For authors dumping Xitter (X/Twitter) and those looking to establish themselves at new social media, Bluesky is the natural place to go. An offshoot of Twitter that has since become its own company, Bluesky is rapidly growing with more than 31 million users as of spring 2025.
Setting yourself up at Bluesky will be fairly easy if you’re a Xitter user, as the layout of the two platforms is quite similar. Here’s how to do that and how to get your profile looking good.
Create Your Account
Start by creating your account. Go to https://bsky.app/settings. This brings you to a login page. Click “Create Account.”
That brings you to a new screen. There you will be asked to provide your email address, a password that you will make up on the spot, and your date of birth. Be sure to write down this information so you later have a record of how to get into your account. After entering the info, hit “Next.”
On a new screen, you’ll be asked to choose your user name. This is your handle and the address that that people use to interact with you. It also appears with the at sign @ before it. My user name/handle is @inventingreality.bsky.social.
Often, Bluesky users use the same handle that they had at Xitter. This helps followers moving from Xitter to find them more easily.
This also is an opportunity to ensure that you have consistent names across your social media platforms. If your Facebook and Instagram accounts use DawnMarieJones as your handle but your Xitter account uses DMJones, you’ll want to use your Facebook/Instagram handles for continuity. Using multiple handles can make finding you difficult.
In any case, the user name must be at least three letters long. It can only contain letters, numbers and hyphens.
Once you’ve come up with a user name, hit “next.”
A new screen pops up and asks you to “Complete the challenge,” which means checking the box that says “I am human.” Sometimes you’ll receive additional puzzles to solve that are easy for people but way beyond the ability of most bots. This helps ensure real people, rather than bad actors using bots aimed at manipulating information, are on Bluesky.
Profile Picture/Avatar
A new screen asks you to “Give your profile a face.” The profile picture is the thumbnail or avatar that accompanies each one of your posts. On both your home and profile pages, it is the prominent circle photo that appears on the upper left of the screen.
This picture is important because it typically is the first visual one has of you as an author. The human eye almost always is drawn to an image before text. Because of this, with a simple glance at your profile picture potential readers of your posts will make quick, often subconscious impressions about you.
Due to this, there are three items you probably don’t want to use for your profile picture. The first is cute animals and your children. A cat, dog and baby, no matter how adorable, doesn’t say “professional writer.” Another picture to stay away from are those of objects that suggest writing, such as a pile of books, a bookcase full of books, a typewriter, a computer keyboard, a quill, etc. None of these say you are a writer – you could be a librarian or simply a bibliophile, after all – and all are better used in your banner photo, which we’ll come to later. A third picture to avoid is that of your published book’s cover. The thumbnail that accompanies your tweets is simply too small for the cover to be readable or recognizable.
Instead, use a professional-looking picture of yourself. It should be a close-up of your face, as the whole body will get lost in the tiny thumbnail. Ideally, the picture will in some way be memorable, not just another mug shot, so if you have a signature killer smile or way of locking on someone with your sparkling eyes, go for it. In addition, a thumbnail should be of high resolution with a bright, high contrast so that the foreground (your face) stands out from the background.
The profile picture you upload should be a square 400 x 400 pixels in size. It can be a JPEG, PNG, or WebP file. Note that the corners of the square photo will be rounded off when appearing online.
Once you have a profile picture, stick with it for some time, perhaps a couple of years. This allows readers to become familiar with your photo and to instantly associate your posts with you.
To upload your picture, click the blue pen on the bottom right of the gray avatar circle.
Don’t have a pic to upload? Theoretically, that’s no problem. At the bottom of the screen you have an option to instead select a cartoon avatar for a profile pic. Going with a cartoon, though, screams “amateur,” so take the time to get a decent picture of yourself for your profile.
Once you’ve uploaded your profile pic, click “Continue.”
Home Page
On the next screen, you’ll be asked “What are your interests?” which you can answer by selecting from a list of general topics. You can click on as many options as you like then hit “Continue.”
That sends you to a “You’re ready to go!” page that promotes Bluesky. The short of it is you’ve finished setting up an account that you now can use and others can see, so click “Let’s Go.”
This brings you to your home page, which is a feed of posts by people who match the answers you gave to “What are your interests” a couple of screens back.
Profile Page
Before exploring your home page feed, click “Profile” from the menu on the screen’s left side.
Your Profile page will pop up. To the right of your profile picture/avatar is a button that says “Edit Profile.” Click it. A pop-up screen should show.
On the pop-up screen, you’ll enter three items. Careful selection of these items is key to success, as others looking at your page typically will decide if they should follow you based on what they see.
Banner
The first item is the banner. This is the large horizontal photo that appears across the top center of your profile.
The banner should be a horizontal rectangle that is 1500 pixels wide by 500 pixels high. Like the profile picture, it can be a JPEG, PNG, or WebP file. At the moment, you can’t edit the banner photo, so what you select should fit the space provided or you may find text or part of the photo chopped off.
For a banner photo, you’ll want a high-quality, relevant image that conveys your message or brand identity. If you use text, it should be large, easy to read, and concise. A lot of authors use a collage of their book covers for their banner. The photo need not be a direct advertisement, of course; it could be a simple photo that states “writer.”
To upload your banner, click the camera in the lower right of the gray space that makes where the banner will appear.
Display Name
The second item you’ll be asked to enter is the display name. This is your name (rather than your user name, which is more like your address where people can find you) that will appear in boldface at the top of your posts.
For the display name, authors ought to use the name that appears on the cover of their books. My books, for example, always carry the byline Rob Bignell, so I use “Rob Bignell” as my display name rather than Robert Bignell (my formal name on my drivers license) or R.A. Bignell (because I think using my initials makes me sound more highbrow). Using those latter names would cause people to enter them when searching for my books and lead them to either the wrong author or leave them befuddled because they can’t find me.
As with your user name/handle, this also is an opportunity to ensure that you have consistent names across your social media platforms. If your Facebook and Instagram accounts use JaneJackson as your handle but your Xitter account uses JanieJackson, you’ll want to use your Facebook/Instagram handles for continuity. This presumes, of course, that Janie Jackson is what appears as your name on your books’ covers (perhaps you need to change your Facebook/Instagram handle after all).
If you have job titles that you might want to emphasize, add them to your name. For example, I edit books as well as write them, so my display name is Rob Bignell, Editor/Author. You also might emphasize your genre, such as Janie Jackson, Romance Author.
Description
The third item is the description where you tell a little bit about yourself. It’s a mini bio you can use to promote your books or business or to give people an idea of your personality. For example, my description reads:
I’m the author of 80+ books and an established editor who has helped more than 400 authors achieve their publishing dreams. My books include writing guidebooks, a novel, children’s books and more. See inventingrealityediting.com
You can include a web address in your description, so if you have a website for your books or business, add it. Bluesky automatically converts it to a link.
The description can be up to 300 characters long. If you already have Xitter/Facebook/Instagram accounts, you always can use your descriptions there at Bluesky, which is a good idea to ensure continuity across social media platforms.
When done with these three items, click “Save changes.” You’ll be taken back to your profile page.
You’re now ready to make your first post, which we’ll cover in an upcoming article.
More articles about Bluesky:
• How to Find Followers on Bluesky
• Best Times to Post on Bluesky
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional book editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of 80+ books including the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
Check out some of my book marketing guidebooks:
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