My main social media platform these days is Bluesky. If you’re here because of one of my posts about resources, feel free to go directly to the related Guide resource:
My Unofficial Guide To Bluesky – Quickstart Guide – Tips on how to control what you see (& don’t see) on Bluesky) – Book Promotion on Bluesky – Tips for those looking for more engagement – KidLit Community Resources
I do post occasionally on Instagram, my Bookstagram, my personal Facebook (mainly for family and friends who aren’t anywhere else), and my Author/Illustrator Facebook.
Q. Why are you on Bluesky? It’s not the most popular social media platform these days, you know.
I’ve seen the stats how <insert platform name here> has way more users, how <high profile person> is on another platform, etc etc. I realize that numbers do matter, to some extent. There is no one right way to use social media, and I am NOT telling anyone they HAVE to be on a particular platform. Especially since the pandemic, I’m so aware that we each have our own story. Some out there may be in a situation (in terms of Life as well as mental bandwidth) where they are able to be constantly active on multiple platforms, switching multiple times, etc. Some of us don’t. I am happy on Bluesky.
In my case, I’ve decided to prioritize my mental health as well as protecting my creative time. Bluesky offers the best moderation tools, enabling me to curate what I see and don’t see. I can mute words and hashtags as well as users, temporarily or permanently. I can limit who can respond to my posts, hide/block comments/users who try to hijack replies. I am better able to protect myself from trolls, better able to sidestep the rage-posting and negativity on days when I already have enough of a challenge summoning the energy to create. I still remember Shaun Tan’s advice during one of his SCBWI keynotes, urging us to do what we need to in order to temporarily create a “bubble of delusion” in which we are able to do our best work, to create books for young readers who need them.
Right now, Bluesky reminds me of the early days of Twitter. Because of Bluesky’s moderation tools, I am enjoying social media again. My feed isn’t a stream of negativity and hard-sell promo/marketing. I can more easily find people who share about books they’re enjoying, nerdy science facts, art process videos and photos, gardening and cooking, crafty joy, school visits, cool stuff that educators are doing with young readers, etc.
I hope Bluesky is around for a long time, because I’m tired of switching platforms. 🤞🏽
Q. What are some resources you are frequently asked about or what people to know about?
And of course that’s the main reason I created this post. I found myself pointing people to the same resources over and over again over on Bluesky, so figured it was easier to point them to this post as well as my Bluesky FAQ. I created my Unofficial Guide To Bluesky with the help of the Bluesky community, and have tried to include as many links to crowd-sourced info on Bluesky as possible, where people can post updated info and resources. I am a single volunteer, so lack the time to keep up with everything…especially since Bluesky keeps improving all the time (yay).
Quickstart Guide – Please read this first, even if you are an old-timer who checked out Bluesky early on, but hasn’t kept up with more recent updates (and there have been many)!
Search Tips – 99% of the time I am asked a question about Bluesky, I end up doing a search on my Unofficial Guide
Resources I often point people to:
How to control what you see (& don’t see) on Bluesky
Why you should use alt-text
Promoting Books On Bluesky: Tips and Best Practices
Tips on getting more engagement on Bluesky
Specific Community Resources include:
KidLit Community
Educators and Librarians,
Board Gamers
Art Directors and Book Designers
Agents
Filkers
I have MANY more resources, and encourage you to browse my Unofficial Guide To Bluesky. Meanwhile, if you do care about what’s going on in the world but sometimes need a break, feel free to follow my Uplift feed. I use a 3rd party tool called BlueSky Feed Creator that enables me (among many other things) to hand-curate a custom feed. The feed only contains posts I select and insert into the feed myself. Criteria is unapologetically subjective, and I try to update at least once daily. You can browse my Uplift feed here.
Hope to see you on Bluesky!