Pinterest for Book Publishers & Authors

What is Pinterest?
Pinterest helps you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web-- it's sort of a more visual way to bookmark things you're interested in. People use pinboards for things like planning their weddings, decorating their homes, and organizing their favorite recipes. Furthermore you can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

How can Pinterest help a book publisher or author?
Because it promotes the curation of information in a very visual way, people are using Pinterest as a resource to find things they like. More importantly, Pinterest users aren't restricted to searches information only pinned on their friends’ walls- so you're able to reach more people than on Facebook. As a result Pinterest could drive a lot of traffic back to your site if you're posting relevant content. The network now beats Youtube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic in January, according to a Shareaholic study.

Some ideas for boards you can create:
Books I Love (great reads- your books and others)
Threads for Book Lovers (clothing related to books)
Bookcases (pretty ways to store books)
Libraries (beautiful reading spaces)
Food for Book Lovers (food themed from a book)
Accessories for Book Lovers (jewelry, purses, bookmarks, lights, etc)
Crafts for Book Lovers (diy ideas for book fans)
Gifts for Book Lovers (great books and accessories)
Books into Movies (books that got turned into films, or that should have been)
Book Illustrations (pictures from books, or of books)
Spotted (your books out and about)

For additional inspiration, check out some....
Publishers currently on Pinterest:
Randomhouse
Chronicle
Penguin Australia
Book Bloggers currently on Pinterest:
Stacy Millican
BookRiot
Rachel Krueger
Jessica Shover
Trish Collins
Mandi Ottaway
Sleepless Reader
Swapna Krishna

Penguin audio book ads- well done

I Believe in Advertising is featuring very unique and intriguing poster ads for Penguin Audio today. Beautifully illustrated classics, in an ear canal- simple yet gets the point across.

10 ways authors should use Tumblr

Why use Tumblr as an author?

*Reach a new demographic and interest them with your material: In the U.S. Tumblr's audience tends to be younger — 56% of the service’s 25.2 million monthly visitors are under 34, and users skew slightly more male (52%). If that sounds like your average reader, you may want to give it a go!

*Tumblr has built-in networking elements that lets you tap into its community.

*It is very fast and easy to get short-form content onto your Tumblelog including video, images, quotes, etc. You can use bookmarklets, mobile apps, phone posting, IM submissions and other tools to post content.

*You can use Tumblr as your main blog, or use it to lead traffic to your real blog.

A few pointers for setting up your Tumblr:

*Use detailed description text for your profile information- make it consistent with your other online profiles

*Spend time selecting a "theme" that meshes well with your internet presence (use the same logo across everything / develop a color palette)

*Cross pollinate – list or link to your blog, Twitter, and Facebook profile urls

10 things you should do on Tumblr:

1.) Make sure you use “tags." When you put together a post, type in a few tags in the "tag" box on the right (these are similar to Twitter's hashtags; you're just indicating what topics your post involves so people can more easily find it)

2.) Find and follow topics and other blogs you enjoy by going to “explore tumblr” or typing a word into the search box on the right (from your dashboard). A good channel to follow is: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lit

3.) Favorite other people’s posts (by clicking on the heart icon on the post). The blogger who made the post will get a notification that you indicated their post as a favorite and may start following your blog.

4.) Reblog other people's posts that are relevant to you and your fans. This will help keep your content exciting and these folks will get a notification that you reblogged their post and may start following your blog.

5.) Post only truncated/short posts, or posts that slightly differ from your main site's content.

6.) Tumblr is a very visual network, try to use attractive images that capture attention and will stand out from other posts.

7.) Keep it fun- share cool bookmarks you've found, book tshirts you like, the latest book you enjoyed reading, an article about publishing you can relate to, etc.

8.) Include the "ask" feature on your page, and engage folks with questions in your posts.

9.) Post a contest, which can easily be reblogged.

10.) Include an "about" page where readers can learn more about you, and your books.

10 ways authors should use their Facebook fanpage

1.) Draw your blog's RSS feed into your fanpage with apps like Social RSS

2.) Show off your book trailer videos or live interviews with the Youtube app

3.) Update with tour info, like location and dates by creating an event. After the event, post your photos in an album on the page.

4.) Expand your network by inviting friends to become fans with a note explaining what value the page will provide, and a link to it.

5.) Encourage folks who land on the page to like it, by creating and implementing a specific landing page, asking them to do so, and giving them something (like a free book chapter) in return. Check out Facebook for Business's fanpage for an example.

6.) "Like" other pages to help build your community.

7.) Hold contests and giveaways.

8.) Include links in the "about" box to places where your books can be purchased.

9.) Respond fast to comments folks leave. When fans are engaging you, it's a good sign!

10.) Ask questions, start discussions and create polls (ex. asking your fans to vote on a topic they'll care about).

Penguin's Book Country

Looking to support and develop writers of genre fiction, Penguin is launching a public beta of Book Country, a free online writing community and publishing services venture, Publisher's Weekly reports. Book Country, which has been in development for over a year, offers writers a place to upload new works and receive feedback and criticism from a community of writers and readers; a place for agents and editors to look for new talent; and eventually the venture will offer a suite of self-publishing services that will offer e-book and print publication for a fee.

So if you're an author, which do you choose: Harpercollins' Authonomy or Penguin's Book Country?

A few pros to Book Country:

• An emphasis on helping authors get valuable feedback
  
• Former literary agent and popular Twitter personality Colleen Lindsay is a Book Country community manager and a moderater on the boards
• It features a Genre Map, an interactive literary “map” of the known literary world, that uses a variety of landmark titles in various genres (say Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress for Hard Boiled Noir) to point Book Country members to literary stars as well as literary hopefuls working in the genre

A few pros to Authonomy:

• A focus on getting great books published
• A public scoreboard
• Been around longer, so better established and perhaps a larger community
  
• Clear writing tips in addition to discussion
• Lower barriers to entry as you can upload your works right away without critiquing others first
  

Anyone have any experiences with either community, that they'd like to share?