Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Secrets to a Great Author Biography

I happened to be on Smashwords last week, and I came across this book. It was free, so I grabbed it thinking perhaps it had some gems in it that I hadn't thought of, yet.

I was rather disappointed.

Secrets to a Great Author Biography certainly jumps straight into it! There's no introduction to what you're about to learn, or why it's important. It's an information dump: "this is what you need to do." Period. There are very few non-obvious things to think about, but mostly it's a wall of text that culminates in an advertisement for Fireblade Publishing, and that advertisement is as long as the content leading up to it!

It's a real pity, because I honestly think that lots of authors could benefit from a better biography. I'm not even sure I'm doing it right yet, and I'll love to learn more.

What are your tips and tricks for writing your biography, if you're an author? If you're a reader, what author bio's have you read that really stood out, and made you want to buy their books?

Update: To listen to this post as a podcast, click the Play button below!

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