to send traffic on to other sites—like, maybe, yours. Since I also write a craft blog, my co-bloggers/sisters and I have been members of Pinterest since spring/summer 2011 (yes, friends, 18 months! An eternity in Internet-dom!). You can see my Pinterest profile here.

What’s Pinterest?

Pinterest is a visual “pin board” of whatever you love, they claim. You can “pin” an image from almost any site, which is like saving it to a public, digital scrapbook (although Pinterest did finally add private boards recently). You can have several boards arranged by topic/genre (many people have dozens). Also, you can create shared boards, where multiple users (your friends, critique group, whomever) can add pins.

You don’t have to discover everything you add to your scrapbook yourself. You can also browse the feeds of friends that you follow (found via Facebook or Twitter—just click on the Pinterest logo at the top of the site) or all Pinterest members (click on the Pinterest logo, then select “Everything”) or by category.

Feel free to “repin” anything that catches your eye. You can also “like” pins and share comments on them. Hover your mouse over any pin, and the buttons for all these options show up.

You can also follow other Pinterest members whose pins you like—or even just a single board of another member, if that’s all that interests you.

Pinterest is a natural fit for anyone who interested in visuals—anything from crafts to cooking to fashion to interior design. But can it work for authors?

How to use Pinterest as an author

Pinterest is interesting among social media sites in that the emphasis is less on the networking and more on the content. Naturally, having more followers can lead to more repins, more views and more clicks, but for me, anyway, I care less about who pinned something as long as it’s awesome.

Use Pinterest like a person

Using Pinterest to try to market your book constantly and exclusively, as with all other social media sites, is a sure way to turn people off.

Instead of focusing on what you’re going to get out of it as someone with a book to sell or a blog to attract visitors, use Pinterest like it was intended. Maybe you’re a knitter or a baker or into home design. Maybe you like inspirational photos or infographics. If there’s something out there with pictures that you like, you can use Pinterest—and guess what? Even writing has pictures.

While the focus on Pinterest is on the content itself, that doesn’t mean you should focus only on pinning your own things. Connect with your friends—make new ones—through following, repinning and commenting.

Well, what do I pin?

We’ve talked before about using Pinterest as an “inspiration” board for a novel. As a reader, I love to see authors’ inspiration images, whether for character, settings or just milieu.

In addition to any other visual interests you might have (yes, PLEASE pin things other than books!), book-related pins are a great fit for an author’s Pinterest account. A few ideas:

  • Books you’ve read and loved—Books Worth Reading is one of the default boards on Pinterest
  • Your to-be-read pile (I have a TBR board here)
  • Informational articles on writing, publishing or marketing (Got it!)
  • Motivational articles, pictures or quotes
  • Inspirational pictures—settings, characters, events, even clothing your characters wear or just the general feeling of your novel (Yep, done that, too)

Beautiful writing spaces, gorgeous home libraries and all more are all great writing-related pins.

How & where to put your books on Pinterest

Although there’s some disagreement on this, I’m of the opinion that you can pin your own books, with the following caveats:

  • Be upfront that this is your book. Don’t pretend like it’s just this book you loved.
  • Consider putting all the books you’ve written onto one pin board. You keep them together and get to put the “I wrote this” disclaimer at the top of the page.
  • Don’t let your account be all and only your books. As above, use Pinterest as a real user would.
  • I recommend pinning the page for the book on your website—as long as your purchase links are easy to find—or perhaps the Amazon listing.

On the other hand, pinning every helpful article you’ve written on your own site is much less okay.

A few good examples

One of my writing friends who does this all well is Chantele Sedgwick. She has a pin board for books she’s written (one currently out), as well as inspiration boards for several of her books/WIPs, and a general writing inspiration board with interesting images, infographics, quotations on writing and more.

Another friend who does this well is Canda Mortensen. She has book related boards that include “In My Library” and “Plot & Book Ideas” (though honestly, I’m most glad I follow her because of her food pins!).

Finally, I love Cathy Witbeck’s organization. Her writing-related boards include:

Note that all of these ladies also have many other boards dedicated to food, crafts, humor, organization and more. Also note that my examples are ladies—the Pinterest audience skews heavily female.

Incorporating Pinterest to your website or blog

If you have social media buttons on your site, be sure to add one for Pinterest. I recently did this up at the top of my blog.

You can also add a “Pin this” button to the individual articles. Personally, I think it’s more useful to put this only on post pages rather than the homepage—I hate clicking through on a pin of a pretty sweater, delicious recipe or other inspiration only to be taken to the blog’s main page to search through the archives to try to find it myself. If you pin from an article (instead of the main blog page), it links back directly to the article, making it easier for you and others to find the material again.

If you have a blog or informational articles on your website, I hope you’re already using pictures in your articles. However, using graphics designed to let people know what your article is about in an engaging way. This can be a cool picture, but should definitely involve engaging text. There’s a big difference between a picture of a dog with “Learn how to make really effective first chapters and introduce all your characters” vs. a picture of a baited hook with “Hook your readers fast!” Jami Gold does this well on her blog, including related, engaging graphics on each article with her web address.

Advanced Pinterest tips and tricks

Want to know what other people are pinning from your site? Check out http://pinterest.com/source/yourURLwithNOwww.com/ (replace “yourURLwithNOwww” with your URL without the www. part). Here’s what it shows for my craft blog:

Repins, likes and comments all help the visibility of a pin, whether that’s something you’ve pinned or a pin from your site. Personally, I think it’s okay to comment on or repin when someone else has pinned something from your site, especially when that person has just put your content in front of a lot of followers.

Rather than following all of a friend’s pins, you can choose to follow only the boards you’re most interested in. Conversely, you can follow a friend, but unfollow any of their individual boards—not interested in interior design or organizational tips, and your friend’s on a pinning spree? Go to their profile page, click on the Boards view and click on the “Unfollow” button below their organization board. (You can also Unfollow All at the top of the page.)

You can customize your own profile page by dragging and dropping your boards into an arrangement you like and setting a picture as the “cover” for each of your boards. You can also customize individual boards by categorizing them (which is usually required when creating a new board these days) and entering a description, which is visible on the board page.

You can “embed” a pin on your blog—click on the pin and look to the right. There’s an Embed <> button.

Set the size of the image and copy the code into the HTML tab of your blog post—voila:

 

You can pin from almost any website easily by adding the Pinterest bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark bar. Just follow the directions on the Pinterest goodies page. Then just click that bookmark and it gives you a choice of all the “pinnable” pictures on the page (you’ll enter the description in a popup after selecting a picture). The Pinterest goodies page also features Pinterest buttons for your website.

Is Pinterest worth it?

As with most online marketing, it’s going to be pretty tough to definitively tie a sale to any one activity. Pinterest can help you get your books in front of more eyes—but as with all social media, if that’s all you’re looking for, you’re kind of missing the point.

The biggest drawback to Pinterest? If you thought Facebook and Twitter were time drains, look out!

More resources

A few how-tos I enjoyed while researching Pinterest for authors, from:

What do you think? What authors do you see on Pinterest? How do you use Pinterest? Come join the conversation!

Push pin photo by Emilian Robert Vicol

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!