Writing A Compelling Author Bio
If you, my friend, are ready to present yourself to the world as an author, one of the first things you will have to do is write an Author Biography or author bio. Oftentimes, this is the first part of your proposal or pitch that an editor reads, so it must be gripping and cover the most important aspects of your credentials, writing experience, and platform.
It can be vulnerable and weird, and even kind of agonizing, to write about yourself and talk up your achievements or abilities. Authors have told me that it feels like they’re bragging. But you must do it. Your bio is an important part of your publishing career that you need to consider carefully.
When you start to think about your writing as a business as well as a craft, your author biography (in short and long forms) will help you establish your brand, your focus, and your voice as an author. Your bio will tell the world who you are, and more importantly, reveal the why behind your work.
In simple terms, your author bio is a paragraph or two of text that will eventually appear along with your book’s description and your photo on online product pages, the back cover of your book, or the inside back flap of the dust jacket.
However, long before you get to that point, you will have to create an author biography for your book proposal and/or pitch letter. If you or your agent are sharing it with editors and publishers, the bio in your proposal can be short, perhaps around 250 words or a bit longer if there is relevant experience or platform data to include. For query letters to literary agents, however, your bio should probably only be a couple sentences, at most.
As I mentioned above, these days the author bio is often one of the first pieces of information a book editor will review, especially for nonfiction projects. Why?
Due to the increased competition for attention and the sheer number of books published each year, editors need to make a strong case to their publishing teams for each book they acquire. Therefore, they will want to know what other writing you’ve done in the past, and also what experience or education gives you the credibility to write this particular book. Also, editors want to know how you’re already reaching people with your writing. This is often referred to as your author platform and can include social media followers, a podcast or blog, appearances or hosting duties on a popular radio or TV show, speaking at live events, a large email list, publishing articles through major outlets, leading an organization, and a number of other things.
Knowing how critical your author bio can be, here are 10 elements you should consider adding to your biography:
Your Name and Current Job
List your name at the top and write about what you do for work, especially if it’s relevant to your writing career or the book you’re currently pitching.
Education
If you have a degree or certification that is relevant to the book you’re writing, make sure and include it. If you’re writing a crime thriller, and you have a degree in criminology, add that information! Alternatively, if you’re writing a crafting book about basket weaving and you have a degree in history, it’s not as important to list.
Experience and Credibility
Include any professional experiences or work history that may apply to either your ability to reach readers, or your credibility as the author of this particular book.
Previous Writing
If you’ve published books before, include a list of them in your bio. Or if you’ve written published articles, columns, or essays, consider including them in your bio as well along with the magazine or publication where they appeared. The most recent books or articles are going to be much more relevant, so if your published works are more than ten years old, they may not warrant a mention.
Awards or Honors
Feel free to include any relevant awards or honors you’ve received in your writing career thus far.
Author Website and Platform Details
These days, it’s critical to have a home base online where potential readers can connect with you. Unlike social media profiles, you are the sole owner of your author website and therefore, it can evolve as your writing career develops. In addition, it indicates to publishers that you are serious about becoming a published author. Publishers and editors will also want to know how you’re reaching potential readers now, so include followers counts and engagement metrics from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and any other relevant social media platforms. If you have a dedicated email list, be sure and include those numbers as well.
Personal Information
While it’s not absolutely necessary, many authors include a few details about their family, personal hobbies, and hometown in their author bios. For example: “John Smith lives on a farm in rural Iowa with his wife Jane, and sons Mike and Ike.” Don’t go overboard and don’t share details you’d be uncomfortable making public.
Endorsers and Associations
Do you know any influential friends who might help you promote your book? This could include other authors, professors, journalists, colleagues, actors, podcast hosts, leaders, or others who’ve built large audiences. If so, consider including a brief list of these people who will help support your book launch. Also, think about including any associations, networks, groups, or organizations you’re a part of that are relevant to your book or will lend credibility for future promotional efforts.
Social Media Links
If you’ve grown your followers on a particular social media channel to more than 20,000 or so, you should consider including your handle or profile name in your bio.
Interesting Details
If you were attacked by a shark and lived to tell about it, and the book you’re writing is a memoir of that experience—then yes, you should mention it in your bio. But try to keep it focused and relevant.
Now then, here are a few more quick tips.
If you can wrap the above elements in a fun story or make your bio humorous or entertaining to read, all the better. However, the story or humor should not overshadow the narrative of your bio or get in the way of including all the necessary information. Also, please write your bio in the third person, rather than in first person. This is a professional piece of copy that your publisher will use in a variety of ways to tell others about your book. I’m personally not a big fan of overly personal author bios that include long, winding work histories, cutsie asides to the reader, or personal stories that have very little to do with the book itself. Keep your author bio focused and professional.
I also recommend using the “So what?” test. Ask yourself, will anyone really care about this information? Evaluate each sentence of your bio by asking, “So What?” If the line seems extraneous or unnecessary to your audience (a literary agent, editor, publisher, and ultimately, readers), then remove it.
Before you try your hand at writing your own author bio, go read some sample author biographies. Take a look at the books or online product pages of authors you admire, or of several authors who are writing books in the same category in which you are writing.
Finally, I’ll leave you with a challenge: Make a list of all the possible elements you can include in your author bio. Then, write a longer 500-word version of it. Got it? Did you include all of the items listed above?
Next, save that 500-word bio, and start a new version. Edit it down to only 250 words by eliminating wordiness or any details that aren’t relevant. This will force you to identify the absolute essentials, which is what should accompany your book proposal or pitch letter. Bonus points if you can edit it down even further, to 200 words.
If you feel compelled to write a longer biography of 500 words or more, save it for your website, which is the best forum for an extended personal biography.
Best of luck, friends!