SUSAN KAYE QUINN

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How I Use Pinterest and Tumblr As An Author

 

Pinterest and Tumblr are becoming essential tools for me as a writer.

This has nothing to do with marketing (well, almost nothing) – rather, it’s about the creation of the work in the first place.

Pinterest: Keeping Your Visuals Together
It started with my steampunk book – I needed a place to collect all the lush visual inspiration I was using to inspire the books (The Dharian Affairs trilogy – first book free!). Pinterest was perfect because I could create a “board” for the series and keep them all in one place for later perusal. I make my boards public (protip: you can make them private if you need them to be sekrit), just to share with my readers as I was creating. I found a vibrant community of steampunk enthusiasts on Pinterest! And my steampunk board has been cited in more than one review, so I know readers are finding (and enjoying!) it as I have.

Reviews: I will occasionally post reviews on Pinterest, but I find saving tweets on Hootesuite about reviews (directing back to the reviewers) is more effective… plus it doesn’t clutter up your board.

Tumblr: More Than Just Visuals
Tumblr is like Blogger and Twitter got together and had a baby: it’s blogging content (anything from pure visuals to video to text missives pages long) but built to retweet (or “reblog”). I haven’t done any actual blogging on Tumblr yet… just reblogging of cool content. And Tumblr is a Big Wide World… I found my way there because Pinterest just didn’t have pictures like this:

Singularity is coming!
Tumblr and Pinterest Together
The problem with Tumblr is that it’s a blog – content isn’t organized, it’s just one continuous long timeline. The problem with Pinterest is that the content isn’t as diverse – lots of craft and fashion pictures, but not a lot of cyborgs. BUT… you can pin from Tumblr to Pinterest!

Aaaaahh!
So…
I take this image on Tumblr….
….and pin it to my Singularity board on Pinterest….
…and now I have all my stuff saved just where I want it (and for my Singularity readers to explore at their leisure – book coming in March 2015!). 
My life is good again.
(Also I’m spending way too much time looking at pictures instead of writing – but that’s a separate problem.)
Tumblr is The Conversation
Pinterest is The Scrapbook
NOTE: I’m just beginning to explore Tumblr – if you’re an expert, educate me in the comments as to all the cool ways I can use it.

Comments

  1. Being very visually oriented, I've been enjoying using Pinterest to store and sort images to help with my work. I'd been wondering about Tumbler… I'll check it out. Thank you!

  2. I LOVE Pinterest and started there for the same reason you did – to keep book ideas together. Now I need to be careful when I go there because it's so addictive! I haven't caught on to Tumblr yet but your cyborg picture inspired me to go look for better pics of genies and hippies. 🙂 Nice post. Thanks!

  3. I started on Pinterest but haven't been back in a while. The last time I was there I recall there being sunshine outsde when I started and when I finished, someone, my daughter, pointed out that it had gotten dark. It's so addicting. But I think it would be good to get back on the Pin-wagon and build some boards for my books. Tumblr is something I haven't set up yet. But it sounds pretty cool.

  4. Ah I love Pinterest, I often stay away because once I am there I can spend easily an hour on ther,e before I notice how much time ahs passed. I have a seperate board where I pin all my reviews and hopefullly direct some people to my blog, but most often I pin recipes, nature and animal pictures.

    I love it when authors have a pinterest account and make boards for their books, it gives the readers a feel for the book. Almost like what the cover does, but then much more. And sometiems visuals just work better than descriptions and I am happy I stopped by your dharian affairs board before I read the first book as it made it easier for me to imagine whats everything looked like.

    I haven't tried tumblr myself yet as I already have a blog and way too many social media accounts.

  7. Hi Susan,

    I too have just started to explore tumblr. I have linked it to my blog, but I had not thought to link it to Pinterest.

    These are all great online tools, so the trick is finding the best way to use them to achieve what you need, without wasting effort or losing too much time.

    So, thanks for the advice.
    Phil

About Susan

Susan Kaye Quinn is PhD Environmental Engineer turned spec fic author who writes hopeful climate fiction & solarpunk.
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I’m currently working on a novel about plants and families and how we have to renegotiate our relationships with both.

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Find Sue on Blue Sky, Mastodon, and her blog. She also hosts the Bright Green Futures podcast.
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