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Writing Your Author Bio? Here Are 20 Great Examples. (Plus a Checklist!)

October 15, 2020 by Diana Urban

Writing your author bio can be a daunting task, but a well-crafted bio can help readers learn more about what makes you and your books so interesting. You should regularly maintain your bio on places like your BookBub Author Profile so fans and potential readers seeking you out can learn more about you and why they should pick up your latest book.

Stuck on what to include? While there is no one-size-fits-all formula, here are some examples of author bios we love so you can get some inspiration when crafting your own bio. We’ve also created an Author Biography Checklist with recommendations on what to include, as well as where to keep your author bio up to date online.

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1. Ramona Emerson

Ramona Emerson is a Diné writer and filmmaker originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. She has a bachelor’s in Media Arts from the University of New Mexico and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. After starting in forensic videography, she embarked upon a career as a photographer, writer, and editor. She is an Emmy nominee, a Sundance Native Lab Fellow, a Time-Warner Storyteller Fellow, a Tribeca All-Access Grantee and a WGBH Producer Fellow. In 2020, Emerson was appointed to the Governor’s Council on Film and Media Industries for the State of New Mexico. She currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she and her husband, the producer Kelly Byars, run their production company Reel Indian Pictures. Shutter is her first novel.

Why we love it: Ramona makes a splash as a new author by detailing her extensive experience in both writing and filmmaking. Her background makes an effective setup for her debut novel about a forensic photographer.

2. Courtney Milan

Courtney Milan writes books about carriages, corsets, and smartwatches. Her books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly , Library Journal , and Booklist . She is a New York Times and a USA Today Bestseller. Courtney pens a weekly newsletter about tea, books, and basically anything and everything else. Sign up for it here: https://bit.ly/CourtneysTea Before she started writing romance, Courtney got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from UC Berkeley. After that, just to shake things up, she went to law school at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude. Then she did a handful of clerkships. She was a law professor for a while. She now writes full-time. Courtney is represented by Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency.

Why we love it: Courtney concisely leads with her accolades and bestseller status before diving into more personal information with a witty tone. She also includes a call-to-action for readers to sign up to Weekly Tea, one of her mailing lists.

3. Adam Silvera

Adam Silvera is the number one New York Times bestselling author of More Happy Than Not , History Is All You Left Me , They Both Die at the End , Infinity Son , Infinity Reaper , and—with Becky Albertalli— What If It’s Us . He was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut. Adam was born and raised in the Bronx. He was a bookseller before shifting to children’s publishing and has worked at a literary development company and a creative writing website for teens and as a book reviewer of children’s and young adult novels. He is tall for no reason and lives in Los Angeles. Visit him online at www.adamsilvera.com .

Why we love it: Adam begins his bio with his bestseller accolades and a list of his popular titles. But we especially love how he also includes his previous experience in children’s literature. It’s a fantastic way an author can craft a unique and credible bio using information besides accolades or bestseller status.

4. Farrah Rochon

USA Today Bestselling author Farrah Rochon hails from a small town just west of New Orleans. She has garnered much acclaim for her Crescent City-set Holmes Brothers series and her Moments in Maplesville small town series. Farrah is a two-time finalist for the prestigious RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America and has been nominated for an RT BOOKReviews Reviewers Choice Award. In 2015, she received the Emma Award for Author of the Year. When she is not writing in her favorite coffee shop, Farrah spends most of her time reading, cooking, traveling the world, visiting Walt Disney World, and catching her favorite Broadway shows. An admitted sports fanatic, she feeds her addiction to football by watching New Orleans Saints games on Sunday afternoons. Keep in touch with Farrah via the web: Website: https://www.farrahrochon.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/farrahrochonauthor Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/FarrahRochon Instagram: https://instagram.com/farrahrochon/ Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2povjuZ Join my online Fan Club, the Rochonettes! https://www.facebook.com/groups/FarrahRochon/ Farrah’s Books In Order: The Holmes Brothers Deliver Me (Mar. 2007) Release Me (May 2008) Rescue Me (Jan. 2009) Chase Me (Jan. 2017) Trust Me (May 2017) Awaken Me (Jan. 2018) Cherish Me (Jun. 2018) Return To Me (Aug. 2019) New York Sabers Huddle With Me Tonight (Sept. 2010) I’ll Catch You (Mar. 2011) Field of Pleasure (Sept. 2011) Pleasure Rush (Mar. 2012) Bayou Dreams A Forever Kind of Love (Aug. 2012) Always and Forever (Jan. 2013) Yours Forever (Mar. 2014) Forever’s Promise (Apr. 2014) Forever With You (Feb. 2015) Stay With Me Forever (Aug. 2015) Moments in Maplesville A Perfect Holiday Fling (Nov. 2012) A Little Bit Naughty (Mar. 2013) Just A Little Taste (Jan. 2014) I Dare You! (Nov. 2014) All You Can Handle (June 2015) Any Way You Want It (Feb. 2016) Any Time You Need Me (June 2016) Standalones In Her Wildest Dreams (Jan. 2012) The Rebound Guy (July 2012) Delectable Desire (Apr. 2013) Runaway Attraction (Nov. 2013) A Mistletoe Affari (Nov. 2014) Passion’s Song (Feb. 2016) Mr. Right Next Door (Sept. 2016) Anthologies A Change of Heart (The Holiday Inn Anthology – Sept. 2008) No Ordinary Gift (Holiday Brides Anthology – Oct. 2009) Holiday Spice (Holiday Temptation Anthology – Sept. 2016) Christmas Kisses (Reissue–Contains Tuscan Nights and Second-Chance Christmas previously published by Harlequin Kimani

Why we love it: Farrah packs a lot of information into that first paragraph, elegantly describing the awards she’s received and has been nominated for. We also love how she makes it easy for readers to find her on whichever social media platform they prefer and to discover which book to start with for each series.

