Grief Becomes Purpose: 9/11 Stories with Ann Van Hine and Holly Little

Grief Becomes Purpose: 9/11 Stories with Ann Van Hine and Holly Little

by | Sep 11, 2026

Two women in this community lost family on September 11, 2001. One published her book about it in 2021. The other publishes hers today, on the twenty fifth anniversary.

Twenty years apart. Same day, same loss, two different answers to when a person is ready.

Alexa recorded this one without a script, and she says so out loud partway through, after losing her own thread: “You may have noticed I’m doing this one off the cuff. I didn’t script it because I really want to just talk from the heart.”

What she wants to talk about is Ann Van Hine, whose husband Bruce responded with the FDNY and never came home, and Holly Little, whose brother Todd died that day. Both of them wrote a book. Neither book came fast. And both of them did the second thing, the one we tend to run out of steam for after the writing is done.

Three threads follow. What Ann did with a life that fell apart in public. What Holly did with twenty five years of waiting. And the argument Alexa makes about both of them, which applies to your book too, whatever it is about.

Quick answer: On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Alexa honors two authors in the Women in Publishing community. Ann Van Hine lost her firefighter husband that day and wrote Pieces Falling. Holly Little lost her brother and publishes her memoir today, 25 years later.

This one is for anyone carrying a story they have not written yet, and for any author who has published a hard book and cannot get anyone to see it. No experience level assumed.

How Do You Commemorate the Past While Also Creating Space for Your Future?

Bruce Van Hine was a firefighter. He responded. He did not come home. Ann was left with two young daughters and a life that no longer resembled the one she had planned.

Alexa describes what came next as a question rather than a process: “Ann’s journey from that point in time very much began one of how to cope with life when the pieces just fall around you and how you rebuild after such a tragedy.”

And then the question that sits at the center of Ann’s book, which Alexa reads out because it is the one she has spent her own career circling: “How do you commemorate the past while also creating space for your future?”

She does not let that pass as someone else’s problem. “I know that’s something that I’ve written about a lot to grieving moms,” she says. “The last journal that I did was Permission to Thrive, right? Because that’s an important question.”

Alexa’s publishing career started after she lost her daughter. She wrote for grieving mothers first and built everything else on top of that. So when she talks about Ann’s book, she is not describing a genre she admires from the outside.

Part of Ann’s answer came through work. Since 2006 she has been a docent at the 9/11 Tribute Museum, and when the Nonfiction Authors Association asked what inspired her to write the book, that is where she started. Alexa quotes the answer: “Since 2006, I had been volunteering as a docent at the 9/11 Tribute Center Museum and realized the importance of humanizing history.”

Humanizing history.

Because here is what happens to a day like September 11 as it recedes. It becomes a number. Two thousand nine hundred and seventy seven people. Then a set of images everyone has seen. Then a date on a calendar with a moment of silence attached.

The work of a memoir is to put one man’s name back on it, Bruce, a firefighter with two daughters and a wife who is still here.

The Story Did Not End That Day, and Neither Did the Dying

There is a reason these books keep finding new readers rather than aging out.

More than 9,400 people have now died of illnesses linked to 9/11, according to recently published World Trade Center Health Program data. That is roughly three times the number killed in the attacks themselves. The program was still caring for more than 144,000 responders and survivors as of the middle of this year.

Twenty five years on, this is not a closed historical event with a fixed casualty list. It is an ongoing one, and there are tens of thousands of families somewhere on the same road Ann has been walking since 2001.

Alexa puts the widow’s version of that risk in one line. Ann’s book, she says, “speaks to anyone who has survived the loss of someone, particularly in 9/11, and just the danger that goes around with being a first responder’s wife every day.”

That risk runs every day of a career, not just the day it comes due.

This Just Isn’t a Book With a Beautiful Cover That Nobody Knows About

Alexa googled Ann the morning she recorded this.

“I encourage you to Google Ann Van Hine after this,” she says, “and you will see all of the accolades, the interviews, the information, the context about her story and her book that is out there.”

She found something new while she was there. Ann had recently received a five star best book review from Chanticleer Book Reviews, which happens to be one of the Women in Publishing sponsors. “And these are out there when people are Googling you,” Alexa says. “People will see these things.”

A review outlives the week you got it, sitting in the search results whenever a reader, a producer, a librarian or a conference organizer types your name.

“What I really love about Ann and her story is that she is implementing all the things to make sure that this just isn’t a book with a beautiful cover that’s on Amazon that nobody knows about.”

Ann speaks to groups. She pitches her own story. She does interviews on websites and in the media. She has told it in Ireland, Belgium, England, and Japan. “This is how you amplify your message,” Alexa says. “This is how you make sure that your story doesn’t get lost.”

And then, because she is being honest rather than tidy: “And it’s hard and it takes work and you’ve got to just push through it.”

She also makes a confession on air and turns it into a commitment. “My regret is that I haven’t interviewed Ann yet. I need to fix that in this next year.” Then, directly to Ann: “Hope you’re listening and hold me to it. Hit me up. Let’s do this.”

It Took 25 Years for Her to Finally Get the Book Together

The second author is newer to Alexa. They met online through a media event, then sat down together in person in New York City.

Holly Little is a lawyer, a mother, and a Bible teacher. Her brother Todd was killed on September 11. And her book, 9/11: Reflections of the Past 25 Years, publishes on the anniversary itself.

Alexa reads the description, and it contains the phrase that ended up naming this episode: “Through Todd’s story, readers are invited to discover how grief can become purpose, how faith can sustain us when answers do not come, and why remembering still matters.”

Grief can become purpose. Alexa runs it straight through all three of them, Ann, Holly, and herself: “just like Ann, and just like my story starting out there with the loss of my daughter.”

