6 Steps to an Awesome Author Bio

Want to grow your audience? You need a compelling brand message.

It’s the same for your About page, your social media profiles, your Goodreads bio and your Amazon author page. If you start your author bio with yourself, you risk losing your reader.

But wait a minute!  This is my author bio we’re talking about. The clue’s in the name. Surely this is the one place I’m allowed to start with me?

Well, no! You need to start with your audience. You see, as that tweet proves, when you start with yourself it’s as if you’re shouting into a vacuum. You don’t show any sign of understanding who might be listening and what they need or want to hear. You haven’t tailored what you have to say to your listener. So, you don’t make a connection.

Humans like to have conversations with, not be shouted at.

If you want to increase the chances of potential readers making a connection with you, read on for six steps to writing an author bio which resonates with your audience.

Three questions before you draft your author bio

1. WHO is your target reader? I don’t mean the target reader of your genre necessarily. I mean the intended reader right now, of this piece of communication? It might not be a ‘reader’ in a book store per se, but maybe a step along the way, a ‘gatekeeper’ like an agent, editor or publisher. This was the mistake this writer made with their query letter. They assumed that, like a job application, they needed to sell themselves to the agent, when actually the agent was most interested in their story. Agents and editors DO want to know a bit about you. In fact, an editor told me once at a conference that the author’s one-sentence bio at the end of their query letter helped to clinch the deal. Because it was funny and revealed their love of children’s literature. But you see, they put it at the END of the query, not the beginning.
2. WHY are they here? What do they want and need to know? Don’t assume it’s the same as what you want to tell them. This will either involve some imagination or some research. Ask fellow readers and writers. Attend writers’ conferences and ask agents and editors.
3. What DON’T they want to know? Once you’re clear on what they DO need and want, ask yourself the opposite. Think about what might put them off, what other demands and distractions could pull them away from your bio. This will help you provide the right information, strike the right tone, and craft the ideal length. All of which will be different for each intended audience. (Yah, I know, a lot of work. Who said marketing was quick?)

Armed with these answers, you can begin drafting your author bio. But please don’t make the mistake of being chronological. Unless the fact that you grew up in Arkansas is directly relevant to the subject matter of your book. Similarly, don’t kick off with your degrees. Again, unless they’re directly related to your writing. If you’re a non-fiction writer, your qualifications may well be pertinant. However, you’ll want to start with your current role (Jim, a naturopathic doctor) rather than the school you attended (Jim attended The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine). Do you see what I’m saying? You can lose a reader by starting with the dry facts of your birth date, birth town or school.

Three essentials to include in your bio

1. HOW does your writing make a reader feel? I go on about this a lot, but it’s because it’s important. People don’t buy products, they buy benefits, what that product does for them, how that product makes them feel. Do readers get to the end of one of your books and feel empowered? Shaken? Comforted? Transported? If you don’t know, ask. If this is your first publication, ask beta readers. If you have a body of work, read some reviews on Amazon and Good Reads and look for commonalities. Scary, I know, but this is how you figure out what people love about your work.
2. WHY do you write? Here’s where you can incorporate an endearing, quirky or funny story about that time as a kid when you stayed in the crook of your favourite tree until it was dark because you were lost in a book. Don’t worry if you don’t have a quirky or cute story. Confession time: I get intimidated by writers who have a really cool story about how they discovered they absolutely had to write a book. My story seems pretty prosaic. Do you know what helps me, though? An exercise an agent gave on a webinar: think back to the moment you got inspired to write (at all, or this particular piece). Write down: who you’re writing this for and why. That’s what I call your ‘spark story’ and it’s not prosaic. It’s personal to you and readers like personal.
3. WHAT qualifications are relevant to my writing? Here’s where you can talk about growing up in Arkansas or attending university in Peru. If you have publishing credentials, reviews, awards etc, you absolutely must mention them. One hesitation a reader has is, “will this writer be any good?” and these are all proof that you are.

   Want to grow your audience? You need a compelling brand message.