UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Agony Aunt
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What should be in an author's bio - and what shouldn't?
Jackie Weger recommends a short one-paragraph bio, followed by some 'Readers say' about her novels.She also recommends getting in the important parts before the reader has to click the See more link - in case they don't.
Jackie has a group, http://enovelauthorsatwork.com, and they all do promotion together. I don't think they're all Romance writers, but they do cross-promotion and a lot of highly energetic things which raise individual and group profiles.She's put quite a bit of effort into refining what goes on your Amazon page, etc., for the group - I like some of her advice, and have it bookmarked.
Sorry, should have said.
Patti (baconater) wrote: "Have a look at bios from big name authors in your genre.Or did someone say that already?"
Not sure if they did, but it's worth saying over and over again. Thanks.
The author bio is written, and available for nibbling at. This is the long version:"Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt is a former researcher and computational physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins U. Applied Physics Laboratory. She holds a BS in physics from Seattle U., and an MS and PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the U. Wisconsin-Madison. A minor problem with her right eye kept her from fulfilling her ambition as an astronaut.
A voracious reader since beginning to read at three, she had always intended to write fiction, and, now retired, dedicates her whole life - when not spending time with her husband, family, and chinchilla - to exploring the concepts of integrity in relationships, and the psychological questions of why people do what they do and make the choices they make, including their life partners.
A homeschooler by accident when illness derailed her working life’s plan, her life-long dedication to the sciences aided in the development of three STEM children with a love of language.
She has dedicated the past twenty some years to learning to write to the standards of the early classics she was steeped in, as she believes that messages in fiction must be surrounded by the utmost in quality entertainment, and that fiction is the most powerful tool we have to slipping through the barriers we put up around our hearts and our minds.
As a writer, she’s published traditionally in short story. She's been featured on Wattpad, where her story Too Late has received 63.7K reads, and where her debut novel Pride's Children: PURGATORY was serialized and currently has 19.7K reads.
When she's not writing, you can find her enjoying the hummingbirds in her garden of perennials designed for them, or singing.
She is hard at work on the next novel in the Pride's Children trilogy, working title NETHERWORLD, scheduled for publication later this year. Follow her on Amazon or at prideschildren.wordpress.com to be informed when her next story is available.
Discover more about her opinionated opinions and quirky writing methods on her writing blog, at liebjabberings.wordpress.com."
I've not read through it yet but my first thought is that it's a bit long.
Yes, it's a little long, Alicia, and I think you could cut out things that people don't need to know such as how many reads your stories have had on Wattpad. Readers probably don't know what Wattpad is, writers do, but this bio is presumably for readers more than writers. Also, I know how prestigious Princeton is, and I am immediately impressed, and here on Goodreads (predominately American) you don't need to say where it is but if you want a world-wide audience, you need to tell them that you live in the USA and then you can add the State and the University if you feel it helps establish your credentials as a writer.
Your bio works for GR but please spread yourself to a wider readership and allow your blog link to entice people to find out the details if they wish.
An astronaut - wow! What fun that would have been (yes, I know, and interesting and hard work!).
I pass on my thoughts for your consideration - I'm trying to write my own bio and I have the opposite problem, I leave nearly everything out so I am very, very far from being an expert opinion!
Patti (baconater) wrote: "I've not read through it yet but my first thought is that it's a bit long."My guess is that most people will not read it at all, and a few people will read 'above the fold' - what is visible on Amazon without clicking 'Read more,' and very occasionally someone will read the whole thing.
So I'm going to see what needs to get cut, and what is visible, and reread the suggestions ('too long' is a suggestion) - finish it off and call it done.
Digital is interesting; and even if you sell print books, if you're on Amazon you're selling digitally, and people will see certain things if they get to the page, even if they don't click.
Anna wrote: "Yes, it's a little long, Alicia, and I think you could cut out things that people don't need to know such as how many reads your stories have had on Wattpad. Readers probably don't know what Wattpa..."First, thanks for reading, Anna. Much appreciated.
