How to Write Your Author Biography
Harry: “Why don’t you tell me the story of your life.”
Sally: “The story of my life?”
Harry: “We’ve got eighteen hours to kill before we hit New York.”
Sally: “The story of my life isn’t even going to get us out of Chicago. I mean nothing’s happened to me yet. That’s why I’m going to New York.”
Harry: “So something can happen to you?”
Sally: “Yes.”
Harry: “Like what?”
Sally: “Like I’m going to journalism school to become a reporter.”
Harry: “So you can write about things that happen to other people.”
Sally: “That’s one way to look at it.”
When Harry Met Sally
It’s strange but the one thing writers seem to struggle with the most is the subject they know better than anyone else: themselves. Perhaps that’s because writing an author biography is about finding the balance between arrogance and unworthiness (something everybody struggles with, of course, but only writers have to put the results down on paper). Toot your own horn without at least a smidge of self-deprecation and potential readers may write you off as a narcissist. Fail to toot your own horn enough and potential readers may write you off as a nobody who doesn’t have the right to ask them for an hours’ long commitment.
Perhaps it’s also because an author biography tends to be something we dash off at the last minute instead of giving it the thought and attention it really deserves. You’ve spent months, possibly years, polishing a piece of writing and now that it’s being published, you need a few paragraphs that will be appended to the end of it to enlighten readers about the person it came from. But if you feel like “nothing’s happened” to you, then it can be tough no matter how long you spend on it.
There is no foolproof template for writing an author biography but here are a few things that might help get your creative juices flowing about your least favourite topic.
Family
If you’re married and have children, most people like to mention this in their author biographies. Significant others are good filler. And if you’re lucky enough to be related to someone on whose coattails you can ride while you’re establishing your own bona fides, then that’s good material, too. A grandparent, an uncle, an aunt, a parent or a sibling who is also a writer or some other type of creative goes to show talent runs in the family.
Location
Nobody needs to know your exact address but a city, county, state or country can add some flavour. If you’re an American in Paris or a Nova Scotian in Nigeria or a Mongolian in Argentina, you’ll certainly seem more exotic than the rest of us. Even if you’ve lived in the one place all your life, then at least the locals will know you’re one of them and can get around you.
Age
Including your age isn’t necessary or even important – unless, of course, there’s something a little bit different about the stage of your life at which you are accomplishing your writing achievements. If you are younger (before your mid-twenties) or older (past your mid-fifties), particularly if you are releasing your debut book, then listing your age is really a coded message that it’s never too early or too late to start writing and publishing.
Qualifications
Qualifications aren’t important either, especially for writers because there are plenty of wonderful published authors who have never studied a day in their life since leaving high school. But if you’ve gone to all the effort of getting them and you’re struggling for points of interest in your author biography, then why not include them? Did you study something completely unrelated to writing? So what? The truth is that all study requires the ability to write and edit and receive criticism. What better preparation for being a writer!
I have three qualifications – a Bachelor of Arts (American History and International Politics), which taught me how to research, an Advanced Diploma of Arts (Professional Writing and Editing), which taught me how to edit, and a Master of Arts (Writing), which taught me to introduce more complex components into my writing.
Recognised Expert in a Specific Field
If you have succeeded in a field other than writing and are recognised as an expert, especially if it relates somehow to what you’re writing about, then by all means tell the world. A former television star writes a novel about an actress? Sounds like they’ll have the inside scoop. A former prisoner writes a crime novel? Should be packed full of details that give it more than just verisimilitude. Just like your qualifications, if you’ve gone to all the effort of becoming an expert, then figuring out a way to use it to fill out your author biography seems like a no-brainer.
Medical Conditions
If you have been diagnosed with a medical condition and either beaten it or are living with it every day, then that will likely have shaped you and who you are as a writer. It also tends to be a source of pride. A cancer survivor, a disability advocate, a sufferer of a chronic condition. These days, many writers include medical conditions in their author biographies. However, don’t feel pressured to do it if it makes you uncomfortable. Your health is very personal and you may not want to be defined by it so specifically.
