Welcome back for Part 2 of my tutorial on how you can use
Pinterest to enhance your work as a writer. If you missed Part 1:
Set Up YourAccounts, Your Boards and Start Pinning, you can click
here and read that.
Also, the schedule for the rest of the tutorials is at the end of this blog.
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| fig. 1 |
UPDATE
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Since Part 1 of this tutorial that was published five
days ago, Pinterest has changed the design of their name and photo
banner or heading. (fig. 1) It has all the functions the old one did, except it now makes
it easier for us to find business help information. (See yellow highlight and fig. 2)
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CREATE AND USE
PINTEREST RESEARCH BOARDS
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| fig. 4 |
You can create research boards to help you gather images
and information for your writing projects. Depending on the nature of the
board, you can create them as either a public
board or a secret board. For
example, I have several fashion boards broken down by decade covering only those
years in which I plan to write that are public so anyone who follows Zina Abbott Books has access to those
images. (See fig. 3) . I keep these boards public so
anyone who follows Zina Abbott Books has access to those images.
I have other boards I create as secret boards (sometimes called private boards). (See fig. 4) In them I collect images and information specific
to a particular series or novel. Here are some of my secret boards. The boards underlined in red are for book series.
The boards highlighted in yellow are individual novels. The boards that are not
marked are general research boards. For myself, I use all caps for the book
titles.
The following are some examples of some of the other research
pins I store in my secret boards.
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| fig. 5 |
1. For Armitage,
the second novel planned for the Golden Oaks series, one of my characters
taught at a Southern military academy for boys prior to the Civil War. I still
need to decide which one. I placed this pin (fig. 5) in my ARMITAGE - Private board, not so much for the image, but for the
accompanying details. That pin may never go on any of my public boards for Zina
Abbott Books. (I keep it pinned on my American Civil War board under Robyn Echols.)
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| fig. 6 |
Other research pins I might put in a secret board are images on which I might base a character or
locality description. For Armitage, I selected this pin for consideration as a descriptive tool for one of my Armitage family members. (Fig. 6)
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| fig. 7 |
I create both public
and private/secret boards for the
same novels and/or novel series. A portion of the drop-down menu for Zina
Abbott Books looks like this. (fig. 7)
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| fig. 8 |
When I create a board, I make sure that in the description box I write the details
of what will be included. In a board for a particular novel. I detail the
book title (in capital letters) and my name as the author. If I know the publisher and the
publication date, even if only the month and year, I may include that, too. That little lock icon means a board is secret board. (fig. 8)
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| fig. 9 |
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| fig. 10 |
When I decided to write the short Christmas story, I created a private research board. Note the basic
details in the description. Even though this story is set in 1873, when I set
the board up, I put it in the Film,
Music & Books category instead of History. (fig. 9)
For one thing, not all of the images I pinned on that
board were historical in nature. (fig. 10)
This is what my private
A CHRISTMAS PROMISE research board looked like once I filled it with pins. (fig. 11)
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| fig. 11 |
CREATE PROMOTIONAL
BOARDS
Once I sold that story, I could change these research pins into promotional pins by adding the publication information to the board
description. I could have done one of two things.
1. I could have
gone into the edit feature, updated
the description and changed the entire board to a public board. However, this
would not have put those pins into the current feed for either the pinners who
are following my boards or for those who are perusing the Pinterest master Film, Music & Books database.
2. What
I chose to do was to create a second public
board. (fig.12) Once I did that, I had two boards, one public that was empty of pins, and one secret that looked like this. (fig 13)
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| fig. 13 |
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| Fig. 12 |
For some of the pins, particularly those on which I
already had updated information on the novel, I transferred them from my private board to my public board using the Edit feature. However, for most of the pins, I
wanted my followers and other pinners to see them and be exposed to my book at the time I transfer them to my public
board. In order to get them into the current Pinterest feed, I pinned the images (complete with
updated details I added in the description) to the new public board.
If you compare the two boards, you can see that some of
the pins on my secret board were not placed on my public board.