“For Holly, it took 25 years for her to finally get the book together and out for a lot of different reasons.”

Twenty five years is how long it took her to be able to write about her brother, which is a different thing from a missed deadline. If you are carrying something you have not written yet, and you have been treating that as evidence of a personal failing, Alexa’s line is the correction: “sometimes it takes a long time.” The book comes out when you can write it, and it reaches someone then.

None of Us Escapes Grief

Then Alexa widens it out past September 11, and this is where the episode starts working for people with no connection to that day at all.

“One thing is certain, and we hope it won’t be ever another event like 9/11, but none of us escapes grief. None of us escapes losing someone.”

That is why Alexa keeps circling back to books as the delivery mechanism. Not as a product. As the thing that reaches a person who thinks they are the only one.

“We love to know that we’re not alone in our journey,” she says. “We love to hear about brave people. We love to see an underdog win.”

Then, on what authors are for, whatever the genre:

“We bring people into the world of our book and we share with them. We teach, we provide empathy, we give insights into worlds and places and stories and people that we might not ever be exposed to if it weren’t for books. We are able to change people’s lives and change people’s perspectives and give hope and give encouragement.”

She closes the episode with a list of who she is remembering. The people she served with. The people in the towers. Flight 93. The passengers on the other flights who may never have known what was happening. The families. And the service members who died in the wars that followed, or who came home and did not survive what came home with them.

“Let us never forget.”

Then the practical charge, which is the one she actually wants you to act on: “Your words have power. They have incredible power. But the power is only as good as how many people actually see those words.”

What’s Next?

If this episode named something you have been carrying, the room where that turns into a plan is Stages and Pages 2026, October 15 to 17 in San Antonio at the Sol Cypress Hotel on the River Walk.

It is the Women in Publishing in-person conference, built in collaboration with April Adams Pertuis of LIGHTbeamers, whose keynote development program Alexa went through as a student. Alexa brings the publishing expertise, April brings the speaking expertise, and the whole thing is aimed at exactly the author in this episode: “if you have a big story and a big mission and you’re trying to get more visibility around that, you’re trying to speak more, you’re trying to get out there and do the things, you need to be at Stages and Pages.”

General admission is $497 and covers two days of keynotes, teaching panels, implementation tracks, the author showcase wall, sponsor expo, hot seat coaching, and the workbook. VIP is $1,497 and adds the Saturday implementation day, the Thursday River Walk dinner, priority sponsor meetings, and front row seating. GA is capped at 100 seats and VIP at 20. Payment plans are available.

One date that matters this week: the hotel room block closes September 15, 2026.

Three things to do this week:

  1. Buy both books, today if you can. Pieces Falling by Ann Van Hine and 9/11: Reflections of the Past 25 Years by Holly Little. If you have already read them, leave the review instead. If neither is in the budget, share the links. Alexa is explicit that this is the assignment: “help us amplify and share these important stories.”
  2. Google yourself the way a stranger would. Open a private window and search your own name plus your book title. Whatever comes back is what a producer or an event organizer sees. If there is room on that page, the next thing to go after is a review, an interview, or a pitch, not another draft.
  3. Name the story you have not written yet. Write one sentence describing it and put it where you will see it. You are not behind. Holly took twenty five years.

Alexa signs off the episode with “you’ve got this, and we’ve got you,” which is the closest thing Women in Publishing has to a house motto. On this particular anniversary she means the second half of it more than the first.

Cheering you on, Alexa

Alexa Bigwarfe is the founder of Women in Publishing and the Women in Publishing Summit, a book marketing strategist, and the host of Alexa’s Publishing Chat.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best memoirs written by 9/11 families?

On Alexa’s Publishing Chat’s 25th anniversary episode, Alexa Bigwarfe features two. Pieces Falling: Navigating 9/11 with Faith, Family, and the FDNY is Ann Van Hine’s account of losing her husband Bruce, an FDNY firefighter, and raising their two daughters in the years after. 9/11: Reflections of the Past 25 Years is Holly Little’s memoir about her brother Todd, published on the 25th anniversary itself. Both look past the statistics to individual lives. Listen to the full episode on Alexa’s Publishing Chat wherever you get your podcasts.

How long should I wait before writing about a traumatic loss?

As long as it takes, according to Alexa Bigwarfe on Alexa’s Publishing Chat. She sets two authors side by side: Ann Van Hine published Pieces Falling in 2021, while Holly Little needed 25 years before her book was ready. Alexa’s position is that a long delay is not a failure of discipline, it is the time required to be able to write the thing at all, and a book that arrives late still arrives when some reader needs it. Hear the full conversation on Alexa’s Publishing Chat.

Is it selfish to write a memoir about my own loss?

This is the misconception Alexa Bigwarfe pushes back on in this episode of Alexa’s Publishing Chat. “When you write a book like this sometimes you feel like it’s just about yourself,” she says, “but the truth is this book speaks to anyone who is trying to pick up the pieces after a significant and unexpected loss.” She points out that Ann Van Hine’s book reaches first responder spouses, anyone grieving a sudden death, and readers who want the history humanized. Listen on Alexa’s Publishing Chat.

How do you market a memoir so it actually reaches readers?

Alexa Bigwarfe uses Ann Van Hine as the working example on Alexa’s Publishing Chat. Ann speaks to groups, pitches her own story, does interviews on websites and in the media, and has collected reviews and awards including a five star best book review from Chanticleer. Alexa’s framing is that those credentials are what a reader, producer, or event organizer finds when they search your name. “The power is only as good as how many people actually see those words.” Full episode on Alexa’s Publishing Chat.

Who should listen to this 9/11 episode of Alexa’s Publishing Chat?

