How to write Author's Bio
Author Bio is probably the hardest piece of content I’ve ever had to write. It required at least 5 revisions before I came up with something presentable.
During my struggles figuring out what kind of beast it is, I checked more than fifty best-selling authors’ bios and this was the first mistake I made. I stumbled upon a lot of authors who mentioned the titles of their series or how they won some writing contest.
Automatically, I assumed that you won’t have a chance to stand out in the crowd if you don’t have at least 3-5 books in a published series.
But is that really true?
40 percent of prospective buyers check the About Author page before they decide to buy a book. If they find a title they like in the author's bio (I’m one of those people who remember book title instead of author name), they’ll buy it. So, If you have a published series, you need to mention it, but that only works for your existing audience, which you can also reach by newsletter or in social media.
But, let's assume you are an author they are meeting for the first time. In this case, the titles of your series (e.g. Augmented Intelligence, Tau Ceti World or Evolution Re:Trial) simply don’t matter to them. If that’s the case, what matters to them?
INSIGHT re what makes a good Author Bio:
Introduce the ideas you develop in your series/writing to your prospective audience. Your job as an author is to draw to you the readers who will resonate with your message.
Your author bio is meant to convey the theme or message(s) you develop in your writing. It’s not easy to figure out what this is at first, so I will provide some points that may be helpful.
Start with tagline - the main concept of your stories. Like I have already stated, it could be hard for aspiring writers. It took me a little time to figure out that my novels have an overarching theme about our/humanity’s future.
Add the genre you are writing and title of a published series. Hook the readers to read the blurbs of your series - use no more than one or two sentences.
Mention your credentials, relevant awards, contests, social media presence.
Add a personal touch, What are you interested in? What are your goals? Maybe there is some background information that adds uniqueness to your writing. (E.g. I have software developing experience, so the way I talk about prospects of developing technologies is as close to reality as it could possibly be).
Note: Your author bio should contain a promise to your readers and explain how you will achieve it. E.g. Studies in psychology help the author to explore human nature to create believable, three-dimensional, characters.
I hope my insight will help you figure out the main message you want to convey to your readers. Now you know what could help you create a strong author presence (because that’s what an author bio is really for). Go write your author bio, keeping all that in mind.