5. Angie Fox

New York Times bestselling author Angie Fox writes sweet, fun, action-packed mysteries. Her characters are clever and fearless, but in real life, Angie is afraid of basements, bees, and going up stairs when it is dark behind her. Let’s face it. Angie wouldn’t last five minutes in one of her books. Angie is best known for her Southern Ghost Hunter mysteries and for her Accidental Demon Slayer books. Visit her at www.angiefox.com

Why we love it: We love how Angie distinguishes herself from her characters, making herself relatable to readers. She also mentions her bestseller status and best-known works in a humble way.

6. Tiffany D. Jackson

Tiffany D. Jackson is the critically acclaimed author of Allegedly , Monday’s Not Coming , and Let Me Hear a Rhyme . A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book and Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, she received her bachelor of arts in film from Howard University, earned her master of arts in media studies from the New School, and has over a decade in TV and film experience. The Brooklyn native still resides in the borough she loves. You can visit her at www.writeinbk.com .

Why we love it: This is an excellent example of a short, concise bio — a perfect snippet for journalists, bloggers, or event coordinators who need to grab Tiffany’s bio for their article or programming.

7. Kwame Alexander

Kwame Alexander is the New York Times Bestselling author of 32 books, including The Undefeated ; How to Read a Book ; Solo ; Swing ; Rebound , which was shortlisted for prestigious Carnegie Medal; and his Newbery medal-winning middle grade novel, The Crossover . He’s also the founding editor of Versify, an imprint that aims to Change the World One Word at a Time. Visit him at KwameAlexander.com

Why we love it: We adore how Kwame calls out his aim to “change the world one word at a time” along with a handful of his best-known books. Short and sweet!

8. Glynnis Campbell

For deals, steals, and new releases from Glynnis, click FOLLOW on this BookBub page! Glynnis Campbell is a USA Today bestselling author of over two dozen swashbuckling action-adventure historical romances, mostly set in Scotland, and a charter member of The Jewels of Historical Romance — 12 internationally beloved authors. She’s the wife of a rock star and the mother of two young adults, but she’s also been a ballerina, a typographer, a film composer, a piano player, a singer in an all-girl rock band, and a voice in those violent video games you won’t let your kids play. Doing her best writing on cruise ships, in Scottish castles, on her husband’s tour bus, and at home in her sunny southern California garden, Glynnis loves to play medieval matchmaker… transporting readers to a place where the bold heroes have endearing flaws, the women are stronger than they look, the land is lush and untamed, and chivalry is alive and well! Want a FREE BOOK? Sign up for her newsletter at https://www.glynnis.net Tag along on her latest adventures here: Website: https://www.glynnis.net Facebook: bit.ly/GCReadersClan Goodreads: bit.ly/GlynnisGoodreads Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/GlynnisCampbell Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GlynnisCampbell Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/GlynnisCampbell BOOK LIST: The Warrior Maids of Rivenloch: THE SHIPWRECK A YULETIDE KISS LADY DANGER CAPTIVE HEART KNIGHT’S PRIZE The Warrior Daughters of Rivenloch: THE STORMING A RIVENLOCH CHRISTMAS BRIDE OF FIRE BRIDE OF ICE BRIDE OF MIST The Knights of de Ware: THE HANDFASTING MY CHAMPION MY WARRIOR MY HERO Medieval Outlaws: THE REIVER DANGER’S KISS PASSION’S EXILE DESIRE’S RANSOM Scottish Lasses: THE OUTCAST MacFARLAND’S LASS MacADAM’S LASS MacKENZIE’S LASS California Legends: THE STOWAWAY NATIVE GOLD NATIVE WOLF NATIVE HAWK

Why we love it: Like other authors, Glynnis leads with her bestseller status, but not before making sure readers know to follow her on BookBub! We like how her personality shines through in her all-caps calls to action and that she includes the characteristics of her books in a fun way so readers will know what to expect from her work.

9. Laurelin Paige

Laurelin Paige is the NY Times , Wall Street Journal , and USA Today bestselling author of the Fixed Trilogy . She’s a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there’s kissing, much to the embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn’t seem to complain, however. When she isn’t reading or writing sexy stories, she’s probably singing, watching edgy black comedy on Netflix or dreaming of Michael Fassbender. She’s also a proud member of Mensa International though she doesn’t do anything with the organization except use it as material for her bio. You can connect with Laurelin on Facebook at facebook.com/LaurelinPaige or on twitter @laurelinpaige. You can also visit her website, laurelinpaige.com , to sign up for emails about new releases. Subscribers also receive a free book from a different bestselling author every month.

