Tag: Twitter

Bluesky for Authors: Navigating the Rising Social Media Platform for Book Marketing Success in 2025
The Rise of Bluesky: A New Frontier for Author Marketing

Bluesky has emerged as a compelling social media alternative for authors seeking fresh ways to connect with readers and fellow writers. As this decentralized platform surpasses 30 million users as of February 2025, authors are discovering its unique advantages for building literary communities and marketing their books in a less cluttered digital environment.

This growing platform offers a refreshing approach to social networking that addresses many pain points authors experience with other social media options. Its focus on transparency, user control, and community-building makes it particularly well-suited for writers looking to establish meaningful connections with their target audience.

What is Bluesky

Bluesky was created by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and, in the simplest terms, it is a decentralized social media app that runs similar to Twitter in its design and algorithms. As of February 2025, this up-and-coming platform surpassed 30 million users, and while growth has slowed since its last spike, the network is continuing to see more users come on board.

The most notable difference between Bluesky and other social media platforms is its use of a decentralized social network protocol. AT Protocol is a tool that allows users to see how the platform works and build their own apps with an innate ability to connect with Bluesky. This provides users with more accessibility, transparency, and the ability to take your followers, posts, and username with you if you switch to another network—a necessary update for most users.

Bluesky also provides more customizable features that give the user more control over what we see, the rules you set for moderation in the different communities you join, and more options to block content, accounts, hashtags, etc.

What Makes Bluesky Different for Authors

Of course, these changes appear to be positive for Bluesky’s users, but what about authors specifically?

Great news! Authors are finding a home on Bluesky, where they are connecting with the literary world, other writers, and fans.

Bluesky is prioritizing a sense of community with a less vitriolic style of communication and a more supportive environment. The perfect place for authors! You’ll also find less ads and bot-created content, which is a refreshing change. Overall, Bluesky feels like it’s less complicated than other social media sites when it comes to the backend operations of analytics, scheduling, etc. Part of this is that functionality is limited in some areas, such as pre-scheduling posts, but the way Bluesky is designed, both in functioning and aesthetics, is intuitive.

Even new authors can dive into the right community quickly. Their “Starter Pack” feature curates collections of users with custom feeds that align with the topic of your choosing, such as ‘authors.’ All you have to do is select the Starter Packs subheading to the right of Feeds. Click Create, and that’s where you’ll find Bluesky’s tools, including the Starter Pack, then just add a name and description, and you are ready to meet some new Bluesky friends!

Five Tips to Get Started on Bluesky Right Now

Authors can maximize their presence on Bluesky by implementing these five targeted strategies designed to build visibility and engagement:

1. Craft an Author-Focused Profile that Converts

Creating a compelling author profile is the foundation of successful Bluesky marketing. Include these essential elements:
- A professional yet approachable profile picture that matches your author brand
- A concise bio highlighting your genre, notable works, and any awards or recognition
- Strategic links to your author website, preferred bookstore, or latest release
- Relevant keywords that help readers interested in your genre find your profile
- Include any professional recognition you’ve received such as Book Awards or Editorial Reviews
Pro Tip: Think of your Bluesky profile as a micro author website—it should clearly communicate your unique value proposition as a writer within seconds.

2. Leverage Decentralization to Find Your Reader Communities

One of Bluesky’s strongest features is its ability to connect authors with niche communities of engaged readers:
- Identify and join communities related to your specific genre using relevant hashtags (#TrueCrime, #UrbanRomance, #HistoricalFiction)
- Study community guidelines to understand what content resonates with members
- Participate authentically before introducing your books or writing
- Create custom feeds that aggregate content from your ideal reader demographic
This targeted approach allows authors to focus marketing efforts on readers already interested in their genre, rather than broadcasting to a general audience.