Anyone who lost someone on September 11, anyone writing a memoir about grief or trauma, first responder families, and indie authors trying to build visibility for a book with a heavy subject. Alexa Bigwarfe hosts this one unscripted, drawing on her own service in the Air Force in 2001 and her work writing for grieving mothers. It runs about fifteen minutes. Find it on Alexa’s Publishing Chat.

Sources cited and linked:

  • World Trade Center Health Program data via ABC News, September 2026, for the 9,400+ deaths from 9/11-related illness, the comparison to the 2,977 killed in the attacks, and current enrollment: https://abcnews.com/Health/after-thousands-deaths-responders-navigating-health-effects-25/story?id=136210477
  • Pieces Falling publication year and publisher confirmed via library catalog records: Illumify Media, 2021, ISBN 9781955043229
  • Ann Van Hine’s biographical details, docent role, and international speaking, confirmed via her published author bio
  • Stages and Pages 2026 dates, pricing, venue, and seat caps, confirmed by Alexa.
Alexa Bigwarfe

Alexa Bigwarfe

Founder & CEO of WritePublishSell & the Women in Publishing Summit

 

Alexa Bigwarfe is a publishing strategist and creator of Book Launch in a Box, where she helps authors simplify their marketing and build launches that actually work. She specializes in turning books into platforms for visibility, partnerships, and revenue through proven, scalable strategies.

How to Get Speaking Gigs (and Keep Them) with Sasha Simmons

How to Get Speaking Gigs (and Keep Them) with Sasha Simmons

by | Sep 4, 2026

For indie authors, fiction and nonfiction alike, who want to amplify their message on stage. Also for leaders and organizational decision-makers looking for speakers who deliver transformation beyond motivation. No speaking experience required, no agent necessary.

To become a speaker, start by speaking for free at local venues to build a sizzle reel, create a one-pager listing your topics and bio, claim an active LinkedIn profile, and send 25 personalized cold emails daily to events that fit your message. Sasha Simmons, founder of Witavation, emphasizes that speaking is half art (what you say) and half business (getting booked), and most successful speakers treat both sides with equal effort.

“I just started telling everyone I was a speaker,” Sasha Simmons says. “People at the gas station, in the grocery store, anyone that would listen to little old Sasha.”

This was 2010-something, at a gas station or a grocery store, when she had zero speaking credits and zero business being on any stage. Her only credential was that she had mentored her boyfriend’s younger brother through the college process, gotten asked to create a PowerPoint presentation for a church youth event, stepped on a stage for the first time, and felt something click.

“It was that moment. You know how you have that moment? It was that moment.”

Three months later, after she started telling everyone she was a speaker, word made its way back to the president of the university where she was doing her graduate work. They were looking for a student speaker for 500 of their top donors. Sasha interviewed for the job along with a few other students. She got it.

She stood in front of that audience shaking, talking super fast, making every first-time speaker mistake in the book. When she watches the footage now, she winces. But the room was watching a speaker who showed up unprepared and unafraid, and something about that landed.

That is the paradox she is on Alexa’s Publishing Chat this week to untangle: Speaking is half art and half business. The art is what you say and how you say it. The business is the 25 emails a day, the sizzle reel, the one-sheet, the mirrors in your bedroom, the reading habit, and the absolute refusal to stop when the first 19 events say no.

Today, Sasha runs Witavation, a professional development company that works with organizations like USDA, Nationwide, Chase, and Microsoft to move teams from stuck to strategic and reactive to proactive. Her 13 years in the speaking space have taught her something most motivational speakers never figure out: inspiration without frameworks is just a high that fades. Real transformation requires wit, vulnerability, and tools people can actually use.

If you have written a book, built a message, or fought to get your story told, you are going to want to take notes. If you lead a team and are tired of generic motivational speakers who leave nothing behind, this one is for you too. There is no such thing as an overnight speaking success any more than there is an overnight bestseller. But there is a formula.

The Art and the Business Are Not the Same Thing

When Sasha started coaching speakers, she noticed something that surprised no one who has ever tried to do two things at once: people were treating speaking like it was only one thing.

“There is the talent of speaking, being on the stage or doing a webinar, whatever the case may be. And then there is the business of speaking,” she says. “And if you don’t know the business of speaking, you will never have a successful career as a speaker.”

Alexa nods. She has been building platforms for long enough to know this is the fault line where people split. They can give a great talk and still never get booked. Or they can do all the right outreach and then freeze on stage. The two are not the same skill.

“So it’s really twofold,” Sasha says, “and you have to do two things at the same time, unless you have someone doing one or the other for you.”

For most people starting out, you do not. You do both.

Begin with the End in Mind

Before Sasha lets a client write a single sentence of a speech, she makes them do something that sounds pointless until it is not.

“I have this exercise where we identify the adjectives that we want people to feel when we’re giving a speech,” she says. “We take a whiteboard and we write as many adjectives on the board as we possibly can. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous it seems because we’re going to eliminate, we’re going to fine tune it and figure out what works and what does not work.”

Then she works backward. “What is the message that I want to send to my audience? What do I want them to gain from this talk that I’m giving them? How do I want to challenge them? What type of changes do I want them to make in their life?”

Once she knows the destination, she backfills the road. “Where did I go? What did I go through in my life that answered this question for me? And how did I get through that?”

Alexa brings this back to something authors know in their bones: the difference between telling a story that happened to you and telling a story that matters to someone who is listening.

“People don’t want a sad story,” Alexa says. “They want the butterfly, not the cocoon.”

Sasha agrees. The moment you identify the feeling you want to land, the examples choose themselves. The moments that answer your central question become the moments you tell. Everything else stays on the cutting room floor.

The Cold Call Spreadsheet

Sasha’s speaking coach preached this mantra: 25 sales calls a day. Not 25 emails. 25 calls.