Why we love it: We love Laurelin’s bio because she lets her fun personality shine through! She also includes information about a monthly giveaway she runs through her mailing list, which is enticing and unique.

10. Mia Sosa

Mia Sosa is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary romance and romantic comedies. Her books have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly , Kirkus Reviews , Booklist , and Library Journal , and have been praised by Cosmopolitan , The Washington Post , Buzzfeed , Entertainment Weekly , and more. Book Riot included her debut, Unbuttoning the CEO , in its list of 100 Must-Read Romantic Comedies, and Booklist recently called her “the new go-to author for fans of sassy and sexy contemporary romances.” A former First Amendment and media lawyer, Mia practiced for more than a decade before trading her suits for loungewear (okay, okay, they’re sweatpants). Now she strives to write fun and flirty stories about imperfect characters finding their perfect match. Mia lives in Maryland with her husband, their two daughters, and an adorable dog that rules them all. For more information about Mia and her books, visit www.miasosa.com .

Why we love it: This is such a well-constructed bio, with a paragraph for each (1) listing accolades and praise from trade reviews, (2) including a blurb about Mia’s overall author brand, (3) describing her previous work experience and how she became an author, and (4) sharing personal information and directing readers to where they could learn more.

11. Aiden Thomas

Aiden Thomas is a trans, Latinx, New York Times Bestselling Author with an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. Originally from Oakland, California, they now make their home in Portland, OR. Aiden is notorious for not being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and organizes their bookshelves by color. Their books include Cemetery Boys and Lost in the Never Woods .

Why we love it: A well-known advocate of diverse books, Aiden leads with their identity markers to connect right away with readers of similar identities. The rest of their concise bio fits information about their bestseller status, education, location, personality, and popular titles into just a few short sentences!

12. Wayne Stinnett

Wayne Stinnett is an American novelist and Veteran of the United States Marine Corps. Between those careers, he’s worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, divemaster, taxi driver, construction manager, and over the road truck driver, among many other things. He now lives on a sea island, in the South Carolina Lowcountry, with his wife and youngest daughter. They also have three grown children, five grand children, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. Stinnett grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico. His next dream is to one day visit and dive Cuba.

Why we love it: What better way to introduce an author of novels about travel, seafaring, and military adventures than to share his first-hand experiences! By weaving in relevant professional background and a glimpse of his home life by the sea, Wayne demonstrates deep knowledge of his subjects to his readers, as well as connecting with them on a personal level by describing his family and goals for the future.

13. June Hur

June Hur was born in South Korea and raised in Canada, except for the time when she moved back to Korea and attended high school there. She studied History and Literature at the University of Toronto. She began writing her debut novel after obsessing over books about Joseon Korea. When she’s not writing, she can be found wandering through nature or journaling at a coffee shop. June is the bestselling author of The Silence of Bones , The Forest of Stolen Girls , and The Red Palace , and currently lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter.

Why we love it: We love how June includes her background and what inspired her writing. Sharing a story’s origins is a wonderful way to meaningfully connect with readers.

14. Claire Delacroix

Bestselling author Claire Delacroix published her first medieval romance in 1993. Since then, she has published over seventy romance novels and numerous novellas, including time travel romances, contemporary romances and paranormal romances. The Beauty , part of her successful Bride Quest series, was her first book to land on the New York Times list of bestselling books. Claire has written under the name Claire Cross and continues to write as Deborah Cooke as well as Claire Delacroix. Claire makes her home in Canada with her family, a large undisciplined garden and a growing number of incomplete knitting projects. Sign up for Claire’s monthly medieval romance newsletter at: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/622ca9849b7136a9e313df83 Visit Claire’s website to find out more about her books at http://delacroix.net

Why we love it: While Claire has an extensive backlist, she succinctly describes her publishing success and subgenres. She also includes all of her pen names so readers can easily find her, no matter which name they’re looking for.

15. Vanessa Riley

Vanessa Riley writes Historical Fiction and Historical Romance (Georgian, Regency, & Victorian) featuring hidden histories, dazzling multi-culture communities, and strong sisterhoods. She promises to pull heart strings, offer a few laughs, and share tidbits of tantalizing history. This Southern, Irish, Trini (West Indies) girl holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and a MS in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. She also earned a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University. Yet, her love of history and lattes have overwhelmed her passion for math, leading to the publication of over 20+ titles. She loves writing on her southern porch with proper caffeine.

Why we love it: Vanessa launches into her bio by sharing the specific time periods she writes in, as well as the diverse characters and emotions her readers can look forward to, appealing directly to her ideal audience . She then shares a bit of personal info, leaving readers with an image of her in her element: writing on a porch while sipping tea.

16. April White

April White has been a film producer, private investigator, bouncer, teacher and screenwriter. She has climbed in the Himalayas, survived a shipwreck, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. She and her husband share their home in Southern California with two extraordinary boys and a lifetime collection of books. Her first novel, Marking Time , is the 2016 winner of the Library Journal Indie E-Book Award for YA Literature, and her contemporary romantic suspense, Code of Conduct , was a Next Generation Indie Award and RONE Award Finalist. All five books in the Immortal Descendants series are on the Amazon Top 100 lists in Time Travel Romance and Historical Fantasy. More information and her blog can be found at www.aprilwhitebooks.com .

