Welcome to Episode 34 of the Indie Kidlit Podcast. On this episode Elena and Marti discuss their recent interviews (29 to 34), and what they’ve learned from the advice and experience provided.
Here is a quick reminder of the last six interviews that Marti and Helen discuss in today’s show:
Marti and Elena on setting SMART goals for 2018
Bryan Cohen on crafting a best-selling book blurb
Darcy Pattison on formatting picture books
Clark Chamberlain on working with editors to create a book readers love
Charnaie Gordon on what authors need to know about Instagram
Pip Reid on using Pinterest to attract readers to your website
Pip Reid is the co-founder of Bible Pathway Adventures and author of the Bible Pathway Adventures series. Always game for an adventure herself, Pip traveled through Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas before settling back in New Zealand to complete a ‘Writing for Children’ diploma and embark on a writing career. Here are some of the many books that form part of the series:
Pip has been building her brand over a four and a half year period. Pinterest has been particularly effective at attracting new readers to her website and increasing sales. Here are her top suggestions for how to use Pinterest as an author:
Pinterest isn’t just a place to post great images. It’s a search engine. People use it to search for things they are interested in. It’s a visual collection of ideas and resources. Women in particular love using Pinterest.
Pinterest is very good at sending traffic to your website because you can add a URL to each image.
Use vertical images rather than horizontal ones (US letter dimensions: 8.5 x 11 inches).
Create more boards – one for each of your stories/books.
Ideas for what to post include:
coloring pages
word searches
puzzles
quizzes
These sort of posts add value to people. Teachers and parents will want to download these resources. Once they click on your image they can then go to your website to download their resource. This also increases the likelihood of them buying from you. On the FREE RESOURCE page of your website, you can also feature the book related to the downloads, for people to buy.
Make it easy for other people to post your images/resources to their boards on Pinterest by having a pin it button on your website images.
Niche down and get more specific. The description of your image is important. Make sure you include keywords. You can find common search terms when you start typing in the search engine on Pinterest.
Follows are also important on Pinterest. When people follow you they’ll see what you post.
You can also join Group Boards and pin to them. You can find groups to join at www.pingroupie.com and you can also start your own group boards.
You can pin every Blog Post to Pinterest and make sure you have a great image. This sort of content marketing drives traffic back to your website.
You can use Tailwind App to schedule posts in advance, and you can re-pin the same post to multiple boards.
You can download the Free Guide written by Pip, for Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula,HERE for more great tips and information on using Pinterest effectively.