“There are no shortcuts in life,” she says. “You can’t sustain a successful career by looking for shortcuts. You have to just put in the work. It’s a lot, but there’s value in learning that.”

For most people starting out, cold calling means email, because the phone terrifies everyone. Sasha recommends having 3 to 5 email templates drafted and personalized. Research the event, mention something specific about why your message fits, and send it.

Then send it again. And again. Because the first response is almost always no.

“You have to be a lion chasing your dreams, chasing your goal,” she says. “You can’t be passive in anything.”

If the thought of 25 emails a day sounds like too much, Sasha has one more piece of advice: sign up for databases and newsletters so the opportunities come to you. “There are databases and systems that will do these things for you. And so I definitely recommend getting some sort of a system that can send things through for you so you’re not doing all that manually.”

But learn to do it manually first. That grunt work teaches you something: what actually moves the needle and what is just noise.

You Need Three Things Before You Book Anything

  1. A sizzle reel. This is video footage of you speaking. If you have not spoken in public before, you can volunteer to speak for free at local organizations, record it, and use it to market yourself. Or you can rent a space, hire a videographer, and give your speech to an empty room as if 500 people were there. Whatever gets you footage.
  2. A one-sheet. This is a one-pager that lists your speaking topics, a headshot, a short bio, how to contact you, and any past clients or organizations you have worked with. Think of it as a speaker resume, but prettier, with graphics and colors. Event organizers and corporate decision-makers use these to determine whether you fit their needs.
  3. An online presence. A website is non-negotiable. So is a LinkedIn page. “A lot of people sleep on LinkedIn, but LinkedIn is really, really important for speakers in particular to get your information out there,” Sasha says. Facebook and Instagram matter too, and anything you write should link back to your website and social profiles.

She emphasizes one more thing: pay a designer if you can afford it. The one-sheet is your first impression and it needs to look like a professional put it together.

The Mirror Technique

This one is weird. Sasha brings full-length mirrors to her workshops and asks people to do the full version of their speech in front of them, watching themselves.

“It allows you to see your facial expressions,” she says. “It allows you to see if you’re doing anything that you shouldn’t be doing.”

When Sasha first started speaking, she noticed she was fighting the right side of her lip. A nervous tic, a habit. She would never have caught it without the mirror. A real audience would have been distracted by it the whole time.

What the mirror also does is catch the moments where you stumble. Where you lose the thread. You practice until you find a keyword or an image that helps you get from point A to point B to point C, and then you own it.

“You don’t want to remember your speech word for word because it becomes mundane,” she says. “You want to remember your key points and your examples and the transition that’s going to help you get from that first point to the next point.”

Alexa mentions something that happened to her. She was invited to keynote a memorial ceremony for babies who have died, and she had worked on the speech but had never said it aloud in front of anyone. When she stood up to speak, she cried the entire way through.

“I wish so hard now that I had stood up in front of a group—my kids, my husband, my neighbors—and given that speech a couple of times,” she says. “Because I balled the entire way through. And I’m trying to tell you guys to be happy, and I can’t even control myself.”

Sasha nods. “You have to work those things out,” she says. “Because too often I find that people think they’ve written it down. I have all my points. But you have to say those words aloud to work through the flow of your speech.”

For emotional topics, Alexa’s addendum is this: practice until you can deliver the message even if tears come. Not cold. But present. The butterfly, not the cocoon.

Read 10 Articles Every Day About Your Topic

Sasha’s philosophy is called Google University. College of Google. YouTube University. The degree is in staying current with your subject matter.

“If you want to be a real competitor and if you want to be an expert, you have to be on the cutting edge of your industry,” she says. “You can’t afford to not do that.”

She reads 10 articles a day minimum. At first, this sounds like too much. Then she mentions that Warren Buffett reads 4 to 6 hours a day, and suddenly 10 articles does not seem unreasonable for someone who wants to be good.

The workaround is to subscribe to newsletters and industry publications so the articles land in your inbox. You are not hunting every day, just reading what shows up. But you have to be reading something every day, about your topic, about your industry, about the specific angle you are claiming.

Because that is what separates the people who get booked from the people who stay home: the speakers who know what is new, what is trending, where the conversation is going.

“If you’re not reading, not studying, not doing your research on your subject matter, you are failing and you are falling behind every day.”

Vulnerability and Wit Move Organizations to Real Change

The thing Sasha keeps coming back to is that the stage is not a place to pretend.

“There’s a phenomenon that we sometimes think that vulnerability is a sign of weakness, and when you are speaking, one way to captivate your audience is by giving and showing a bit of vulnerability,” she says. “So that you can get that trust, right? It’s all about trust and belief in all these things when you’re speaking to an audience. And establishing some level of vulnerability in your speech makes you relatable.”

When you share a moment where you failed, or fell, or did not know what to do, the audience does not pity you. They recognize themselves.

This is why Sasha’s work through Witavation has moved into organizational transformation. She has learned that when you combine sharp wit with raw honesty and pair it with actual frameworks people can use, teams do not just feel inspired. They change their behavior. They implement. They move from stuck to strategic.

Alexa asks her the question that stops everyone before they start. “I have like 10 ideas and this is where I get caught up.”

Sasha’s answer is worth keeping. “You could narrow it down to two, even tell her, well, you know, I speak about these two topics here. And do you feel like there’s a need for one more over the other? Don’t feel like you have to just give her one thing because then maybe she can pick and say, okay, you know, don’t I wouldn’t give her more than three, but like maybe give her two or three and they can choose from there and see if there’s a need for that.”

You do not have to choose today. You test it. You narrow it. You let the response from event organizers tell you which of your 10 ideas resonates most. Then you lean into that one until it is so good that people start calling you to come speak it.