Why we love it: April’s bio is short and sweet, but is packed with interesting information. She was a private investigator and survived a shipwreck? How can you not want to learn more about this author? She also elegantly includes her books’ status and subgenre in the last paragraph, along with a call-to-action for readers to learn more.

17. Julia Quinn

#1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn loves to dispel the myth that smart women don’t read (or write) romance, and if you watch reruns of the game show The Weakest Link you might just catch her winning the $79,000 jackpot. She displayed a decided lack of knowledge about baseball, country music, and plush toys, but she is proud to say that she aced all things British and literary, answered all of her history and geography questions correctly, and knew that there was a Da Vinci long before there was a code. On December 25, 2020, Netflix premiered Bridgerton , based on her popular series of novels about the Bridgerton family. Find her on the web at www.juliaquinn.com .

Why we love it: Julia takes a unique approach, making her bio more voicey and focused on her interests. Yet she keeps it up to date, including her latest news in the last sentence (above the call-to-action).

18. Rick Mofina

USA Today bestselling author Rick Mofina is a former journalist who has interviewed murderers on death row, flown over L.A. with the LAPD and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He’s also reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait’s border with Iraq. His books have been published in nearly 30 countries, including an illegal translation produced in Iran. His work has been praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, Sandra Brown, James Rollins, Brad Thor, Nick Stone, David Morrell, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Linwood Barclay, Peter Robinson, Håkan Nesser and Kay Hooper. The Crime Writers of Canada, The International Thriller Writers and The Private Eye Writers of America have listed his titles among the best in crime fiction. As a two-time winner of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award, a four-time Thriller Award finalist and a two-time Shamus Award finalist, the Library Journal calls him, “One of the best thriller writers in the business.” Join Rick Mofina’s newsletter from his website and receive a free eBook! You can also find Rick Mofina’s new exclusive serialized thriller, The Dying Light , by subscribing to Radish Fiction com For more information please visit www.rickmofina.com https://www.facebook.com/rickmofina or follow Rick on Twitter @Rick Mofina

Why we love it: Including Rick’s first-hand experiences as a journalist lends him credibility in his genres of Crime Fiction and Thrillers. He also includes a list of well-known authors who have praised his work, and these endorsements may encourage those authors’ fans to give Rick a try. The free ebook offer effectively sweetens the deal!

19. J.T. Ellison

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A Word on Words . She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker. With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, been optioned for television, and has been published in 28 countries. J.T. lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens, where she is hard at work on her next novel.

Why we love it: This is a great example of a concise bio suitable for use in any blog or publication. J.T. keeps to just the essential ingredients of a professional author bio: accolades, genres, experience, and a bit of what she’s up to today for a personal touch.

20. James S.A. Corey

James S.A. Corey is the pen name for a collaboration between Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. James is Daniel’s middle name, Corey is Ty’s middle name, and S.A. are Daniel’s daughter’s initials. James’ current project is a series of science fiction novels called The Expanse Series. They are also the authors of Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars (Empire and Rebellion).

Why we love it: We love co-author bios that reveal how the duo came up with their pseudonym as a fun fact for readers! We also like that the reminder of this bio simply points readers straight to their buzziest works.

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Click to tweet: If you’re writing your author bio, these examples are so helpful! #writetip #pubtip http://bit.ly/1OSBcDO

Click to tweet: Make sure to keep your author bio updated! Here are some great bio examples, PLUS a printable checklist of what to include and where to keep it up to date. #amwriting http://bit.ly/1OSBcDO

This post was originally published on October 15 2015 and has been updated with new examples and a PDF checklist!

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Last updated on Feb 24, 2022

How to Write a Killer Author Bio (With Template)

An author bio is a brief passage, usually about a paragraph , that introduces an author and sums up their work, their authorly credentials, and anything else their readers might need to know about them. 

While author bios may seem like an afterthought, or something to fill up the backmatter of your book , it’s actually an unassuming but valuable piece of copy. Done well, an author bio can give you credibility and introduce your readers to your other works. It can also be used in other promotional or publishing materials, as former Penguin Random House marketer Rachel Cone-Gorham explains:

“An author bio is something that will let readers get a sense of who you are, and is an important part for pitching media and book proposals.” 

For this reason, it’s important to get your bio right. Here is a 4-step process for writing your author bio:

1. Start with the facts readers need to know

2. open up with relevant biographical details, 3. wow them with your credentials, 4. finish it off with a personal touch.

Start your bio with an opening byline that quickly summarizes your profile, plus your most recent release. In a world full of skimmers, some readers may not get past the first couple of lines of your bio, so it’s important to frontload the essentials. 

For instance, a byline might read:

“Jane Doe is a Professor of Anthropology at UCLA and author of Insights Into Our Past: Tracing the Legacy of Intergenerational Trauma in 19th Century America .”

“Jane Doe is a poet, writer, and author of the new novel We Were Already There .”

If your work has won any prestigious awards or earned bestseller status, make sure to mention that here, too.