Victim of a Crime or Natural Disaster
Same goes for if you’ve been a victim of crime or a natural disaster. Surviving difficult challenges is inspirational to those that haven’t had it happen to them. Caught up in an act of terrorism or an act of God. Survivor of rape or child abuse. Had all your money stolen by a conman. But if it doesn’t sit right with you, then it’s perfectly okay not to include it. After all, this is your narrative, not your sob story. The tale you tell is entirely up to you.
Other Books Published
Apart from anything else, if you’ve published other books, including that information in your author biography will prompt readers to seek them out if they enjoy the piece of writing your author biography appears in. If you’ve written only a couple, then list them by name. If you’ve written dozens, then a statement that you’re the author of that number of books will suffice. You can include a list of your other works on a separate page instead of bloating your author profile with them.
Winner/Nominee of Award
This is a gimme! If you or your writing has ever been recognised by being nominated or shortlisted for or winning an award, then you must include it in your author biography. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the most prestigious award known immediately around the world as soon as it’s mentioned or something your local library sponsored, if a panel of judges thought your writing was a class above most others that entered a competition, then that’s information worth sharing with your readers.
Unusual Facts
This is box number three, as Josh Lyman in The West Wing would call it. Trivia, ephemera, the stuff that has very little to do with anything but is interesting anyway. My ephemera is crazy cat lady, Collingwood supporter, world’s greatest aunt, things I own seem to catch on fire more than I would prefer (my car and my house within a year of each other, although that was a while ago now; I’ve been fire-free for over a decade now). If you’ve climbed mountains on every continent or had seventeen different jobs or invented something or been to space or own an animal refuge or speak a dozen languages, now’s your chance to tell your readers.
My Author Biographies
From the announcement that my novel Black Spot had been shortlisted for the 2016 Text Prize: “Louise Truscott is a blogger and author from Melbourne. Her debut novel, Enemies Closer, came out in 2012 and her non-fiction work, Project December, in 2015.”
From The Victorian Writer when they published my article “A Dirty Word”: “Louise Truscott is the author of the novel Enemies Closer and two non-fiction books, Project December: A Book About Writing and Project January: A Sequel About Writing. She also writes a blog called Single White Female Writer. Black Spot, her upcoming novel, was shortlisted for the 2016 Text Prize.”
From the Swinburne University profile of me: “Master of Arts (Writing) graduate Louise Truscott has found the balance between corporate and creative writing. After publishing several books spanning fiction and non-fiction and recognition from the writing world, Louise is more satisfied with her career than ever.”
From my blog and used as the author bio in both Project December and Project January: “Louise Truscott was born, brought up and still lives in Melbourne, Australia. She tried not being a writer and editor, then tried being a corporate writer and editor, but she’s only truly happy writing and editing when she chooses what to write and what to edit. With a blog called Single White Female Writer, there are lots of hints in the name about who she is. She published Enemies Closer, her debut novel, under the name LE Truscott in 2012. Project December: A Book About Writing, her second book, was published in 2015 and Project January: A Sequel About Writing was published in 2017. Black Spot, her upcoming novel, was shortlisted for the 2016 Text Prize.”
Each of these biographies says essentially the same thing, although the last is a little more personal (probably because I wrote it) whereas the others were written by someone else using information I had provided and no doubt had word limits that needed to be strictly followed. And the Swinburne University profile is very focused on the master’s degree I obtained there and how it contributed to my career because they were trying to sell potential students on doing further studies.
*****
My advice on preparing your author biography is to write a broad draft and then have an independent editor cull it into a short and sweet couple of paragraphs (a relatively inexpensive request since it’s a very short piece of writing). As a corporate writer, I prepared a lot of employee biographies for tender submissions and the people who were the subjects of the biographies always seemed to have the same reaction, which was that they never knew they could sound so impressive. The truth is that they didn’t sound that impressive when they were writing about themselves but after I took the basic facts they provided and jazzed them up, they were suddenly their own biggest fans. As we all should be.