Alexa Bigwarfe

Alexa Bigwarfe

Founder & CEO of WritePublishSell & the Women in Publishing Summit

 

Alexa Bigwarfe is a publishing strategist and creator of Book Launch in a Box, where she helps authors simplify their marketing and build launches that actually work. She specializes in turning books into platforms for visibility, partnerships, and revenue through proven, scalable strategies.

Pinterest for Authors: How to Use Pinterest to Sell More Books (Expert Q&A)

Pinterest for Authors: How to Use Pinterest to Sell More Books (Expert Q&A)

by | Jun 22, 2026

Last updated: June 17, 2026 | Featuring Pinterest expert Heather Farris

Quick answer: Yes, authors should use Pinterest if their readers search there, which is common for fiction aimed at midlife and menopausal women. Pinterest works as a search engine, not a social feed, so authors can batch content once a month instead of posting daily. The fundamentals are simple: create niche-specific boards built around your genre and reader search terms (not boards named after yourself), write keyword-rich pin titles up to 100 characters and descriptions up to 800 characters, and link every pin to a page you own. Treat Pinterest as a slow-burn, evergreen strategy: give it a 90-day trial, let the data guide you, and expect pins to keep driving discovery for years.

That's the short version. Below is the full Q&A with Pinterest marketing expert Heather Farris, who answered the questions our author community sent in during a recent WIP Summit social media intensive.

Who is Heather Farris?

Heather Farris is a Pinterest marketing expert with nearly ten years of experience. She manages Pinterest accounts for clients, teaches hundreds of students inside a low-cost membership, publishes Pinterest strategy on YouTube, and has spoken at author conferences about Pinterest specifically. Her work focuses on Pinterest data and analytics rather than graphics, which means her advice is grounded in what actually drives traffic and saves.

This Q&A was hosted by Raewyn Sangari, WIP Creative Director and social media expert inside the WIP Society community, as part of the Women in Publishing Summit's ongoing author education. Collaboration over competition is the heart of how we do things here, so when our research showed that many of our authors' readers were on Pinterest, bringing in the right expert was the obvious move.

Why did we find that authors' readers are on Pinterest?

During a recent social media intensive for authors, we researched which platform each author should focus on based on their target reader. The finding that surprised people most: for many authors, especially those writing for midlife and menopausal women, the audience is actively searching on Pinterest, not scrolling Instagram or TikTok.

That single insight is why this conversation matters. If your readers are searching Pinterest and you're not there, you're invisible at the exact moment they're looking for their next book.

Are Pinterest boards and group boards still relevant in 2026?

Yes. Pinterest boards are still essential for reach and for getting your pins indexed properly. According to Heather, the fundamentals of Pinterest have not changed: keyword strategy, boards, and pins remain the foundation.

The mistake authors make is naming boards after themselves or their book titles. Start with niche-specific boards instead, built around your genre, setting, and book category:

  • Writing romantasy? Create a set of boards around romantasy keywords your readers search for.
  • Writing for midlife women in perimenopause? "Midlife women in perimenopause" becomes an actual board title.

Then backfill each board with pins linking to your book, your Substack articles, or your website blog posts.

Group boards still exist and still work, but be selective. Only join group boards relevant to your niche. An author writing midlife women's fiction has no reason to join a board about biking.

Do authors have to pin other people's content?

No. Authors can start by pinning only their own content and staying on topic. You can curate boards on adjacent themes that support your book, like home libraries or reading life. But if you write romance, you don't need to pin perimenopause health articles just because your characters are in that life stage. Focus on your own work first and expand later once you're confident.

What kind of content works for authors on Pinterest?

The content that works on Pinterest is the same world-building content that works everywhere else: it invites readers in rather than shouting "buy my book." Social media is about being social, and Pinterest is no exception.

High-performing author content on Pinterest includes:

  • Behind-the-scenes looks at your writing process
  • Character development and character introduction content
  • Book cover reveals and screen-share moments
  • B-roll of your books: lighting a candle beside your novel, signing copies, setting up at an event

Heather notes that much of the behind-the-scenes content authors already make for BookTok is a natural fit for Pinterest. For introverted authors who don't want to be on camera, or anyone writing under a pen name, B-roll is the easiest entry point. She has also seen authors drive traffic with free chapters that lead into a book funnel, and creative campaigns like handwritten letters that give readers a new way in.

What is the difference between traffic pins and save pins?

Traffic pins are designed for an immediate click, and save pins are designed to be bookmarked for later. Authors need both.

  • Traffic pins show your book with "read this book" energy and link straight to a purchase or book page. They drive action now.
  • Save pins feature character arcs, upcoming books in a series, TBR (to-be-read) collages, shop-the-collection pins, and gift-guide pins like "gifts for romance readers." Readers save these to revisit, and each save signals Pinterest to show your content to more people.

Because so many readers keep a TBR list, save pins meet them exactly where they're already collecting their next reads.

How should authors optimize their pins?

Authors optimize pins through keyword-rich titles, descriptions, and matching landing pages. Here are Heather's specifics:

  1. Pin titles: Use up to 100 characters. Include at least one keyword phrase that's three to five words long, and write a natural title around it. A two-part title with a colon works well.
  2. Pin descriptions: Use up to 800 characters. Aim for one keyword per sentence. Eight sentences equals eight keywords; if you're long-winded and fit four, that's fine.
  3. Match your link: The pin topic and the landing page topic must align. Don't link a romantasy pin to a dark thriller page.
  4. Link to a page you own: At minimum, have a books page on your own website that links out to Amazon or your retailer. You can also link to your Amazon author page or storefront.
  5. Claim your website: Even a one-page Canva site counts. You claim it through your domain host; Heather has a free walkthrough article on her site.