CHANGE SECRET
(PRIVATE) BOARDS TO PUBLIC BOARDS
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| fig.14 |
To change an existing secret board to a public board, edit
the board by changing the title (remove Private)
and changing it from secret to public. click on the red Save Changes button. (see fig. 14)
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| fig. 15 |
You will end up with one public board. All your pins that were on your secret board will remain when the board becomes a public board. You will no longer have a
secret board by that name. the
disadvantage to this is that the pins will not go into the Pinterest feed to be
looked at by followers.
If you wish to keep your secret board but also have a
public board,
create a new
public
board. Keep the description in the
Description
box as
Films, Music
& Books category. (
fig. 15)
TRANSFER PINS FROM
ONE BOARD TO ANOTHER USING THE EDIT FEATURE
In case you accidentally pin an image in the wrong board,
it is important to know how to get it to the correct board. You can do so
without repinning the image. You can also use this feature to transfer pins
from a secret board to a public board without repinning.
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| fig. 16 |
In this example, I have a Civil War image I accidentally
pinned in my general History board. (fig. 16) Here is how to fix it. Click on the heading of the board on which it is pinned, which in this case is the History board. (fig. 16)
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| fig. 17 |
On the History board, locate the pin you want to move or edit. (fig. 17)
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| fig. 18 |
Hover the cursor over the image until the task buttons appear. Click on the white pencil button (yellow highlight) (fig. 18)
The pin is set in the board named History. (yellow highlight) (fig. 19)
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| fig. 19 |
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| fig. 20 |
Change the name of the board to American Civil War and click on the red Save Changes button. (fig. 20)
Now the pin is on the correct board. (fig. 21)
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| fig. 21 |
Be aware that you can edit a pin from a secret board to a public board, but you cannot edit a pin from a public board to a secret board.
For example, when I started gathering images for my
novel, Family Secrets, I did not know about secret boards. I dumped
all manner of pins such as the Vietnam War, war protestors, clothing, the war in Afghanistan, etc. that I thought
might apply to my novel into my public FAMILY
SECRETS board.
The board was designated as a Film, Music & Books board. Those Vietnam War images, without anything in
the description to tie them to the novel looked like they should have been
pinned on a History board. Then
there were the images about the war in Afghanistan (Everything or Other) and
the red boots (Women’s Fashions) worn by Jennie’s friend,
Kaylee. At least until I was ready to have them on my novel board with title
and author in the description plus an explanation why they applied to that
novel, they should not have ended up on the Pinterest master Film, Music & Books database.
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| fig. 22 |
The damage was done for those earlier pins. But, to make
them more effective for promoting my novel, I decided to transfer many of those pins to one
of my
private boards. When I am
ready to add a description in order to promote the publication of this novel, I will
pin them back on my
public FAMILY SECRETS board.
Because I could not use the
edit feature to get those pins from a public board to a private board, I had to pin them. First, I hovered my cursor over the image until the task buttons appeared at the top. then I clicked on the red
Pin It button. (
fig. 22)
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| fig. 23 |
On the Pick a
board screen, I changed the board from the public FAMILY SECRETS board to one of my private boards.
In this case, because I was so close to the publication date for Family
Secrets, I did not create a new secret
board for the novel. I chose to pin this image to the secret board for the Golden Oaks series. I clicked on the red Pin It button to pin it to the Golden Oaks Series - Private board. (fig. 23) That same pin was then on two boards, one public and one secret.
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| fig. 24 |
Next I went back to that pin of the red boots on the FAMILY SECRETS public board.. To remove the pin, I hovered my cursor over the image until the task buttons appeared at the top. Then I clicked on the white button with the pencil icon. (fig. 24)
In the Edit Pin screen, I clicked on the white Delete button. (fig. 25) that removed that pin from the public FAMILY SECRETS board.
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| fig. 25 |
ADD NOVEL
DESCRIPTIONS TO PINS AND PIN THEM TO A PUBLIC BOARD
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| fig. 26 |
Select a pin you wish to pin from your secret board to your public board. As an example, here is an
original pin with the original description and source that was in my A
Christmas Promise private board. (fig. 26) To add a description to a pin, hover your cursor over the image and click on the
white button with the pencil icon.
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| fig. 27 |
In the description
box in the Edit Pin window, I
left the original description. After it, I wrote some details that tied this
image to my story, including the title, author and scheduled publication date. (fig. 27)
Pinterest will only allow you to use 500 characters (including spaces) in the
description, so choose your words carefully. When finished, click on the red Save Changes button.