3. Develop a Strategic Posting Plan

Effective Bluesky marketing requires thoughtful content creation that balances promotion with value:
- Share insights into your writing process that readers can’t find elsewhere
- Post high-quality visual content featuring your book covers, teaser quotes, and reader reviews
- Create unique hashtags for your books and encourage readers to use them
- Host interactive Q&A sessions to build reader relationships
- Maintain a consistent posting schedule to build audience expectations
- Document authentic moments from your author journey through images and short videos
The most successful authors on Bluesky treat their content as an extension of their books—providing value while showcasing their unique voice and perspective.
4. Expand Your Author Network Strategically

Growing your Bluesky presence requires proactive community building:
- Offer followers exclusive content and early announcements to reward engagement
- Share limited-access material like short stories, character sketches, or alternate endings
- Collaborate with complementary authors in your genre for cross-promotion
- Create virtual book clubs or writing challenges to foster community
- Encourage and highlight reader-generated content about your books
- Balance promotional posts with valuable content that serves your audience
Remember that successful author marketing on Bluesky isn’t about promoting a single book but building a sustainable author brand that supports your entire writing career.

5. Measure and Refine Your Bluesky Strategy

Data-driven decision making separates professional author marketing from casual social media use:
- Track engagement patterns using Bluesky’s analytics tools
- Experiment methodically with different posting times, formats, and content types
- Identify which content generates the most meaningful reader interactions
- Adjust your strategy based on performance data
- Set specific goals for your Bluesky presence tied to broader marketing objectives
This analytical approach ensures authors invest their valuable time in activities that genuinely advance their marketing goals rather than simply accumulating vanity metrics.

Bluesky is for Authors

For authors committed to building sustainable careers, Bluesky represents a valuable addition to their marketing toolkit. The platform’s emphasis on transparency, authentic connection, and user control aligns perfectly with what today’s readers expect from author interactions.

While Bluesky’s user base continues to grow, its quality of engagement often surpasses that of larger platforms. Authors who establish themselves early on Bluesky position themselves advantageously as the platform expands, building valuable reader relationships in a less competitive environment.

The strategic approaches outlined above will help authors leverage Bluesky’s unique features while integrating this platform into a comprehensive book marketing strategy that drives long-term career success.

Thank you for joining us for this Writer Toolbox Article
There is so much to learn and do with Chanticleer!

From our Book Award Program that has Discovered the Best Books since the early 2010s to our Editorial Book Reviews recognizing and promoting indie and traditional authors, Chanticleer knows your books are worth the effort to market professionally!

Hungry for more? These articles can help you go even further in marketing:
Ready to elevate yourself beyond Social Media?

Social media platforms like Bluesky are valuable tools in your author marketing arsenal, but truly professional authors know the importance of third-party validation and expert promotion. Chanticleer’s professional services are designed specifically for authors serious about maximizing their book’s visibility:

Chanticleer Editorial Book Reviews: Our professionally crafted, SEO-optimized reviews complement your social media efforts by providing the credibility that comes from respected third-party assessment. Each review is strategically written to improve your book’s discoverability across all platforms—including social media sites like Bluesky where you can share snippets to enhance your authority. Learn more about our Editorial Review service here.

Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs): While building your social media presence is important, award recognition creates promotional opportunities that social posting alone cannot match. The CIBAs give your book multiple visibility opportunities and provide prestigious credentials you can feature prominently in your Bluesky profile. When you submit your book to the CIBAs today, you’re joining a community of excellence that readers trust.

You know you want it…

Don’t let your great book remain hidden online. With Chanticleer’s professional services working alongside your social media marketing efforts, you’ll find more readers than ever before.
May 29, 2025
Twitter Tips for Authors and What’s Elon Musk Up To? — A Chanticleer Toolbox Article by David Beaumier
Tweets, Character Limits, & Hashtags, oh my!

You will not look like this by the end of this artilce…probably

While everyone has questions about social media, one of the big ones for writers is often Twitter. Founded in March of 2006, Twitter is now one of the go-to places for hot takes, cold takes, pitching agents, and generally trying to go viral on just about anything.

Plus, what on earth is Elon Musk doing on there, and what’s our number one piece of advice for social media?

One of the first things agents and publishers will do while researching an author is check to see if they have any sort of social media presence. Author platform comes first in the majority of cases, rather than an author being discovered and then being set up with an incredible platform by people who believe in their book. And a digital presence is work.

So, how do you establish a following on Twitter?

