Now that you have a good head shot plastered all over the internet, you'll need an equally good bio to match it. The question, of course, is what makes a good bio.
In my opinion, there's only one crucial element to a good bio: Memorable.
If a reader or potential reader forgets anything about your bio the minute they click to another page, your bio has failed its basic purpose. A bio should convince a reader that they want to know more about you, including the books you've written.
Memorable can be achieved a lot of different ways. You can be funny, sarcastic, personal, goofy, endearing, etc. Whichever direction you decide to go in when it comes to the tone of your bio, it should match the tone of the rest of your platform and be true to who you are.
Here are a couple of sites with tips for writing the right bio for you.
Ten tips from the Huffington Post
Nine tips from Litreactor
Dos and Don'ts from FirstSecond books
Five bio fixes from Beth Jusino
Now write up your awesome bio and make sure you use it consistently everywhere you already shared your great head shot.
This post just made me feel better about the carefree nature of my Ashelyn Drake bio. I was considering rewriting it to make more formal but now I think I'll keep it. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I like my bio to be formal, but for me to be myself also. If that makes sense?
ReplyDeleteI tend to enjoy reading the bios that are cute or funny, maybe a tad sarcastic. The formal ones bore me to tears. I also prefer them on the shorter side, When an author sends me a 400 word bio for a blog post, I can't help but cringe. Who is going to read that entire thing? Not me, that's for sure :)
ReplyDeleteFor an introverted writer, writing a bio is like a form of torture!