I'll think about what you have said re Wattpad. I have NO outward credentials at this point, and I've noticed I rarely know the awards mentioned on author's bios (except, of course, if someone has a Pulitzer or one of the well-known major awards). You and I know what Wattpad is (and that grownup writers are relatively rare there), but other people may just think, 'Wattpad? I've heard of it,' and not bother tracking it down. It was, oddly enough, a very supportive environment while I was finishing - and I needed one then.
Everything is good for someone, bad for someone else. Which is where another bit came in: who is in the audience I think will like Pride's Children?
There are huge numbers of readers in the world; most of them will neither read nor appreciate Jane Eyre. But the ones who do are in my intended audience. Does that make sense? I can't/won't change myself or my book, but I can not try to be so universal that I'll attract people who think it is something else - and leave me a 2* review because it isn't! (I have one - she was lovely and civil and didn't like PC.)
The author bio is part of the advertising to your 'tribe.' Both in content and in saying, 'I know what we like.' All authors do this, intentionally or not, sending out a signal to people who might like their books, and trying not to encourage the ones who won't. Sales to the wrong people for a book are not desirable! PC takes a bit of a commitment, and a comfort with a certain class of book.
Without a publisher in the middle, I have more control over this. But without a publisher in the middle, I have to do it myself.
Just as a tiny example: my intended audience, worldwide, knows perfectly well what Princeton is - which is why it went into the bio. Just the same as Americans of a certain reading level and education have all heard of Oxford and Cambridge and Eton. People know what they like to read.
And this revisiting of the Author Page, etc., comes in the weeks before a big campaign in the Princeton Alumni Weekly summer reading issue - and some of those readers may actually go read the bio. I can always change it again later!
I had myself paralyzed with all this thinking; now some of it is loosened up.
Thanks again for your thoughtful appraisal.
Patti (baconater) wrote: "What's a STEM child?"Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. An Americanism? I was pointing out that the cloning of the parents was semi-successful.
My husband was the science (physics and chemistry) teacher at a STEM academy; there is a lot lately about developing careers in STEM (that's where all those necessary computer scientists come from). Both my boys are on the programming side of life, and my daughter's artistic side won out over her engineering side halfway through her education (so she will always have that technical side when she needs it).I'm a geek who reads. Not all geeks read. Many are terrible writers - of anything, including User manuals for the programs they write (note: most things have online help now, not manuals, so I guess the non-writers won). Not too many geeks write, and not many of those don't write science fiction.
It's a curse. There are so many things I could do - if I could do anything any more.
I am vastly fortunate that I love writing - because I can still do it. I think I would have ended up a writer anyway. But STEM is where the innovation in consumer products comes from which provides all that good stuff for writers. I can't imagine not having the technology which makes my writing possible. I'm from the day where if you dropped your stack of BASIC or FORTRAN punched cards on the way to running them through the card reader, you were out of luck!
Instead, I've gone almost completely paperless. Except for the insurance companies, of course, which are also the only ones who still use faxes (in my world).
The key reason: what I have on my computer is searchable. What I have in my dozens of notebooks from when I started writing is not. I can't beat that.
Nor me. I thought it was some kind of mutant stem cell clone baby . . .
Tim wrote: "Nor me. I thought it was some kind of mutant stem cell clone baby . . ."Well, there is that, too. They're kind of weird, in a nice way.
I am rethinking due to comments, and absorbing the feedback - and it is much appreciated. I live in my own little world, where all of this stuff makes perfect sense.
I've come across STEM here in the UK, mostly used by journalists, but I often have to stop and think what each letter stands for, which stops the flow.And you don't want to stop our flow, Alicia! We might not continue.
I can't stop my flow. Specially at 4am.
Best to see your GP then ! :-)
Or look up some pelvic floor exercises...
Patti (baconater) wrote: "KEGEL!!!!"Wasn't he a philosopher?
Okay, y'all - you made your point. Don't put stuff in there that might stop the flow - unless that'w what you want.GL, you're thinking of Hegel.
