Alexander Skarsgård's Infamous Blue Sweater is WAY more Popular than Brea's Bikini :(

Season 3's infamous blue sweater!

All right I am learning all sorts of interesting tidbits of information about what works on Tumblr. I will keep sharing with all of you as I go along. Then maybe you can avoid feeling the need to post naked pictures as the only sage words of advice offered from another article I read. No, don't keep going to my Tumblr page to look for advised birthday suit pictures as you will never find any. Sorry! So, yesterday I posted this wonderful picture of Mr. Skarsgard's infamous green sweater that made a long-running guest appearance throughout at least three different episodes in True Blood's season three. This bluish-green number went through the ringer as I recall. It ended up with some nice blood splatter by the time it completed its appearance. I was posting absolutely useless trivia about the sweater and the show's wardrobe choices. Guess what? My useless and inane chatter resulted in an absolute deluge of "heart" icons which mean likes.

Reality check time when you use Tumblr to market your book or product. While fan sites are the rage and people want to see pictures of their hunk du jours, don't be surprised if your book gets pretty much ignored. The best I can offer is to somehow slip your book in context with the discussions on the fan sites. What I've done to keep its name out there and focus more on literary discussions about Charlaine Harris' Sookie books and mention how I wrote Brea to be a strong heroine much like Sookie, which is true. By doing this, I am actually introducing Brea to prospective new readers who enjoy that kind of character -- and as a result, I am introducing my brand! Yes, I am introducing the California Girl Chronicles name brand to a broad audience in hopes of attracting fans out of this cloud of interest. Engaging with popular topics has allowed me to do this. As a result, I am able to slowly build followers too. They aren't yet interested in Brea as much as they're interested in Mr. Skarsgard IN the blue sweater, but 1 out of 25 lovers became a new follower. So you see: it works! And this Friend-Os is the best piece of Tumblr advice you will find outside of strip and post it. Post to popular topics and then massage your message into the discussions. Someday Brea will be popular and have her own fan sites, but right now it's about building that following.