Set yourself up for success

To begin with, you’ll want a profile picture and cover photo that fits with your author brand. Your author brand should be in line with the genre of your books. This means it puts your readers in mind of what you write when they visit your site. If you’re a Non-Fiction author who focuses on social justice and journalism, you want readers interested in social justice to think of you when they think about your genre.

Of course, we’re thinking of someone specific. Check out the homepage for Dr. Janice Ellis’s Twitter profile.

We’ve added some letters to the image to help us better understand and discuss what she’s doing here.

A. Ellis is a professional journalist with a PhD, and her picture reflects that level of expertise.

B. Here we have Dr. Ellis standing next to covers of her book. The background color we can see was drawn in part from the color of her Chanticleer Nellie Bly Grand Prize winner From Liberty to Magnolia. This helps tie the whole image together. She even includes a personal mission statement: “Experience and Knowledge Fuel the Mission to Promote the Good”

C. You can search everywhere for Janice S. Ellis, PhD, and find that her name is consistent across platforms.

D. This is her Twitter handle. You can see that it clearly links to her name that appears, which is good because you want to be as easy to find as possible.

E. Here Dr. Ellis has been clever by including a website where she is frequently published and a hashtag that attaches to what she’s known for. We’ll talk more about hashtags later on.

F. Here the key is that Dr. Ellis has included her own website. Having your own personal site independent from social media is always an important component of any author platform.

Sell yourself, not your book

While this might seem counter-intuitive, it makes sense when you realize people want to follow a human being, not an inanimate object. On Twitter, you can do the following things:
- Follow: Like many social media platforms, you should follow who you want to follow. Ideally, keep in mind your brand and author platform as you do this.
- Tweet: Regular posting at least once a day is ideal. Mix it up with pictures, videos, whatever strikes your fancy.
- Retweet: This reposts someone else’s Tweet to your timeline
- Quote Tweet: This reposts someone else’s Tweet to your timeline, and you can comment on it. This is a great way to start a conversation or answer a fun question
- Comment: This is simply commenting and responding to people who have either created their own post, responded to a post, or responded to your post.
- Direct Message (DM): This one should only be done with explicit permission. You can ask to DM someone, or they may say “DMs open” – otherwise you should always leave a public comment.
You have a lot of choices on how to handle Twitter

The big questions that come up here are how to interact with agents and publishers on Twitter. Follow the ones who you think might be interested in your work, but as mentioned above, don’t DM them unless you have permission to do so. Interact with them like a human being, and keep an eye out for when they’re open to submissions.

One thing agents and small presses talk about on Twitter is that they appreciate it when someone continues to submit to them. This is confirmed in Jane Friedman’s The Business of Being a Writer:

“‘Getting rejected by a magazine repeatedly and then, finally, getting work accepted is, actually, fairly normal. It’s a little frustrating for an editor,’ she said, ‘when a writer submits to us five times and then just stops, and we never get a chance to read the writer’s work again.’” (78)

Persistence pays off in more ways than one.

So When can I sell my Book?

Generally posting once a week about your book is plenty. During releases, or if you’re participating in Book Awards like the CIBAs or receiving a Review, then you can post more. Just make sure there’s a reason you’re posting about it beyond “buy my book!”

Hashtags and Pitch Wars

One thing to keep in mind anytime you read something (this included) about social media is that what you’re reading is already out of date. For example, while the idea of #PitchWars is still going, #PitMad, the original founding idea, appears to be defunct as of this year. What are these programs?

You can get a thorough rundown with hashtag suggestions for #PitchWars from The Writing Cooperative here, but the short version is they’re opportunities to promote your work on Twitter directly to agents who are interested in what you have to sell. Usually the rules are you post hashtags appropriate to the pitch day, and then you go and support your friends by Retweeting their posts. Be careful not to Like any posts, because that is an action reserved for Agents, and indicates they are open to being contacted about reviewing their work. If you do Like one of these Tweets by mistake, you’re likely to receive a polite DM asking you to Retweet instead, which isn’t a tragedy, but it can feel a little embarrassing to make a faux pas like that.

What about more commonly used hashtags outside of special events?

