Pinterest Guidelines & Recommendations

Pinterest is a visual search engine as well as a social media platform. People on Pinterest are looking to find new ideas and take action, making the app an effective tool for marketing a book.

Pinterest is a valuable tool for nonfiction authors or illustrators whose work is already highly visual, but can be useful for fiction authors too, especially as a way to support another site. Authors who have active blogs or websites might consider using Pinterest as a way to promote their platform as well as their book.

Getting Started

Create a Pinterest Business account or update your current account. This is free and provides access to special content formats, custom analytics and more. These tools will help you decipher what posts work best for your content and audience.
Add a profile picture, bio, and any additional information that helps build your author brand.
Claim your website to let people know where they can find more of your content.

Building Boards and Creating Pins

Pins are images or videos that are organized in themed Boards. When pinning an image, you’ll have the option to write a short comment and select the board where that pin belongs.

Step-by-step instructions for creating boards and pinning can be found here: All about Pinterest | Pinterest help

Pinterest’s Business Blog has helpful articles covering best practices, news, and product updates: Pinterest Business Blog: News and Best Practices | Pinterest Business

Follow Other Boards and Re-pin

Follow influential publications, bloggers, and brands in your target market. By following these boards, you’ll see their new pins in your home feed and some of them might follow you back.

When you see something you like, re-pin it on one of your boards. Re-pinning is a great way to engage on Pinterest and start building your boards.

Best Practices

Pinterest Best Practices: Essential Tips for Great Pins | Pinterest Business
Follow the 80/20 rule. Aim to feature your own original content for approximately 80% of your posts and re-pin posts from other creators for the other 20%.
Engage with other posts. Like, comment on, and re-pin other people’s posts to recognize great content. Be sure to respond to comments on your own posts too – this helps with visibility.
Organize your boards by theme. You can have many different categories of boards on your account, but it’s best to keep the pins within those boards organized and cohesive.
Post high resolution images in the recommended sizes. Specs here: Review product specs | Pinterest Business help
Make sure your pins are linking to the correct website. If you have an active blog or website, creating a Pinterest to help promote new articles is an effective way to spread the word. You can create multiple pins that all link to the same page.
Space it out. Posting one pin at a time is better than posting all at once.
Writing captions. Use specific keywords, 2-3 hashtags, and clear copy. Find some best practices here: 6 Ways to Grow Your Audience with Saves | Pinterest for Creators
Trends. Pinterest has proven to be effective at predicting trends that are on the rise. Learn more here: Pinterest Trends

Board and Pin Ideas

Each board should have a theme, but boards don’t have to be connected. Pinterest has tools for creating simple graphics, but getting familiar with a design tool like Canva might also be helpful. Ideas include:

Feature quotes from the book, endorsements, and positive reviews
Post images of your book cover or any photographs or illustrations
Create graphics that relate to the content of your blog or website
Writing prompts are very popular
Pins don’t have to be just about marketing your book. Try building boards of images that remind you of characters, or settings you had in mind while writing, or boards that are tangentially related such as garden projects or cooking inspiration.
You can also add video content to Pinterest by creating video pins. For more details on how to share videos on Pinterest visit here.

Additional Resources

Pinterest for Authors: Your Essential Guide for 2023 (publishdrive.com)

Save ideas from anywhere on the web by installing the Pinterest Save Extension on your browser: Add the Pinterest Save Extension | Pinterest help

Author Examples

Jessica Formicola, author of Beef It Up!: @savorycooking
Allison Vallin Kostovick, author of The Garden Maker’s Book of Wonder: @finchandfolly
Benedict Vanheems, author of GrowVeg: @growveg
Helen Hiebert, author of The Art of Papercraft: @helenhiebert