Why this matters in 2026: Owning your website and driving traffic to it is more important than ever because of generative engine optimization (GEO), the shift toward AI-powered search reducing clicks to websites. Diversifying where readers can discover you, through Pinterest, email, and your own site, is the new job description. Alexa Bigwarfe is a leading expert on the GEO topic for authors. She led a session on it at a recent Marketing Bootcamp that gave attendees tools to make their books visible again on Amazon. Check out this post for a taste of what Alexa is sharing.

How often do authors need to post on Pinterest?

Authors do not need to post on Pinterest every day. Because Pinterest is a search engine rather than a social feed, you can batch your pins once a month, schedule them, and step away. Heather only works on client accounts a couple of times a month, mostly inside a scheduling tool.

When people ask how many pins per day, Heather flips the question: how many quality pins can you realistically create? One quality pin a day is better than none. Consistency beats intensity every time.

How do authors get their pins seen on Pinterest?

Authors get pins seen through keyword research and patience. Heather's recommended free keyword research order:

  1. Pinterest Trends tool (start here)
  2. Pinterest ads manager (second)
  3. Pinterest search bar autofill (third)
  4. Tailwind's free keyword planner, which connects to Pinterest's API and shows real search volume

Do not pay for third-party Pinterest keyword tools. The free options above cover everything. From there, map what your readers search for around each book and build boards and pins around those terms. Over time you create hundreds of entry points into a single book. One established author Heather worked with had a twelve book series, each sold as a collection and as individual titles, creating a nearly endless set of pin opportunities.

Should authors re-pin the same pin to multiple boards?

No, re-pinning the same pin to many boards is largely outdated. Instead, create a set of fresh pin templates, for example fifty designs. That gives you fifty unique pin opportunities for every URL in your ecosystem. Pair each template with its own title and description, schedule them out, then repeat with your next URL. Fresh pins outperform re-pins.

How long does Pinterest take to work for authors?

Pinterest is a long-game, slow-burn platform, so authors should plan for a 90-day trial minimum before judging results. You may not see real traction until the second 90 days, and that's normal. Let the data tell you what to keep doing rather than quitting after a week.

As Heather put it during the Q&A: "If you set it up right and you start with a really solid Pinterest SEO foundation, over time it's just going to grow."

The payoff is durability. Heather still manages accounts she set up five years ago that remain her best performers. A keyword-rich Pinterest foundation keeps working for years, which is exactly the kind of evergreen strategy that pairs beautifully with a diversified book marketing plan.

Pinterest for Authors: Frequently Asked Questions

Should authors use Pinterest?

Authors should use Pinterest if their readers search there, which is especially common for fiction written for midlife and menopausal women. Pinterest functions as a search engine, so it rewards keyword-rich, evergreen content and doesn't demand daily posting.

Is Pinterest good for selling books?

Yes. Pinterest can drive book sales when authors create traffic pins that link to a purchase page and save pins that build long-term discovery. Because pins are evergreen, a single book can collect hundreds of entry points over time.

How many pins should an author post per day?

There is no fixed number. One quality pin per day is better than none, and consistency matters more than volume. Many authors succeed by batching pins once a month and scheduling them in advance.

What should authors pin on Pinterest?

Authors should pin behind-the-scenes content, character development, book cover reveals, B-roll of their books, TBR collages, and links to their books or freebies. Start with your own content before curating adjacent topics.

Do authors need their own website for Pinterest?

Yes, at minimum a one-page website with a books page that links to retailers. Claiming your website on Pinterest improves your results, and owning your site matters more as AI search reduces traffic to unverified pages.

What is the best free Pinterest keyword tool?

Tailwind's free keyword planner is the recommended free option because it connects directly to Pinterest's API and shows real search volume. The Pinterest Trends tool, ads manager, and search bar autofill are also free and effective.

Your next steps:

Your readers are already searching. Let's make sure your books are what they find.

  • Explore Heather Farris's free Pinterest resources and support here: http://heatherfarris.com/

  • And if you want to learn the website and traffic strategy behind all of this, join us inside the WIP Society communityJoin for $49/mo!
    • Raewyn Sangari

    Raewyn Sangari

    Creative Director & Social Media Expert

    As Creative Director for the Women in Publishing Summit, Raewyn makes marketing feel approachable, creative, and community-driven. She leads the content strategy behind the brand’s workshops, events, and social presence, helping authors and book professionals grow their visibility with confidence. Raewyn’s mission is simple: to make showing up and connecting with readers feel less overwhelming and a lot more fun.

    Let Amazon Do the Marketing: Maria Secoy on Building an Indie Author Business That Can’t Fail

    Let Amazon Do the Marketing: Maria Secoy on Building an Indie Author Business That Can’t Fail

    by | Jun 12, 2026

    Most authors finish their first book exhausted — and then discover the real work is just beginning. Formatting. Ads. Social media. Email lists. Reader magnets. It’s a firehose, and it’s exactly why so many talented writers stall out before they ever find their footing.

    Maria Secoy has a different prescription, and it starts with a deceptively simple idea: do things in the right order.

    A Career Built by Falling Backwards

    Maria’s path into authorship was anything but linear. She “accidentally” earned an English degree after abandoning pre-med (“science is hard, math is harder”), spent years teaching middle school English, and turned to freelance writing out of pure financial necessity. Her first paid article? A penny-a-word piece titled Does Dr. Pepper Contain Laxatives?

    That unglamorous start taught her something invaluable: the business of writing. How to hit deadlines. How to produce words when you’re exhausted. By the time COVID arrived, she was ghostwriting historical romance from a walk-in closet — a TV tray, a dining chair, and the surrounding clothes her only office — drafting roughly 20 novels in 20 months.

    Then came the insight that reshaped everything. Two of those ghostwritten books, both written by Maria, landed very differently: one earned its author six figures, the other barely three. “Writing quality does not determine the success or failure of our books,” she realized. So when she published her own debut, Alongside Lucy, in 2022, she did something analytical: she called both authors, asked what each had done, and made two lists — do this and do not do this.