The great part about writing a one-liner as your opener is that it can double as a short bio for guest articles, social media, etc. — all of which can be a valuable part of your book publicity plan . 

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Example: An attention grabbing intro

Novelist and short story writer Brandon Taylor's whole bio is great, but check out his heavy hitting first sentence that instantly tells you everything you really need to know:

If you’re stuck for words, you can use his bio, and other great “ About the Author ” examples for inspiration. 

RESOURCE: Your free author bio template

FREE RESOURCE

Grab our Author Bio Template

Use this to write an awesome “about me” in less than 5 minutes.

Your author bio is, naturally, a chance for you to introduce yourself, but it’s also an opportunity for you to introduce readers to your body of work, and share a little about your writing history. If you have other titles that you’ve released previously, now’s the time to mention them.

You may also want to include any personal connections to your work, and signpost why they’re relevant. For instance:

With over a decade of writing obituaries for the local paper, Jane has a uniquely wry voice that shines through in her newest collection of essays, which explore the importance we place on legacy.

A professionally trained electrician, Jane has spent the last decade reading and writing romance novels giving her characters a palpable spark! Her latest work is the sequel to her debut novel, In the Arms of a Stranger .

Have an author bio already, but want a second opinion on it? Take our quick quiz to see if it checks off all of the boxes.

Let us grade your author bio

Find out if your author bio is a 10/10. Takes one minute.

Top Tip: Write in the third person

Despite the fact that an author often writes or approves their own bio, it should be written in the third person — ‘they’ rather than ‘I’. Not only is this the industry standard, it also makes it easier to toot your own horn, which you should definitely be doing here.

Example: An author’s lived experience

One great example of a bio that shares biographical details is author Niyati Tamaskar , whose memoir Unafraid draws on her own experiences of cancer and the cultural baggage surrounding it. You can learn more about Niyati and her publishing story here .

Niyati Tamaskar is a mother, engineer, entrepreneur, public speaker, and author. She speaks on issues of cultural bias, the stigma of cancer, and more. Her speaking and media appearances include her signature TEDx talk, a cover and feature spread in Columbus magazine on her journey and message of destigmatizing cancer, and a video created by Breastcancer.org on “How Niyati Tamaskar Overcame Cultural Cancer Stigma to Become an Advocate”—aimed at highlighting the minority experience while facing cancer.

An important job of an “About the Author” section is to boost your credentials, says editor Rachel: “You want to show your qualifications and credibility so that a reader will feel validated in choosing your book to read.”

That being said, it’s not a good idea to start listing every softball trophy you won in middle school. Only stick to credentials that directly relate to the content of your book. According to Rachel, “Qualifications can include writing courses, college degrees, awards, bestseller lists, and accolades or, for fiction authors, even a lifetime of interest.” Here are a few of her examples:

Jane has an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College, and was the recipient of the Vermont College creative writing award.

Jane is a historian at Vermont College and has spent over a decade researching World War 2.

Jane has traveled extensively around Eastern Europe, learning about the history of the region and walking the paths of her characters.

For non-fiction authors, your credentials are incredibly relevant as readers are far more likely to trust an authority on a subject, while fiction authors can focus more on why they write in a specific genre.

Book marketing consultant Rob Eagar suggests that another way to boost your credibility is to “to weave in any endorsements you may have received from well-known outlets… Readers pay more attention to authors with a proven track record.”

For example:

[Famous author] says Jane Doe is a unique new voice in the thriller genre.

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Example: Amanda Ripley’s expert qualifications

One author using their credentials to their best advantage is non-fiction author Amanda Ripley. Check out her “About the Author”: 

Top tip: Keep it short

A good author bio is efficient beyond just the first line, as book launch specialist Joel Pitney suggests:

“People don't want to read long bios! Keep it under 300 words. Only include relevant materials and be as succinct as possible. If you've won a lot of awards, for example, only include the most impressive ones. Same goes if you’ve published a couple of books; only include your most successful three.”

Author bios are not a place for you to delve into a lengthy explanation of your history. However, you also don’t want your bio to be devoid of any personality. Adding a bit of color to your bio helps readers imagine who you are. Plus, if they can relate to you, it might be an extra push for them to buy your book. 

That’s why Joel Pitney suggests: “If there's room, and it's relevant, you can add some color, like where you live or something interesting that might not obviously relate to your writing career, but that makes you a more interesting person.”

This can be done subtly, like by referring to your location in your byline: 

“New-York based psychologist, Jane Doe…”

Or you can include a brief illustration of your lifestyle, says Rachel: “Jane lives and works out of her home at the base of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and spends her summers hiking and camping with her two children and husband.”

Finally, marketing consultant Rob suggests closing out with a quippy-one liner that illustrates what kind of writer you are. “If your writing is known for its humor, let it show in your bio.” For example:

Jane hopes to write her next novel soon, if she can stop reading other people's novels instead.

Example: Natalie Barelli’s chatty tone

Check out fiction writer Natalie Barelli’s bio for an example of personalization done right: 

Natalie Barelli can usually be found reading a book, and that book will more likely than not be a psychological thriller. Writing a novel was always on her bucket list, and eventually, with Until I Met Her, it became a reality. After He Killed Me is the second and final book in her Emma Fern Series. When not absorbed in the latest gripping page-turner, Natalie loves cooking, knits very badly, enjoys riding her Vespa around town, and otherwise spends far too much time at the computer. She lives in Australia, with her husband and extended family.

