Pinterest Archives - A.J. Cattapan | Stories with Heart & Hope

Selling Your Books on Pinterest

February 6, 2016/0 Comments/in Marketing, Writing/by AJ Cattapan

In January, I had the pleasure of speaking with the Chicago chapter of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) about how to use Pinterest as a marketing tool for authors.

If you missed it, you still have a chance to hear my talk–and you don’t even have to leave your home! I’ll be presenting on how to use Pinterest to sell your books at the Catholic Writers Online Conference March 4-6! You can sign up here!

This faith-focused authors conference offers presentations covering all aspects of writing from finding your calling as a writer to publishing and marketing your books. There will also be online pitch sessions with noted Catholic publishers and secular publishers.

On my talk on Pinterest, we’ll discuss how to optimize your personal profile, why you should convert to a business account, how to make your website Pinterest-friendly, how to use a free service like Picmonkey to create super shareable pins, how to grow your following, and why you should be joining and using group Pinterest boards.

The conference will be held using webinar software, making the experience more personal and immediate.

This year’s sessions include an emphasis on the faith aspects of writing no matter what the genre. Speakers like Gary Zimak, author of Faith, Hope and Clarity; Joe Wetterling, President of the Catholic Writer’s Guild, horror author Jonathan Ryan and others will speak on writing as a calling, a literary revolution, and an evangelization. In addition, there are practical workshops including legal issues, techniques for characterization and plotting, how to journal, and time management.

Pitch sessions give authors with finished books a chance to personally interest a publisher. Pitch sessions include well known Catholic publishers like Servant Books, smaller presses like Liberty Island, and ebook publishers like eTreasures.

This year’s conference is $40; $25 for members of the Catholic Writers’ Guild. To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Social Media & Marketing

August 6, 2015/10 Comments/in Marketing, Spin Cycle, Writing/by AJ Cattapan

Since my book came out in April, I’ve been engaged in a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of social media marketing. In the past few weeks (since my return from the Italy/Spain trip), I’ve had some time to really dig back in again before school starts up next week.

On the one hand, I LOVE it. Or at least, I’m totally fascinated by it. I’m wondering what will work and what won’t work. And sometimes the results are very interesting. I’m thinking things like . . .

How can I promote this awesome review I got on Readers’ Favorite? I’ve tweeted it, pinned it, and posted it to both my personal and professional Facebook pages. So far I’m getting the most likes on my personal Facebook page. But is that helping? Most of those people have already bought the book.
How do I make really attractive Pinterest pins that people will repin and that will bring traffic to my website? I wrote a whole blog post on that one.
What hashtags work the best in Twitter?
How do I make press releases that actually show up in online newspapers?
How do I can get more Pinterest followers? (I’ve quadrupled my followers in the last week. Of course, my numbers were small, so it wasn’t too hard. Ha! Follow me here, if you want to help my Pinteresting crusade. Leave me a note in the comments of this post, and I’ll follow you back.)
How do I get more subscribers to my monthly newsletter? You can subscribe here to learn about my writing news, appearances, and giveaways.
Should I have a YouTube channel? Guess what? Yes, I should. And do. It only has two videos so far, but still. Come visit me.

On the other hand, I HATE it. It’s sucking up my time. I follow one lead to build up my social media marketing and end up down a whole rabbit hole of information that makes the beautiful summer day outside suddenly disappear. What happened to my day? I’ve been tied to my laptop, my phone, and my iPad.

Argh! And I used to think marketing was boring! My college roommate majored in it, and I couldn’t figure out why. Of course, that was all before the social media explosion. I wonder if they teach a whole course in social media marketing in colleges now.

Got any social media marketing tips for me? I’d love to hear them! Of course, I may never again see the light of day if you do share them.

Want to hear about other people’s love/hate relationships? Click the button below to follow this week’s Spin Cycle.

How to create Pinterest pins that bring traffic to your author website

August 2, 2015/8 Comments/in Marketing, Writing/by AJ Cattapan

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of research on how to use Pinterest as an author, and a number of my author friends have asked me to share what I learned. Because Pinterest is a visual medium, it’s a lot easier to show you what to do rather than tell you, so I created a video.

Here are a few more general Pinterest tips that aren’t mentioned in the video:

Make sure you have a profile picture on your Pinterest page. People are less likely to follow you if they can’t see who you are. Besides, you’re building an author brand. You are your brand.
Consider adding a title like “author” or “mystery writer” after your name on your profile. For example, I’m “A.J. Cattapan, author.” That way I’m more likely to be found when people search for authors, and people will know exactly what they’re getting when they follow me.
Make sure the description under your name has key terms that will help people identify you who are. As a writer, you’ll probably want to list what you write as well as what writing groups you belong to.

Again, the video is a step-by-step tutorial for creating the best pins. It does not cover the three things listed above. Instead, you’ll learn . . .

what makes some Pinterest pins stand out from others.
how to create attention-grabbing photos without buying an expensive photoshop program.
how to pin those photos to Pinterest so that they drive attention back to your website–even if those photos aren’t actually on your website at all!

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Tag Archive for: Pinterest

Selling Your Books on Pinterest

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Tag Archive for: Pinterest

Here are a few more general Pinterest tips that aren’t mentioned in the video:

Again, the video is a step-by-step tutorial for creating the best pins. It does not cover the three things listed above. Instead, you’ll learn . . .

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Join the Insiders Club!