What should I include in a hundred-word bio?

[MichaelSullivan]

@Michael

Unless, like Ginjer Buchanan, you have the well-earned luxury of a solid list of authors pumping out a book every few years, editors and, I should have added, agents are often hunting down authors. This is especially true of new editors and agents, those mostly likely to take a chance on a new author because they aren't getting submissions from more prominent ones, something Ginjer Buchanan said in an interview about her own editorial staff. I'm drawing on my own experience too. When I did fiction at Avon, I routinely trawled anthologies looking for potential authors, just as I routinely contact the authors of magazine pieces about doing books based on them.

Yes, but you were FINDING the author due to pieces of theirs you read, where the statement was meant to indicate that people aren't randomly reading bios to find authors. My point is that a bio is (should be) for readers - not for an editor as if they get to your bio, they already have an interest in you from the fact that they read or otherwise became interested in what you write.

The first thing the editor or agent will want to do is contact you, and I always find it infuriating when an author leaves no clue how this mght be accomplished. The editor or agent will also check your social media presence to see if you are anyone before contacting you, hence building up a following of some sort in that area.

Agreed - sometimes authors make it really hard for finding people, but if my bio said I was born in Detroit MI, is that really going to help you in your search?

And while a story in an anthology might not, you're right, impel an even--several authors within driving distance of a store could be bundled into one event, I suppose--the story could get your local bookstore to carry the anthology. That's why authors' towns are always noted prominently in catalogs. Stores want to support their locals authors because this brings in local buyers. Same's true for libraries. I overhead my local librarians meeting to make their monthly buying decisions. After a long discussion they decided to buy one copy of WHEN PRIDE STILL MATTERS because, thanks to the most prominent rest stop on the Parkway, they knew Vince Lombardi was from our state of NJ (at which point I butted in to suggest they might want to take a few more of the surefire bestseller). [\quote]

A good story but is my income really going to be impacted to any substantial degree because my home town carries a copy or two of my book alongside the 10,000 other titles they carry? If I became "big" they might do a display for me but as most people will be midlist this really isn't going to amount to more than a few sales. My point is 100 words isn't many and you nee to make each one count. If you come from some place unusual that makes you more exotic or interesting, sure include it. But I don't think adding I'm from Detroit earns me any additional sales.

As for alumni magazines, college affiliations, as well as any other associations, are part of every publisher's author questionairre because alumni magazines do want to tout their fellow grads' accomplishments. It makes the school and, by extension, the other grads look good and feel good. While the school bookstore might be less inclined to take a grad's book than a local author's or professor's--there's always a display of professors' books--why not give them a reason to take a chance on yours?

I agree it makes the school feel important...but is it going to bring in any sales? Even if I went to college, which I didn't, if they ran an announcement of my latest fictional work would a single person reading that small insertion say to themselves, "Wow I have to go out and buy this!" Again maybe one or two - but if you are resorting to techniques that are going to bump you one or two sales I think you have bigger issues.

As for a bio dating, so what? So someone contacts you and you say, That didn't work out, but here's what I'm working on now. Most books are returned and pulped long before a bio goes out of date.

It just doesn't add anything. Again 100 words is not many - you need to make each one count.

What's interesting is that your answers come from the place of one who's published a lot as ebooks first, correct? whereas I'm coming from a print first mindset. Do ebook readers want something else in a bio since they've already come to an online listing for a book and don't need to be introduced to a book by a store? In your experience as a hybrid author, should online and print bios differ and, if so, how and why? [\quote]

No I don't think readers of ebooks are looking for something different than readers of print books - It think the difference is my focus is on readers and you're more focused on the "industry people"

I have to say, despite all of the above, I do find your advice compelling because it's aimed at direct the bio at consumer whereas mine is directed at retailers, marketing intermediaries and others. And all copy should be directed that the end user, the "you" ultimately reading it. The question is, then, how to do both effectively?

I think you hit the nail on the head...and to be honest I think this is one of the problems with publishing - that their emphasis and sales system is geared to retailers and marketing intermediaries and not on readers - as I feel it is the reader who his the real "customer."

 

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

What I think some of the posters above have missed is that your bio is now part of your sales pitch. You are selling YOURSELF - as a storyteller - to your readers.

Which means that if you're writing literary fiction, mentioning that Columbia U MFA in Writing might help. If you're writing pretty much any other sort of fiction, odds are good you'll be better with Tanya Huff's bio.

If you're writing crime fiction and have experience there, put it in. Ditto for military experience for mil fic writers. But DON'T let it be dry. DON'T let it be boring. You need to be entertaining (whatever it is your target audience feels is entertaining) even in the bio.

Because if you're not, then you're going to lose readers. Simple as that. The bio is easily accessible online. Lots of readers check it before buying. If you're boring there, they will assume the story is boring too.

Don't be boring.