Well, the following are pretty common:
- #WritingCommunity
- #AmWriting
- #AmQuerying
- #WritersLift
Note: Physical lifting is uncommon in a #WritersLift

All of those can be used in fairly self-explanatory ways, except for #WritersLift. A #WritersLift comes with an invitation for authors to put links to their work on your post, and then there is the expectation that you will follow them on Twitter, and they will follow you back. Making a #WritersLift post can be a quick and easy way to boost your Twitter following and maybe make new friends!

Other hashtags that are genre specific can be used fairly easily, such as #Fantasy or #Journalism. If you have a hashtag based on your book such as #TFioS (The Fault in our Stars by John Green, pronounces “tif-ee-oh-s”) those are great to use, but always pair them with more popular hashtags.

Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters snuggling up in the movie “The Fault in Our Stars”

Another great time to use Hashtags is anytime your book wins an award or receives a review. Big milestones like that can make a huge difference when it comes to getting noticed, so if your book because a finalist in the CIBAs or receives a Chanticleer Book Review, tell your friends and followers all about it!

Note: Conferences and Writing Events often have a specific tag like #CAC and #CIBAs (for Chanticleer Authors Conference and Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards). Using those specific tags can be a great way to have the organization notice you.

Blocking

It’s always good to talk about blocking people on any social media platform. On Twitter, blocking someone is often an act of self-love. Rather than getting into a fight with a stranger on the internet, just click that block button and don’t worry about talking to them ever again. Your mental health isn’t worth trying to reach someone who just wants to be mean.

So what’s Elon Musk got to do with all of this?

Billionaire and would-be-Twitter-Owner Elon Musk

Recently it came out that Musk has invested enough to own 9.2% of Twitter. If you really want to dive into this, you can check out this article from CNET here, but these are the highlights. In addition to owning a substantial share of Twitter, Musk has now offered to buy the company. If Twitter says no, he could divest his stock and drive the price of Twitter down, harming the platform. If they say yes, he’s sure to transform the platform into something quite different from what it is now. Should we be worried?

Well, probably not.

There might be a bit of an upset, but it’s more likely things will continue as they have for Twitter, and Musk might just try to make his own social media website. However, this brings us back to the importance of having your own author website. Companies like Twitter and Meta (that’s Facebook and Instagram) are eventually going to go the way of MySpace, and then we’ll all have to collectively jump onto a new social network. If all our eggs are in the basket that ends up losing popularity or shutting down, then we lose our entire author platform at one go. So, keeping your website as a hub that tells people who you are, and directs folks to your social media makes your position much more stable.

Our best advice for social media?

This might seem obvious, but always be polite. Being rude on social media is a great way to get blocked. As we tell kids, the internet is forever. When a person explodes or swears at someone online, that sort of thing has a way of making it onto Watch Dog sites like Writer Beware, ALLi, or Absolute Write. These spaces can mean the difference between someone deciding to work with an author or not, which can have huge consequences when it comes to sales.

A few words from Kiffer.

Be kind. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t post anything at all.

And be sure not to hi-jack someone else’s post. This is just plain rude. IF someone tries to hi-jack your post, you can choose 1) not to respond – at all 2) delete the comment if it is egregious or 3) if someone is trying to sell their book on your social platform — well, that is just plain out tacky! If the person doing this persists (we all make blunders – and I would like to think most of the time unintentionally), then you may have to block that particular person. Facebook and Twitter do NOT notify the person that they have been blocked. You just won’t have to see their comments on your posts anymore. On Twitter, this is called “thread-jacking” — someone interjecting in a discussion in order to divert it in a different direction.

My advice for social media is Be kind. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t post anything at all.

What is posted on the internet is there forever and for everyone. – Kiffer

Post note: Keep in mind, that the publishing world is a small one.

Thank you for joining us for this Writer’s Toolbox Article, and good luck out there on the web!

Writer’s Toolbox

Writer Toolbox Helpful Links:

The Business of Being a Writer website

Your Guide to Twitter Pitch Events in 2022

Elon Musk Offers to Buy Twitter: Everything You Need to Know

The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels? Read The Seven Must-Haves for Authors – Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Publishing Series by Kiffer Brown

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