An author bio is unique to the writer, so everyone’s will look different — but by following our 4-step process and using the author bio template, you’ll include everything you need to maximize your chances of winning over readers.

And if you’re looking for more inspiration on how to build your online presence, check out more examples of the “ About the Author ” section or our course on how to build an author mailing list:

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8 responses

Diane says:

07/06/2018 – 09:10

Excellent post! I really liked the way explained each point with examples. Author can write a big book but broke into sweat when it comes to write a bio about themselves. Sometimes they also need paper writing help. It have to be short and interesting, not boring. In that case your article will help them to write a killer one.

Nancy Man says:

20/06/2018 – 00:10

This was super helpful -- thanks! Sticking to these four elements worked great for me. I've finally got a bio that I'm not rolling my eyes at. :)

Antigone Blackwell says:

08/12/2018 – 19:01

If someone is reading this article, it is highly unlikely that they can boast being bestselling authors or share that they are on the third book of a highly successful series. More examples with start up authors would be great.

India Government Schemes says:

12/03/2019 – 11:42

This is awesome, but i am seeing in this days mostly hide there Bio in Blogs, But they don't know In The Blog Author Bio is also a Ranking Factor in the Google Search Ranking.

Joe Robinson says:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

Very helpful article that has helped me write my author bio for my upcoming book "Move Your Marriage to Greatness" a Marriage Replenishment Work designed to help couple achieve extraordinary accomplishments that are uncommon in many marriages today. I appreciate you making this article available.

Jitender Sharma says:

10/09/2019 – 05:00

Thanks for your post

Mike aantonio says:

14/11/2019 – 10:06

After reading the bio. samples mentioned above. Is it really necessary to introduce the author as a third party. Can't we directly say " Hi I am a blogger from so and so ......."

↪️ Martin Cavannagh replied:

15/11/2019 – 09:15

You can do... but it's not standard practice.

Comments are currently closed.

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• How to Write an Author Bio (Examples Included)

You’ve written a book that’s about to be published or an article that’s going live online. Congratulations!

But although this is a big accomplishment, your job isn’t done: You also need to write a short author biography — otherwise known as an author bio– so your readers can get to know you.

An  author bio  shares relevant information about your education and experience. This proves your credibility, showing that you know what you’re talking about. It also allows your readers to connect with you as a person.

Crafting your own bio can sometimes be a difficult task. These  author biographies  need to be short, yet engaging, so it can be hard to know what to include. After all, your bio may be one of the first things potential readers see when they pick up and open your book.

This blog post breaks down how to write an author bio and what to say in your short bio to connect best with your readers.

Author Bios: What They Include and Why to Write One

An author bio is a short paragraph that shares information about you, such as your education, your experience, and your personal life. Author bios are usually placed next to a professional photo or headshot of the author to further help humanize you, the writer.

While there’s no set word count on a bio, you’ll want to keep things short — think a paragraph or two.

The goal of an author bio is to provide a brief background about you, the author, and to show why you were qualified to write your book or article in order.

Essentially, an engaging author bio gives you credibility with your readers and allows you to connect with potential readers so you can encourage them to read more of your work.

For example, when you describe your past education, work experience, and skills in your author bio, you’re proving that you know what you’re talking about and that you are an expert in your field.

Another benefit of a well-written, short bio is that it humanizes you. Your bio should add personality and communicate to your readers who you are as a person.

For example, your author bio may include a sentence about how many books you’ve written in the past. Then, you may add another sentence about why you began writing in the first place.

Finally, you might share a bit about your family, passions outside of writing, and any formal education, awards, or certifications you’ve achieved in your writing career, like once being named a New York Times Bestselling Author.

You don’t have to be a master of creative writing to craft a well-written bio. The goal of your author bio should simply be to convince readers that you’re more than just an author or some faceless person who wrote an online article — you’re a person.

Who Needs an Author Bio?

The short answer: Every writer!

You might think author bios are only for authors — people who write novels or nonfiction books.

Whether you’ve written ten books or this is your first novel or piece of written work, you should at least have a generic bio that explains to your prospective readers a little more about who you are.

But the truth is, you don’t have to be a bestselling author to have a well-written author bio. Almost everyone who wants to publish their writing will need an author bio at some point.

This is true if you write blog posts, poetry, science fiction, short stories, thought leadership articles, or just about anything else.

There are only a couple of exceptions to this rule. The first is  ghostwriting . As the name suggests, ghostwriters are anonymous writers who don’t get credit for their work.

A ghostwriter writes a work for the author. The author’s name is the only one on the cover of the book even though they didn’t actually write it.

If you are a ghostwriter, you won’t get your own author bio.

Second, some writers may want to remain anonymous, using a pen name or no name at all.

You might choose to use a pseudonym if you don’t want your boss at your day job to know about your writing, if you’re writing something controversial, or if your name is common and there are other authors out there with the same name.

If you use a pen name, you may or may not have an author bio. That choice is up to you.

When To Write Your Author Bio

You should write your author bio after you write the meat of your book. It can take a long time to write a book — months or even years.