I shall use 'techie' or 'nerd' or geek' to represent the desirable IT state of my little darlings.
Well I was only 1 letter out.
She has dedicated the past twenty some years to learning to write to the standards of the early classics she was steeped in, as she believes that messages in fiction must be surrounded by the utmost in quality entertainment, and that fiction is the most powerful tool we have to slipping through the barriers we put up around our hearts and our minds.Ummm...
Makes me think of tea and fences.
Alicia wrote: "Okay, y'all - you made your point. Don't put stuff in there that might stop the flow - unless that'w what you want.GL, you're thinking of Hegel.."
or Kant.
Which - necessarily- leads to:
https://youtu.be/l9SqQNgDrgg
Just had a look at mine - it's blessedly short!Kath Middleton began her writing with drabbles (100 words stories) and contributed a number to Jonathan Hill’s second drabble collection. It wasn’t long before she moved up a size to contribute short stories to anthologies. Shortly afterwards, she progressed to writing longer pieces and her first solo work, Ravenfold, was published to much acclaim. This was followed by the novella, Message in a Bottle. Several more books are in the pipeline and her first novel, Top Banana, was published in March 2015. In March 2016 she and Jonathan Hill published Is it Her - two novellas inspired by a painting. Kath likes to put her characters in difficult situations and watch them work their way out. She believes in the indomitable nature of the human spirit (and chickens).
Kath is retired. She graduated in geology and has a certificate in archaeology. When she's in a hole, she doesn't stop digging.
Mine's pretty short too.Tim Arnot claims to remember the Sixties, although that almost certainly means he wasn't there. In his defence though, he does claim to have been very small. He had a college education from which he spectacularly failed to get any qualifications at all. But that didn't stop him from going on to be a successful writer of programs for computers and apps for iThings (if you buy a train ticket in the UK from one of those touchy-feely machines, there's a good chance that Tim wrote the software inside it - unless it screwed up, in which case it was someone else).
At school, his teachers described him as "Quite good at English."
Tim lives in Oxfordshire with his kindle and a collection of iThings.
These tell you all you need to know - that Tim and I are the sort of people you should back away from and not sit next to on the train.
Thats is, if you have even been able to buy a ticket for said train!
Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Thats is, if you have even been able to buy a ticket for said train!"Then you must have used the other company's machines . . . ;)
I didn't realise you were such an ithingy geek, Tim!How lovely! You're now my go-to guy! You poor sod.
Kath and Tim, I love the touch of humour in your's.
Be informative without actually telling them anything -- that's my motto! ;)
Kath wrote: "She graduated in geology and has a certificate in archaeology. When she's in a hole, she doesn't stop digging."Love your last line - I never stop digging until I get what I went digging for.
Tim wrote: "Mine's pretty short too.Tim Arnot claims to remember the Sixties, although that almost certainly means he wasn't there. In his defence though, he does claim to have been very small. He had a coll..."
I remember the 60s! I was there! I was a Paul girl (though the British revolution penetrated more slowly in Mexico - I never got to be one of the screaming kind, not that I am the screaming kind).
Kath wrote: "These tell you all you need to know - that Tim and I are the sort of people you should back away from and not sit next to on the train."It also tells us your books will be FUN.
Tim wrote: "Be informative without actually telling them anything -- that's my motto! ;)"Can't do that if you're going to be a SERIOUS writer.
I was going to do this all pseudonymously (that word looks wrong, but the dictionary claims it's right). I was going to be the great unknown. Then I realized I don't have the energy to maintain the illusion.
Maybe if I had been traditionally published... and they did all the work of pretending I was someone else.
Hard to self-promote from a fake identity. Possible, just hard.
Then I realized that no matter how hard I try, I'll never be a rock star, and most people don't even know what J.K. Rowling looks like (I don't, and I've seen her picture several times).
Tim wrote: "Be informative without actually telling them anything -- that's my motto! ;)"But why? Are you afraid they might actually like you and read you because of that?
