What’s in a Name? 10 Tips on Writing Your Author BioBesides their first query letter, the hardest words a new author has to write is their author bio. It’s also the first writing assignment I assign when I teach my workshops. The cringing, seat shifting, pen tapping task gets them every time!
Here are 10 tips for writing a quality author bio:
1. You will need a few versions of your bio. Thought you’d love to hear that! Write an extended bio for your website, proposals, interview sheets, and media kits; a medium length bio for queries, guest spots on other websites, and shorter marketing material; and a brief bio as a byline or on limited character websites.
2. Go ahead – brag! Start with your greatest writing achievement. As an aspiring author, even one published article in the local paper counts and should be highlighted.
3. Unless you’re an established author, leave your demographics, personal data for the end, and keep it brief. Though the mere fact that you were born is awsome, as a new author, it’s more important to establish yourself as a writer first.
4. When listing book publications, should you have any, italicize the title (do not put in quotation marks), and include the publisher and year published in parentheses after the title.
i.e. Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw Hill, 2008)
5. Refer to yourself in the third person. Use she/he thereafter for short bios. On the longer ones, I personally like to interject “Heather” a few more times.
6. Note only awards that are for your writing or if related to your writing. For example, if you write about gardening and you won an award for your outstanding garden, then you can brag about it. If you won a blue ribbon at the county fair for your brownies, but you write Science Fiction, leave out the ribbon (but feel free to send me the brownies!). When both of my books won awards within the same month, I immediately updated my author bios on my website and other places. The credibility an award gives a book can change the life of it!
7. BS? BA? BIS? Ph.D.? When it comes to education, much like awards, if your degree is relevant to writing or what you write, then note it. If you have a Ph.D. in psychology and are writing a book on teenage bullying, then certainly note it—it’s a credential (I’m guessing if this is your case, you know this!). Alternatively, if your degree is in architecture and you changed careers to write children’s books, unless it’s about how to build the coolest Lincoln Log cabin on your block, leave the degree out. I have a BIS degree in English and Secondary Education from the University of Virginia. These credentials support me as a writer, writing coach, and workshop instructor, so I use it in my long bio.
8. Your bio will change dramatically as your career advances. Below are my current author bio and my bio from 2007. Note: I learned that where you live isn’t important when you’re just starting out. Noting that I “reside in the midst of the Blue Ridge Mountains” sounded really cool and literary at the time, but it was the publishing credits and my writing that advanced my career. Think of it like this—it’s not where you write, it’s what you write!
9. If you can, have a professional (or at least a really good) photographer take a quality author photo of you. I used a photographer in Colorado and it took more shots than there are cowboys out there to get the perfect shot. Once you have it, use it shamelessly. Most authors are not recognized by what they look like unless they’re John Grisham (who resides here in the midst of the Blue Ridge Mountains). But, an author photo is needed for your book’s jacket, your website, and press kit (at the very least). Your 10-year-old’s camera phone doesn’t cut it..take the time to do it right.
10. Browse the internet and look in the books on your shelves at other authors’ bios for ideas. Especially read the bios of authors who write in your genre.
11. Bonus tip: Read your bio out loud when you’re done writing it. You’ll know immediately if something doesn’t sound right.
Heather Hummel is an award winning author whose published works include:
Gracefully: Looking and Being Your Best at Any Age (McGraw Hill, 2008)
– Merit Award of the 2009 Mature Media Awards
Through Hazel Eyes (PathBinder Publishing, 2008)
– 1st Honorable Mention of the 2009 New York Book Festival
Heather has completed her second novel,
The Universe is My Sugar Daddy.Heather has been a guest author to a variety of audiences, including Victoria Moran’s radio show, “A Charmed Life.” Heather and/or her books have appeared in newspapers such as: Publishers Weekly, USA Today and the Washington Post; and in magazines that include: Body & Soul, First, and Spry Living—a combined circulation of nearly 15 million.
Heather is a writing coach and writing workshop administrator for aspiring writers both independently and through Barnes & Noble. A graduate from the University of Virginia, Heather holds a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree and is working toward a Ph.D. in Metaphysical Sciences.
Visit Heather’s website at
www.heatherhummel.netHeather Hummel – Bio – 2007
Heather Hummel resides in the midst of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Charlottesville, Virginia. Heather penned her first novel,
Through Hazel Eyes, and is presently working on her memoir,
Coffee with Middle and her second novel,
The Universe is My Sugar Daddy. Her published works appear or are forthcoming in
Blue Ridge Anthology: Poetry and Prose of Central Virginia Writers, Messages of Hope and Healing, and
Albemarle Family Living.
Heather is a winner of the 2006 National Novel Writing Month competition. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies.
The Universe Is My Sugar Daddy is now available on Barnes & Noble, as is its partner Inspirational Journal.