The information that you’ll put in your author bio (such as your career details or where you live) could change during that time.

So don’t write your author bio too soon.

This is something you can leave until the end of the process of publishing a book.

However, if you’re feeling stuck with your book and you need to focus on something else, this could also be a good time to write your author bio.

It can be more inspiration and helpful to flex your writing muscles with something different.

Then you can jump back into your book or another writing project with a fresh perspective.

How to Write an Author Bio

Many people hate talking about themselves and find author bios difficult to write. Sometimes we also struggle with bios because they’re so short.

Often, the shorter something is, the harder we think it is to write. For instance, how long did it take you to  write your book title ?

Because of this, some authors outsource the writing of their bio to a  freelance writer  or work with a creative consultant so they can focus on their book sales and complete the publishing process.

However, self-publishing authors and those who prefer to control the writing process don’t necessarily need a freelance writer to whip up a killer author bio.

If you know the general formula for how to use your best writing and craft a full bio, creating your own bio isn’t as daunting of a task as you may think. Take a look at these tips to help you write a good author bio.

Write in the Third Person

Typically, author bios are written in the third person, not the first person, point of view. You want your bio to sound like someone else wrote it about you.

Don’t use “I” — just use your name and last name. For example, instead of saying:

“I’m an author and I live in Chicago, Illinois.”

“John Doe is an author who lives in Chicago, Illinois.”

Writing your author bio in the third person sounds more professional and authoritative to most readers.

Third-person can sometimes run the risk of sounding impersonal, but you can avoid this by adding a brief detail about your life experience at the end.

Explain Your Credentials

What qualifies you to write this book or article?

Your author bio is the place to explain. Whether you have special skills, work experience, or professional certifications, here is where you’ll include them.

Don’t talk about what you would like to do in the future; this is a waste of space and doesn’t help establish credibility. Instead, talk about what you already have done.

If your educational experience is relevant to the subject matter you’re writing on, mention your degree(s) in your bio.

If you don’t have any degrees or the degrees are in a completely different field, don’t add them — save that space for something else.

You should also mention any recognition you’ve received. What awards have you won? Have you been recognized for your fiction writing anywhere?

Sharing your writing accomplishments lets your target audience know they can trust your writing skills. Adding things like if you are a Wall Street Journal or New York Times Bestseller, have won any national magazine awards, or even achieved your bachelor’s degree in some form of writing field are all great accomplishments to list in your bio.

Here’s an example of the first sentence in an author bio that explains the author’s credibility to help you understand how to write your own credibility into your bio.

“John Doe has a master’s degree in history and 15 years of experience working as an archivist. His first book,  A History of Modern Japan , won a prestigious reader’s choice award.”

List Your Other Work

In addition to your work history, awards, and credentials, list a few other  well-known works you’ve written

Think of this as in-book marketing or free space to share more ways for the readers to find your work.

Someone may even read your author bio and realize they’ve already read your other work, creating a feeling of trust.

If your author bio is being published online, you can include hyperlinks to your author website or to any online stores where people can publish your other books.

If you don’t have any other work to include, that’s okay. Skip this part and focus more on other parts of your bio, such as your education or any relevant experience.

On the flip side, if you have a lot of other work, don’t list everything you’ve ever published — stick to just a few of the ones that are most impressive, most relevant, or most recent.

Get Personal

When written correctly, your author bio has the potential to help you connect to readers on a deeper level.

Don’t stop with a dry list of your degrees or past positions — add some personal details to help your readers get to know you.

For example, where do you live? Do you have a spouse, children, or a pet? What hobbies do you enjoy when you aren’t working or writing?

These are simple details, but sharing a glimpse into your life experience goes a long way in helping readers remember that you’re human, too. This could sound something like this:

“John Doe lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and three children. He enjoys playing tennis and going on bike rides with his dog.”

Don’t mention any topics that could be divisive. Stick to hobbies that are pure fun — nothing that involves controversial topics or reflects your political views (that is, unless you’re a politician writing a political book).

Keep It Short

Your author bio needs to be short. People have already spent a good chunk of their time reading your book or your article.

They aren’t going to read a long author bio, too. The shorter your author’s bio, the higher the chance that people will actually read it.

The ideal length for an author bio is around 50-100 words. This is about 3-5 sentences.

Consider dedicating one sentence to your education and experience, another sentence to your other published work, and the final sentence to your personal life.

Be Willing to Tweak

Your author bio will change over time. As you continue publishing new writing and advancing your career, you’ll have more published works, on-the-job experience, and awards to add to your bio.

That said, make sure you aren’t married to the final version of your author bio — be willing to tweak it in the future as needed.

Your author bio also might need to sound a little different for different platforms. Many publishers and websites have guidelines for how long an author bio should be and what it should include.

Even if you’re free to write whatever you wish, you may want to highlight certain parts of your experience or overlook others.

For instance, maybe John Doe felt his experience working as an archivist in London wasn’t important enough to include in his main author bio. But for a publication that circulates in the United Kingdom, it would be the perfect detail to add in.

At the end of the day, your goal is to come up with an author bio that you can use as a template.