Are you or are you not proud of your writing?
There is a point where you have to say, "Yes. I am the Queen of England." (assuming you are)
When are you going to admit you write?
That was, for me, the advantage of having a blog: I got over being shy - at the blog level - after writing a number of posts and having lovely chats with people. When I started thinking seriously that I'd be able to self-publish, back in 2011 (I didn't publish until OCT. 2015), I was literally scared of speaking up online.
I did it anyway, and the results were utterly boring - not nearly as scary as I thought they would be. Some of the people I've shared commenting with have actually bought a book. Wonders never cease.
Mine used to be:A bloke who writes stuff.
Also likes toast.
It is a bit longer than that now, but not by much.
Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Well I was only 1 letter out."You did GOOD.
David wrote: "Mine used to be:A bloke who writes stuff.
Also likes toast.
It is a bit longer than that now, but not by much."
But is that going to reassure a reader looking for a reason to try your work.
After all is said and done, if they don't click 'buy,' you haven't made a sale. And maybe they were looking for a reason to.
It's all advertising, and advertising doesn't make sense. So the bio has to go for the emotions - and give the potential buyer a reason to go forward, some small connection.
I like toast too. So I am now going to look at David's bio and see if I fancy reading one of his books - there is your small connection.If you can establish common-ground with your readers, it has to be a good thing. (Anyone want a fairly well-intentioned dragon in their 21st century lives?)
But I also love the idea that an author has done something out of the ordinary - so you definitely have to keep in 'nuclear engineering' and 'astronaut' because I, for one, find that fascinating.
Elizabeth wrote: "I like toast too. So I am now going to look at David's bio and see if I fancy reading one of his books - there is your small connection.If you can establish common-ground with your readers, it ha..."
Not strictly necessary to have common ground - except love of a good story - but yes.
IF a reader has gotten as far as the author bio without making a decision to buy, it is one of your last chances to get the elusive 'Yes!' Both to the buy, and to the connection that says, 'this reader and I have a common humanity.'
It isn't necessary to make a connection with, say, Terry Pratchett, to enjoy his work - but I remember feeling that tiny connection when it was announced that he was fading. And feeling regret.
Alicia wrote: "David wrote: "Mine used to be:A bloke who writes stuff.
Also likes toast.
It is a bit longer than that now, but not by much."
But is that going to reassure a reader looking for a reason to try your work."
I don't know.
I know I don't pay much attention to the about the author thingies that much. Usually only after I've read the book and liked it.
After all, why would I care about an author and want to know about them unless I like their book in the first place?
David wrote: "why would I care about an author and want to know about them unless I like their book in the first place? "True - for most readers. Several have said they go looking for the bio if they like the book, but not before.
But that still means a few readers want to see a bio. And if they see it on Amazon, for example, they can decide to Follow - and will find out automatically the next time you publish something.
Every little bit helps.
Alicia wrote: "Every little bit helps. "You are probably right.
It is me, not everyone else.
Until I started this self-publishing lark, I never bothered with blurbs, author bios, reader reviews or covers for books. So it is all mostly new territory for me.
I still wonder though how many people look at the home page, the bio or whatever of people they follow on social media. I know I don't very often.
And if it is true that readers pick books by the covers, and authors and publishers believe this to be true, then they will put books into those covers regardless of the fit and then people will learn - over time - that picking books by the cover is not a good idea.
But that is a whole nother argument.
I rarely read an author bio before I buy a book but I will often read one after I've read a particularly good or bad book.But, I often look at people's profiles here on Goodreads and I enjoy finding out about the person behind the posts.
You are unique.
You can say you're on the exciting side of XX (instead of middle-aged).
You can say why you're happily married - that's always interesting (and differs for each couple, as the annoyances of another person are unique).
You can say what kind of dogs you like/have - and why.
And you can dig through your fantasies to see what you have wanted that was special - and your memories for the happiest one - and your regrets for the biggest one you want to share.