Author's Bio: A Comprehensive Guide for Writers
Author's Bio: A Comprehensive Guide for Writers
Tell your story in your stories. This is not the place for storytelling
Writing an author’s biography is one of the hardest things and somehow, always an after-thought. We spend a lot of time crafting the literature but very little on our personal branding. But, in many cases, a reader in a bookstore will look at three or four things at best before deciding to purchase your book:
Book cover
Blurb in the back
Your profile
The first 10 pages of your book
So your profile is very important.
If you haven’t published yet, then your biography (I am using ‘profile’, ‘bio’, and ‘biography’ interchangeably here) is even more important. Say your piece gets into a magazine, you want people to remember you. You want agents to be able to reach you. You also want to craft a professional profile that important people feel comfortable writing to you.
It’s not that complicated, you just need to know a few rules of thumb.
Tailoring Your Author's Bio for Different Publications
One of the first things to consider is the variation in bio length required by different publications. It’s common to have multiple versions of profiles. Some platforms, like The Paris Review, only allow for a brief two-line bio, while others are more generous with space. Always check the submission guidelines and adhere to the specified word count. This demonstrates your professionalism and respect for the publication's rules.
In practice, you should open a Google Doc or Word doc, which contains different versions of your biography in there. It’s likely that your profile will get updated often, but having all the versions included makes it easier when you have to tweet and update.
Always in Third-Person
When writing your author's bio, it's crucial to use the third person. That’s just market standard. The easiest way to start the profile is ‘[Your name] is a [what you write].’ If you are submitting to a very woke/progressive magazine, it’s advisable to add your pronoun(s) after your name.
This convention is universally accepted and maintains a professional tone. Writing about yourself in the third person also creates a sense of objectivity, which is particularly important if you're highlighting your achievements and credentials.
Relevant Personal Experiences
The safest bet is to cut all the storytelling about your life. Let your stories show your passion for literature. If you care about a particular theme for whatever reason, it should show.
If you decide to include personal experiences in your author's bio, make sure those stories are relevant to the content you are submitting and/or the publication itself. For instance, if you're submitting a piece to my literary magazine, the Battersea Anthology, and you happen to be a Battersea resident, mentioning this connection can add depth to your bio. However, avoid oversharing personal details that are unrelated to your writing or the publication's theme.
Recently I received a bio of an author talking about her divorce, but her piece has nothing to do with that. Before meeting her, my first impression was that she might be in so much pain that her boundary between work and life was off. I recommended she check the profiles of Deborah Levy and Rachel Cusk. Who talked about divorce in their books but not too much on their profiles.
Showcasing Key Publications and Achievements
Your author's bio is an opportunity to showcase your writing experience and achievements. Mention any significant publications where your work has appeared or your latest book. If you've received any awards, recognitions (even short-listed or long-listed), or special certifications related to your writing (such as an MA in Creative Writing), include those to establish your credibility as an author.
The All-Important Portfolio Link
Unpopular opinion: Every author's bio should conclude with a link to your portfolio. This link can direct readers and editors to your personal website or social media profile, where they can explore more of your work. Make sure the link is functional and up-to-date. Your portfolio serves as a gateway for anyone interested in learning more about you and your writing.
However, I know that not many people do that. I don’t know why, I think it might partly be because they don’t have a separate social media for their professional persona, or that they haven’t made a website.
Well, that’s a no-no.
Subscribe to me as my next post will be about a step-by-step guide to creating a FREE author’s website. No coding is involved. I taught that when I was volunteering at an old person’s center. It’s THAT easy.
Genre and themes
For longer biographies, consider expanding your bio to include information about your predominant genres or recurring themes in your work. This can provide readers with a deeper understanding of your writing style and interests, and for the right person to seek you out.
Still, keep it short.
Great examples
Here are some fabulous biographies in different variations. You can steal them as templates and insert your own name there. These are real profiles, but I have changed the names.
Elaine Gao is a poet, essayist, painter, and photographer. Singing will be published by Penguin in spring 2024. Find her on Twitter @SingingGao
Sancho Pepper (they/them) is a Vietnamese poet and producer from south-west London. Their recent work appears in Dingding, Granta, 20 Queer Poems (Penguin, 2023), and Soho Men (Vintage, 2020), and they have been shortlisted for London Independent Story Prize, 2019. Their debut pamphlet is Googling (Nine Arch Press, 2020). Sancho is a Barbican Young Poets alum and has served as th producer for the London open mic night. They received their MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmith University in 2019.
Here’s the profile of one of my favourite authors - Yiyun Li - On Literary Hub:
Yiyun Li is the author of several works of fiction—Must I Go, Where Reasons End, Kinder Than Solitude, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Vagrants, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, and The Book of Goose—and the memoir Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life. She is the recipient of many awards, including the PEN/Malamud Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Windham-Campbell Prize. Her work has also appeared in The New Yorker, A Public Space, The Best American Short Stories, and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, among other publications. She teaches at Princeton University.
For completeness, Deborah Levy’s biography on Penguin:
Deborah Levy is the author of several novels including Hot Milk and The Man Who Saw Everything, alongside a formally innovative, critically acclaimed 'living autobiography' trilogy: Things I Don't Want to Know, The Cost of Living and Real Estate. She has been shortlisted twice each for the Goldsmiths Prize and Booker Prize and she won the Prix Femina Etranger. She has also written for The Royal Shakespeare Company and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Priscilla’s bottom line
As a starting author, It might feel like you have to polish your biography with personal (sob) stories if you don’t have much to show for yourself.
Don’t do that.
I think you should focus on getting yourself the right credentials to be included in your biography instead. No one will be fooled by your wordplay, that’s like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs.
Keep writing, submitting to prizes and magazines, and maybe do an MA in Creative Writing.