Writing a Standout Author Bio

Countdown to 10 year of HTWF: After 10 years and over 100 entries, this is the fourth to last post (other than a coming Index Series).

There is a saying in sales that "people buy from people." It's a good thing to keep in mind as a writer. Whether you're chatting up an editor at a bar or pitching to producer, how you present yourself matters. Many writers are introverts without performance skills, so it may take an extra effort for them to make their presentations equal to the quality of their writing. But, in one case, it doesn't matter whether you're an introvert or an extrovert — writing your bio.

Unfortunately, even good writers fall down when they are creating bios for social media or contests or webpages or query letters. They write resumes. They list achievements, big and small. Try not to leave anything out and end up putting in too much.

An author bio is a sales document directed toward a specific audience, and it's also a writing sample. And, just as the salesperson creates collateral and presents him or herself in a way that shows value to a client or customer – and gets a commitment — your bio is a tool for bringing your stories to the public.

Your audience is someone who can help you. You may be seeking a writing partner to complement your talents and skills. A manager who can shape your career so it more closely fits opportunities. An agent may be able to open doors for you. Editors and producers might turn your words into a book, a movie, play, or a TV show. Sponsors of fellowships and grants may provide money and other resources. Competitions may provide prizes, recognition, and visibility. You probably know all that, but have you look at these helpers from the other side? Do you know what they are looking for from you?

They all want good stories, but what do they mean by good? What genres do they care about? What tone (dark? funny?) do they require? What lengths are important to them? Do they hope to attract adults or children? Do they have big budgets or small?

You don’t know the answers if you haven’t taken the time to know who they are and what they’ve done. Some of them may have credits listed in IMDB. Some may have query requirements on their Web sites. All have public records, friends, and associates. Or their organizations provide direction (as with competitions, where the readers are anonymous).

The first way you introduce yourself must be through showing you are professional enough and care enough to target your communication — your bio in this case — to someone who might find it valuable, based on evidence. Ask any editor, and he/she will tell you how often writers disqualify themselves by sending them queries or material that has nothing to do with their interests. Spamming someone is not a way to tell them you care. It's a horrible way to make the case you would be someone they'd like to spend time with.

So, in addition to providing your bio to people who would want to read it, know you, and explore your work, you need to shape your bio. That means cutting out whatever would not be interesting to its readers. It means highlighting whatever would. It means answering the first questions they have in mind and, possibly, raising questions in ways that encourage responses. It means having a good sense of what you can do for them, not just what they could do for you.

Of course, it's much easier to write an author’s biography that will appeal to one specific person (say, a producer or editor, especially one you've met). Shaping your bio for a group of people, whether it be fellowship readers or people reading your Twitter posts, is trickier. My recommendation is to not try to reach everyone. If you can think of one to three people who need most want to read your bio and could through your application or venue, right with them in mind.

Once you've met the needs of the audience you've chosen for your bio, it's time to make your case. You've established that there is a reason for your communicating with them, specifically. Now, why should they reach out to you? Though it may depend upon your audience, a good strategy would be to brand yourself in some way. What's your genre? What's your medium (screenwriting, books, TV, web series, etc.)? Is there a theme, human experience, or subject area that especially attracts you? It might be a good time to look across your stories and see if there's something common about them.

Next, qualify yourself. What relevant, recent accomplishments do you have? As some of your work reached the public? Made money for someone? Has relevant work being recognized in a contest? have you worked with someone who will be reading the bio, someone who might recommend you? As someone famous said something positive about your work that could be referenced? Can you provide links to text or look books or posters or videos of your work? Do you have non-writing accolades or credentials that both are relevant to the work the reader might be interested in and set you apart from other writers? (For instance, I know someone who wanted to write medical romances. She was a doctor, but didn't include that in her query letter bio. She got better results when she added that.)

Two things I've mentioned over and over again regarding qualifying information are relevance and being recent. Both are essential. Provided you have been writing for a while, you probably have relevant writing experience (or why would you be presenting yourself to this person?). And, if you had a measure of success and consistency in your work, your examples will be recent. But the danger of having a lot of accomplishments is talking yourself into how relevant they are. It's necessary to be selective, avoiding even things you really like to include. For those who are newbies, from is not having a list is too long. It's having any accomplishments at all. Don't worry. Be generous with yourself. Make a good first impression and realize that time is on your side.

“Recent” can also become too flexible for some writers. My rule of thumb is not including anything is more than five years old. If you have an MFA from Yale, don’t mentioned that you got it in 1982. If your teacher won the Pulitzer Prize, but she died 10 years ago, consider not including that nice comment she made about your work. Ageism is a real thing. As is a common reader question, “what have you done lately?”

Okay. You’re writing your bio for the right people (and you know who they are and what they need). You’re keeping it relevant and recent (and therefore short). Now it's time to make sure your bio is a good sample. Obviously, that means that grammar and spelling are impeccable. Everything should be clear and an easy read. Less obvious, since most of us have been trained on formulaic resumes, is the need to make sure your bio isn't boring.

Take a moment. Imagine that your bio is being read by someone who has a pile of 500 writer biographies on his or her desk. Most of them start the same way. "Davis writes exciting space operas about intrepid starship captains facing the unknown.” “Madison writes endearing romances about small town women in search of love.” “Betsy writes legal dramas about attorneys torn between obligations to the firm and the needs of their pro bono clients.”

Okay, not all the bios you’ll find on the Web are that bad. But they do fit common patterns. Going from cliche, general statements to lists of works published/produced to achievements (education, awards) to hobbies to the inevitable statements of about family and pets. Find some online. See how similar and predictable they are? (If you ARE lucky enough to find some that thrill you, save them as examples. Such are rare.)

Don’t feel like you need to reinvent the bio. “The same but different” is good enough, and the easiest route is to get conversational. Your voice – personal and friendly — is your salvation. How would you introduce yourself to someone you'd like to have as a friend? What would you say about yourself to a relative you haven't had a chance to meet face-to-face years? How would you talk about yourself to that reader you researched in your first step in developing the bio, imagining that reader as an actual person in front of you.

Unless overcome by nerves, you’d probably be casual and interesting. That works. That's good. It will save you from institution talk that stultifies listeners and readers. It might lead you to making your bio more of a story, one that includes surprises and emotional involvement. It might do what most of the other 500 bios don't – presents a real person, one, perhaps, the reader like to know.

So, the elements of standout bio are attention to the audience, voice, relevant and recent qualifications, specificity, avoiding clichés, brevity, and breaking the formula (at least a little bit). It means writing a fresh bio for each recipient (or at least refreshing what you have). It means not worrying about reaching everyone. (To stand out, you may actually have to write a bio that repels some people.)

And it may mean one more thing – adjusting the tone. Obviously, if you write humor, there needs to be some fun in your bio. If you write horror, your word choice is likely to be different from someone who writes romances. And, whatever you write there needs to be a level of confidence. A bio is not a place for apologies or excuses or belittling yourself. Remember: you're worth spending time with and they would be lucky to work with you.