    The Apollo 13 Approach to Launching

    Maria likens building an author business to the famous scene in Apollo 13 where engineers must sequence exactly which systems to power on without draining the battery. Order matters. Get it right, and “failure becomes almost impossible. And when failure is no longer possible, then the only question is, how long until I succeed?”

    For most new authors, the first system to power on isn’t ads or social media — it’s a rock-solid book production process. Learn what professional formatting looks like. Understand your genre’s reader expectations. Nail your timeline. Everything else is built on that foundation, “and it is much harder to come back and add those later.”

    Let Amazon Be Your Marketing Department

    Here’s where Maria’s method gets tactical. Instead of stressing over MailerLite, BookFunnel, or a perfectly on-brand reader magnet before you even know your brand, she sends readers to one place: her Amazon Author Central page. The goal isn’t a thousand pre-orders — it’s getting readers to follow.

    Why? Amazon is a world-class marketing company. When someone follows you, Amazon emails them about your pre-orders and new releases — with inbox delivery rates most individual authors can only dream of. Better yet, every reader who clicks your book link signals to Amazon’s algorithm that they’re open to being marketed to. Amazon runs with it from there.

    And the breakout tip of the episode: share your comp authors’ Amazon pages. When a reader follows Catherine Cowles (one of Maria’s comps), Amazon pops up similar authors to follow — and that’s how you get discovered. As Alexa put it after 12 years in book marketing: “I didn’t think about sending Amazon links of other authors to generate myself as a potential lead.”

    Stop Branding. Start Writing.

    The conversation’s most resonant turn came when Maria explained that authors shouldn’t try to lock in their brand before they’ve written enough to know it. She started by choosing authors she aspired to be like — Catherine Cowles with a side of Laurie Matthews — and used them as mentor texts and mentor business models. But it wasn’t until several books in that she discovered who she actually was on the page (turns out, not the H.D. Carlton-style dark romance she once attempted — her beta readers said a firm “no”).

    “You won’t know who your specific readers are until you’ve got at least three to five books out,” she explains, “because most of us don’t know who we are as authors until we have three to five books out.”

    That prompted a real-time breakthrough for Alexa about her own travel-romance writing — a reminder that even seasoned pros benefit from pulling back, writing the books, and then branding the heart out of what emerges.

    The Bottom Line

    Maria’s whole philosophy rolls up into her Four-Book-Per-Year Method — though, as she’s quick to note, “the number four is the least important part.” It’s about sequencing: let Amazon handle early marketing, build your production process, then layer in a reader magnet, a newsletter, Amazon ads, and — only if your data supports it — Facebook ads. Each step informed by the last.

    The result is a business you can run on roughly 10 hours a week and sustain for the long haul. “I can do this forever because I love it,” Maria says of the goal she holds for every author she works with. “It’s comfortable. It fits with my life. I’m earning more than I spend.”

    Want to build your author business in the right order — with hands-on training instead of scattered courses? The WIP Society gives you everything in one place for one year: a full ticket to the annual Women in Publishing Summit, three deep-dive virtual Bootcamps, and five monthly Q&A sessions covering self-publishing, social media, tech, marketing, and editing. It’s the structured, sequenced support Maria champions — without the overwhelm. Join the WIP Society →

    Q: How can authors use the Amazon algorithm to market their books?
    A: Set up a pre-order, claim your Amazon Author Central page, and send readers your book link and ask them to follow you. Every reader who clicks signals to Amazon’s algorithm that they’re open to your book being marketed to them, and Amazon then emails followers about pre-orders and new releases with very high inbox delivery rates.

    Q: What is the Four-Book-Per-Year Method?
    A: It’s Maria Secoy’s framework for building a sustainable indie author business. Despite the name, it’s less about producing exactly four books and more about understanding how Amazon’s algorithm works and structuring your entire publishing and content schedule to support it.

    Q: Should new authors spend money on ads for their first books?
    A: Maria advises against it. New authors should let Amazon handle early marketing while they nail their book production process, then layer in a reader magnet, newsletter, and Amazon ads as data accumulates — only moving to Facebook ads if the data supports it.

    Q: When should an author define their brand?
    A: After writing several books, not before. Most authors don’t truly know who they are as authors — or who their specific readers are — until they have three to five books published. Aspire to a mentor’s business model early, but let your real brand emerge from the work.

    Alexa Bigwarfe

    Alexa Bigwarfe

    Founder & CEO of WritePublishSell & the Women in Publishing Summit

     

    Alexa Bigwarfe is a publishing strategist and creator of Book Launch in a Box, where she helps authors simplify their marketing and build launches that actually work. She specializes in turning books into platforms for visibility, partnerships, and revenue through proven, scalable strategies.

    Let Amazon Do the Marketing: Maria Secoy on Building an Indie Author Business That Can’t Fail

    27 Romance Books & the Long Games – Constance Phillips

    by | Jun 5, 2026

    Romance Author Success Story

    27 Books, Female Firefighter Heroes, and the Long Game of a Romance Career: Inside Constance Phillips’ 15-Year Journey

    There’s a moment at every big publishing conference where a chance conversation becomes the most valuable thing that happens to you all week. For Alexa, that moment at Author Nation was standing in the drink line next to Constance Phillips — who, it turned out, has quietly published 27 romance novels over the past 15 years.

    That’s the kind of writer you say yes to immediately when you have a podcast.

    In this episode of Alexa’s Book Marketing & Publishing Chat, Constance pulls back the curtain on what it actually looks like to build a romance writing career one book — and one stolen hour — at a time.

