How To Write Your Author Bio

I have a confession to make.

Do you remember those icebreaker activities your teachers would make you do during the first day of school? The ones that nearly everyone I know loathed participating in?

I secretly loved them.

Even though there's nothing like the internal panic of your mind going blank when you're tasked with coming up with an animal that starts with the same letter as your first name (in addition to remembering all of the names and animals that were said before yours so you can recite them back) or the worry that your fun fact isn't fun enough, these games were successful in their job of easing the awkwardness among new acquaintances—and they could even be fun!

I didn't get the hate towards these icebreakers.

That is, until I started writing my author bio for this blog.

Even the most extroverted of writers can get hung up on their bio. What should it include? How long should it be? Does it sound interesting enough?

In this post, I'm sharing some tips that will hopefully make writing your author bio a total breeze!

Do I Really Need An Author Bio?

The short answer is yes.

An author's bio offers a multipurpose overview of who you are as a writer. They're often included in interviews, articles, and reviews about an author's book or postings promoting events they're a featured guest at like a signing or a convention panel. There are typically a few remarks to introduce an author to their audience if they're giving a talk. Bios might be included alongside the acknowledgments in a published book or on its back cover. They're also something you'll include in any querying materials. And, of course, your website.

That doesn't cover every use for an author's bio, but you get the picture.

It's not about how they're used though. It's also good to know why an author's bio matters, as that can help guide your own.

Many readers enjoy getting to know about the author whose work they've just read or are about to read. It might be out of a desire to further understand work based on the author's life and how their experiences might have shaped the story, but it can also help establish a level of authority that some readers look for; in other words, they want to see that you're authentic or know what you're talking about.

This also goes for prospective agents or editors. If they know that the main character in your cozy mystery series is a podiatrist, and you are also a podiatrist, they'll potentially have a little more confidence taking you on as a client because they know you'll know what you're talking about (but remember: you don't have to be a podiatrist to write a story with a podiatrist protagonist. You just need to do your due diligence and research).

Overall, a well-crafted author bio can bring the often sought-after authenticity to your writing.

Think of your author bio as your own personal blurb. While a book's blurb is there to persuade readers to pick up your book, your author bio's job is convincing readers and indutrsty pros alike to take a chance on you.

With the Why of an author bio covered, it's time to break down the What. More specifically, what you need to include in your author bio—plus a few other things of note.

Celebrate Your Credentials...

This section will evolve throughout your writing journey.

As a debut author, your bio may feature any degrees you've earned or writing competitions you've placed in and literary magazines your work has been featured in. This is especially worth including in a query letter because it demonstrates a little know-how even if you're new to the publishing game.

A few years down the line, you may garner critical acclaim for your writing or win some awards, so you'll also want to include these accolades in your bio.

...But Don't Get Bragadocious

While you definitely want to prove yourself with your author bio (impostor syndrome be damned!), you also want to avoid going overboard.

I'm sure your mother is very proud of the writing award you received in the first grade, but that should probably stay on the fridge and not make it into your professional author bio.

Additionally, some readers may find that prattling off every award you've ever won might be a sign of compensating for something. Staying focused and concise lets you come across as confident and competent as a writer.

Your Backstory

When we talk about backstory in writing fiction, it often relates to significant events that shaped your character into who they are, their fears, their favorite things, their aspirations, and their worldview.

Your backstory is something you'll want to include in your author bio—but with a small caveat. You'll want to keep things relevant and writing-specific. Chances are, you won't need to mention that your T-Ball team lost the 1993 state championship game by one point or that your favorite ride at Disney World is The Haunted Mansion unless that plays an instrumental role in your writing journey. However, if you found your love of historical fiction through reading Little House on the Prairie, that might be a fun thing to mention if there is ample space.

Speaking of which...

Length

The length of your author bio will in part depend on where it's being used.

In a query letter, your time is limited to approximately 400 words max—and the majority of that needs to be dedicated to introducing your manuscript, not the mind behind it. You'll only have a couple of sentences to talk about yourself and you'll need to use them wisely, focusing only on the most pertinent information. A query letter is not the place to tell a prospective agent that you can be found counting down to Pumpkin Spice Latte season as early as February.

On your own website, you have more free rein. It's your chance to get more personal and less formal if you fancy it. Those fun facts can be sprinkled in alongside the more "professional" ones, especially if they've played a role in who you are as a writer. For example, my current bio includes a mention of my day job working at an escape room because I feel like the theatricality of being a game master has influenced my narrative style (and, let's be honest, it's a wicked cool job with an eye-catching title).

That said, you'll want to keep things relatively brief so you're not droning on and on and losing readers' attention.

The bios you'll find in the back of published books, meanwhile, tend to fall between these two in terms of length and content. From what I've seen, they tend to be on the more professional side but wrap things up with some fun facts.

eg: Poppy Lynn Daniels holds a law degree in public health from Harvard and has spent more than twenty years advocating for public health policies. She now lives in Wyoming with her wife, their three sons, and their poodle named Scrooge, where she can often be found bowling or counting down the days until her first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season.

As an author, it's a good idea to have several iterations of your bio at different lengths prepared. That way, you'll have a suitable one ready to go for any occasion.

Staying On-Brand

In writing, you'll often hear the importance of your story's tone. You want to make sure that the voice of your story aligns with the themes and genre. For instance, you want to make sure that your cozy mystery isn't reading like a gritty crime novel teeming with graphic descriptions of corpses left at the scene.

The same goes for your author bio. In situations where you can be a little more relaxed than refined, it can be a good move to stick with the tone of your manuscript when writing your bio. Your ability to play the entirety of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 on clarinet while doing a headstand is beyond impressive, but it may feel out of place in the author bio of your college-level math textbook. However, if your romance novel has strong religious themes woven into it, you might want to talk about how important your faith is in your everyday life.

Your author bio is about you, but it needs to be written with your target audience in mind. Non-fiction readers will likely be more interested in your academic credentials than your extracurriculars.

Authentically You

Lastly, your author bio tends to be the first impression your writing makes on readers.

Even though your author bio should be written in the third person for professional settings, you still want to keep it personal. This not only makes it more engaging, but more authentic.

Some readers check out author bios because they're interested in the story behind the story, so to speak. Including a hobby or giving your pets a shout-out alongside your literary accomplishments helps you seem more down-to-earth. Readers seek stories they can relate to, or they might be drawn to authors they have a sense of familiarity with (which is one of the reasons there is such a heavy focus on maintaining a social media presence as an author).

So cliche as it is, be yourself! But also know that you don't have to put absolutely everything out there. Focus on the aspects that complement the themes or characters in your book while also allowing you to shine.

I can't be the only one who's had the nightmare of being called up to the front of the class and told to introduce yourself to the class, only to be met with blank stares as every thought you have ever had evades your mind.

Thankfully, writing your author bio doesn't have to be nearly as scary!

By understanding what your author bio needs to accomplish and where it will be used, you have the foundation to write yours without difficulty. Now it's just a matter of remembering a fun fact about yourself.

So, then. Hi. My (pen) name is Avril. My animal that starts with A is an Arctic Fox. And my fun fact is that I tried out for the Jeopardy! Kid's tournament in the fourth grade...