This is what the pin looks like after editing the
description. (fig. 28, left) You can also add the description when you re-pin a pin from your
secret board to your public board. Hover your cursor over the image again and click on the
red Pin It button. Select your
public board for your novel. (fig. 28, right)
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| fig. 28 |
Or, you can hover over the image and click on the pencil
button to reach the Edit Pin window and change the name of board from your
secret board to your public board. (fig. 28, right)
CHANGE BOARD COVER
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| fig. 29 |
If you do not set a particular pin as a board cover, the
largest image that shows at the top of your board, it will change as you add
pins. You can change your board cover so the pin that is the most descriptive
of the contents of the board stays on top. To change or set your board cover,
hover your cursor over the large image until the Change
Cover button appears. (fig. 29)
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| fig. 30 |
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| fig. 31 |
Click on the Change
Cover button to reach the Change
Board Cover screen. You can use the forward and back arrows to navigate between all the images on the board. You can also
position the view box up and down to
select the section of the pin you wish to be seen as your cover. After you have
made your selection, click on the Save
Changes button. (fig. 30)
Your new image will show at the top of your board as your
cover. The other pins below will shift as you add new pins, but the cover will
remain in place. (fig. 31)
UPLOAD PINS FROM
YOUR COMPUTER DOCUMENTS FILES
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| fig. 32 |
You can create your own pins by uploading images from
your documents files on your computer. To do so, click on the title or header
of the board on which you want to pin your image. (fig. 32)
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| fig. 33 |
On the open board, click on Add a Pin. (fig. 33)
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| fig. 34 |
In the Add a Pin
from window, click on Your computer. (fig. 34)
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| fig. 35 |
In the Upload an
image right from your computer! window, click on the Choose Image button.
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| fig. 36 |
Search the images in either your documents or pictures
folders on your computer and select
the image you want to pin in the board. (fig. 36)
Select the image and add it to your board as a pin. Be
sure to tell what the pin is about and give your source in the description. (fig. 37)
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| fig. 37 |
A QUICK WORD ABOUT
COPYRIGHT
The same copyright laws that apply to written works also
apply to images. However, before you upload your personal images to your
public Pinterest boards, keep in mind
that most pinners ignore copyright issues. Even with a copyright statement in
the picture, like I did for this image (
fig. 38),
your photo will become fair game to anyone who pins it to one of their boards.
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| fig. 38 |
For one thing, another pinner can remove the copyright
notice from the description. If you use your photo editing program to put your
copyright notice somewhere on the image itself before you upload it as a pin,
unless you emblazon it across the middle which would effectively ruin the
picture, it can be trimmed off by another pinner’s photo editing program.
REALITY: Expect other pinners to use your images on their blog posts and other
projects without requesting permission from you or giving you photo credit.
Pin your own images selectively. Accept the fact that you
can consider them in the public domain
once you pin them on a Pinterest public board.
TO BE CONTINUED: THE SCHEDULE
This is number two of four
tutorials on how to use Pinterest to help you as a writer. If you have not
already done so, please sign up to follow both the Priairie Rose Publications blog
and the blog for its imprint, the Fire
Star Press (firestarpress.blogspot.com)
so you can catch them all. Those tutorials that are past are linked below. Here
is the schedule:
1. Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - Prairie Rose
Publications blog
2. Monday, October
20, 2014 - Prairie Rose Publications blog
Part 2: Manage
Your Writer’s Boards and Pins
3. Friday,
November 7, 2014 - Fire Star Press blog
Part 3: Enhance
Your Novel Release Party Using Pinterest
4. Monday,
November 17, 2014 - Prairie Rose Publications blog
Part 4: Add
Pinterest to Your Blog and Website
Robyn Echols is a fairly new “rose” who is writing
historical novels under the pen name, Zina Abbott. Her novel, FAMILY SECRETS,
will be published by Fire Star Press, an imprint of Prairie Rose Publications.
It is scheduled to be released the last week in October, 2014. Her short
historical western romance, A CHRISTMAS PROMISE, is scheduled for publication
by Prairie Rose Publications in December 2014.