    Writing From 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

    Constance has wanted to be a writer since junior high (the kind who carried notebooks instead of listening to her teachers). When her kids were small, that meant writing from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. — her peak creative hours. She kept at it through the revise-edit-submit cycle until she finally broke through with Press at Moon Press, publishing her fairy series and Resurrecting Harry, a reimagining of a reincarnated Harry Houdini.

    Then she pivoted. Not because the paranormal wasn’t working, but because she wanted to stretch. A publisher’s call for a story with a lawyer hero turned into the Sunnydale series — small-town romance set around a therapeutic horse riding facility — which spun off into To Protect and Serve, a firefighter and police series.

    That world is still expanding. Six Sunnydale books and counting. A To Protect and Serve series with a deliberately female firefighter heroine in book two and a planned female paramedic for book five.

    “I Just Think It’s Important to Bend Those Gender Stereotypes”

    This was one of Alexa’s favorite parts of the conversation. Constance didn’t accidentally end up writing female firefighters and female paramedics — she chose it. The same impulse drives her to write characters with physical disabilities into a small-town world that, in lesser hands, could read as monochrome.

    “I just try to paint the world wide,” she said.

    That choice matters. It’s also one of the reasons her series build the kind of loyal readership where someone finishes book one and immediately downloads book two.

    Four Books a Year — Here’s How

    For the last three years, Constance has produced four books annually. Her secret isn’t faster typing. It’s overlap.

    While she’s editing one book, she’s already two thousand words into the next. Not every day, but most. Some days when the editing is brutal, she gives herself permission to just edit. But she protects the new-words habit because she knows what happens if she lets herself “take a break” between projects: one book a year, maybe two.

    “Any word you put on the page is a good word,” she told Alexa. “If you only had time to write a paragraph, well, you’re a paragraph ahead.”

    The Financial Truth Most Authors Won’t Say Out Loud

    Alexa asked the question other interviewers tend to dance around: are you making a living from this?

    Constance’s answer was honest. Not yet — and she said it without flinching. Her husband’s business carries the household. Her sales are growing. The wheels are turning. And every dollar that comes in tends to get reinvested — into advertising, into a new computer when the old one finally gives up, into conferences, into the vendor shows she’s started doing again this year that have visibly grown her fanbase.

    That’s the real shape of a building author business. Not the influencer pitch where 27 books equals six figures. The reality where reinvestment is the operating cost of staying in the game long enough to win.

    Why Small-Town Romance Is Having a Moment

    “When the outside world’s a little dark, we all like to go a little bit warmer.”

    Readers want the cozy. The Gilmore Girls town. The familiar diner. The hardware store you’ve visited in four other books. Constance grew up in a small town and writes what she knows — and her readers reward her for it. Series like hers give people permission to escape into a place they already know, where the side characters from book three become the leads in book five.

    The Advice That Will Keep You Writing

    Constance has a saying she returns to whenever she’s down: most people who quit don’t realize how close they were to making it when they did.

    And her favorite gut-check question for any author thinking about walking away: If you couldn’t write for a living anymore, would you really stop writing?

    Most of us wouldn’t. The stories still come — in restaurants, in line at the store, in the shower. That’s the answer. That’s the reason to keep showing up.

    Look Back, Not Just Forward

    Both Alexa and Constance landed on the same closing insight: writers are brutally hard on themselves because the target keeps moving. More books. More royalties. More readers. The goalpost shifts the moment you reach it.

    The antidote? Look back at where you started.

    Alexa recently got a new bookshelf and put all of her books on it specifically so she’d be forced to remember what she’s already done. Constance encouraged listeners to take those reflective moments seriously. You’ve come further than you think.

    Where to Find Constance

    Keep Building Your Author Business With Us

    If this conversation lit a fire under your “next book” project, you’re exactly who we built WIP Society for. It’s the year-round home for women authors and publishing pros — virtual conferences, monthly Q&A sessions, bootcamps, networking, writing sprints, and the kind of community that keeps you writing when the slow seasons hit. We have a Marketing Bootcamp in June and our Business Bootcamp is coming up in August 2026 and are included with Society membership.

    Learn more and join us at mywipsociety.com.

    Or grab your ticket to the Marketing Bootcamp here!

    Q: How many books has Constance Phillips published? A: As of this episode, Constance Phillips has published 27 romance titles — a mix of novellas and full-length category romances — across paranormal and contemporary subgenres since 2010.

    Q: What romance series does Constance Phillips write? A: Her two flagship contemporary series are the Sunnydale series, set around a therapeutic horse riding facility in a small town, and the To Protect and Serve spinoff series featuring firefighter and police heroes and heroines. She also writes paranormal romance, including a fairy series and Resurrecting Harry, a reimagining of a reincarnated Harry Houdini.

    Q: How does Constance Phillips write four books a year? A: She overlaps her writing with her editing. While revising one manuscript, she’s already drafting one to two thousand words a day on the next book. She credits this discipline with keeping her output at four titles a year for the last three years.

    Q: What is Constance Phillips’ best advice for struggling romance authors? A: Keep going. Most people who quit don’t realize how close they were to making it when they did. She also recommends asking yourself the litmus-test question: if you couldn’t write for a living, would you actually stop writing? If the answer is no, that’s your sign to stay in it.

    Q: Where can I find Constance Phillips online? A: Her most active platform is Instagram at @constancephillipsauthor. You can also visit her website at ConstancePhillips.com, where direct buy links will be available soon as she rebuilds on Shopify.

    Alexa Bigwarfe

    Alexa Bigwarfe

    Founder & CEO of WritePublishSell & the Women in Publishing Summit

     

    Alexa Bigwarfe is a publishing strategist and creator of Book Launch in a Box, where she helps authors simplify their marketing and build launches that actually work. She specializes in turning books into platforms for visibility, partnerships, and revenue through proven, scalable strategies.