This post was written specifically for the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop.
Lately I’ve been thinking I need to work on a bio for myself. I’m not at the stage where I need to have an “About the Author” section, but I think it would be a good idea to have the basic info about myself made common across the websites/social media that I have a presence on.
Which begs a few questions. Do I write it as myself or in third-person? Do I focus more on personal info, my writing, my accomplishments? So of the things that came up in my research on this mentioned others things like awards/best-seller status, genres, pen names etc. Perhaps the most common thing that came up was allowing some of your personality to come through in the bio.
The problem for me is that I don’t have any of my writing available outside this blog and, at least in terms of writing, I don’t really have much in the way of accomplishments. So that really just leaves the personal and the personality.
Anyways, I currently have three versions of a bio; two here on WordPress and one attached to my Booknest reviews (I don’t think I can count the about part on my Twitter profile). From what I’ve read about writing a bio so far suggests that third person is best so that excludes both WordPress versions, although I do think this one gives a sense of my personality best.
My current bio at Booknest is as follows:
Drew ascribes his love of stories to an aunt giving him a hard back edition of Dracula & Frankenstein for his 8th birthday. Since then he’s been an avid reader of books, short stories, and comics. He is a regular blogger at “The Scribblings” and is working on his own writing.
That manages to tick a couple of boxes by mentioning my site and my writing but I’m not sure you get much a sense of me beyond that. But it is a work in progress so expect me to continue tweaking that as I go. Actually, that’s another recommendation; update your bio periodically.
Here’s a link to one of the sites I found during research, which gives a number of examples of real author bios, if you’re interested. If you’ve already written yours and have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments.
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The Scribblings 
My advice to writers is that they need to have several versions of their bio – the 160-character version for social media, the short version for blog posts and the back of the book, and the longer version for their own website. The website version needs to be first person, but the others are probably third.
And it’s definitely important to update your bio regularly – I’ve seen several which say something like “Jane Doe’s first novel releases in September 2012”. Fine, but that needed to be updated in October 2012 …
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Agreed. Website in first person; same with personal social media accounts; same with query letters. Blogging/freelancing somewhere else: third.
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I change and update mine pretty often. As you publish work or have other successes, there’s more to say. I keep most really personal stuff out and keep that all general.
Susan Says
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I think the title of the book that sparked your love of reading gives a great sense of who you are 🙂
As for a Twitter bio, it’s just as important — it shows up on a lot of searches for some odd reason. Tip for a Twitter bio: keep it snappy with powerful verbs that convey not only who you are, but what you write. E.g. “hermit” is much more snappy than “lone agoraphobe” (not that I’m saying you are one!).
I keep my bios in third person — makes it easier to believe I’m writing about a character instead of myself — and update them once a year.
Good luck!
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