Save this general author bio and use it to work off of any time you have a new piece of writing published. In the future, you won’t have to start from scratch — you can simply use this predefined template and add or subtract information as necessary.

Your base author bio might sound something like this:

“John Doe has a master’s degree in history and 15 years of experience working as an archivist in London. His first book,  A History of Modern Japan , won a prestigious reader’s choice award. John currently lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and three children, where enjoys playing tennis and going on bike rides with his dog.”

Examples of Engaging Author Bios

Here are a few different examples of author bios found on Amazon:

Brian Tracy

Helps individuals and businesses achieve goals through his expertise gained from consulting for over 1,000 companies and addressing millions of people globally. With 30 years of experience in various fields, he is a bestselling author with over 70 books translated into many languages.

Brian delivers talks on personal and professional development, leadership, sales, and success psychology to corporate and public audiences, driving immediate and lasting changes. His background includes successful careers in sales, marketing, real estate, and consulting, with extensive international experience.

Jack Canfield

America’s #1 Success Coach, is the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, which includes forty New York Times bestsellers, and coauthor with Gay Hendricks of You’ve GOT to Read This Book!

An internationally renowned corporate trainer, Jack has trained and certified over 4,100 people to teach the Success Principles in 115 countries. He is also a podcast host, keynote speaker, and popular radio and TV talk show guest. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Tony Robbins

An international entrepreneur, #1 New York Times bestselling author, and philanthropist. Worth magazine recognized Robbins as one of the top 100 most influential people in global finance for two consecutive years.

Accenture honored Robbins as one of the “Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World.” Robbins is a leader called upon by leaders: He’s consulted and coached some of the world’s greatest athletes, entertainers, Fortune 500 CEOs, and four US presidents.

Author of the best-selling See You at the Top is an internationally renowned speaker and authority on high-level performance. His I CAN course is taught in more than 3,000 schools, and hundreds of companies and businesses utilize his tapes, books, and videos to train their employees effectively.

He has taught his biblically-based principles for becoming a more effective persuader and person to sales organizations, church groups, schools, and businesses. He has addressed thousands more through numerous television and radio appearances and his films. His Sunday school class held at first Baptist church, Dallas, is broadcast each Sunday morning, via satellite.

Grant Cardone

Owns and operates seven privately held companies, and a private equity real estate firm, Cardone Capital, with a multifamily portfolio of assets worth over $5 Billion. He is one of the Top Crowdfunders in the world, raising over $880 million in equity via social media. He is featured on Season 2 of Discovery Channel’s Undercover Billionaire, where he takes on the challenge of building a million-dollar business in 90 days.

Grant is also a New York Times bestselling author of 11 business books, including The 10X Rule, which led to Cardone establishing the 10X Global Movement and the 10X Growth Conference, now the largest business and entrepreneur conference in the world. Cardone uses his massive 15 million plus following to give back via his Grant Cardone Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to mentoring underprivileged and troubled youth in financial literacy.

Write Your Author Bio Today

It turns out that learning how to write an author bio isn’t so hard after all. By following these simple tips, you can craft a bio that’s short, snappy, and helps you connect with your readers.

And if you’re still stuck, consider using an author bio template or some of the examples listed in this blog to inspire you on how to write your own author bio.

However, it goes without saying that before you can write an author bio, you need to have written a book or other piece of writing.

If you’re still in the main writing phase or have simply thought about writing and haven’t acted on it yet, my Book Writing Template can help. My system shows you how to map out your story and then piece it all together to write the best book that you can. Click here to download the template and start writing your book today.

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About Brian Tracy — Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority in the world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development, including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him on Twitter , Facebook , Pinterest , Linkedin and Youtube .

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Home / Book Publishing / How to Write an Author Bio [With Examples and Templates]

How to Write an Author Bio [With Examples and Templates]

To write a great author bio, you need to know your target audience, cater to your genre, brag (but not too much), keep it brief, and call the reader to action.

When you’re self-publishing on Amazon , you need to put some serious thought into the author bio on your Amazon book page. Don’t haphazardly throw together some sentences and hit the publish button.

The author bio isn’t your most important tool. (The most essential tools are the book reviews , book cover , and synopsis/blurb .) But the author bio is another critical tool that you shouldn’t leave out.

Can I just leave my author bio out? No, you cannot just leave out your author bio, even if you wrote a short story or novella. It looks unprofessional, scares away potential readers, foregoes an opportunity to connect with your target audience, and leads to fewer book sales.

Plus, writing a good author bio doesn’t take that long.

If you’re not Grisham, or Godin, or Ferriss, or Fleming, very few people will buy a novel by you purely based on name recognition. So put a little work into your bio, and you won’t regret it.

Note: The Author Bio is just one of many parts of a book. I have a whole series of posts on the subject, and I highly recommend you check those out as well!

• What is an author bio?
• Examples of phenomenal author bios
• Tips on making a persuasive, engaging author bio
• How to add the bio to your book page
• An author bio template checklist

Table of contents

• What should an author's bio include?
• Is an author bio actually important?
• What’s your book about?
• Who are you writing for?
• 4 Writing Tips For Creating an Author Bio:
• Step 3: Add the Bio to Your Book Page
• Podcast Episode: The Perfect Picture For Your Author Bio
• 6 Examples of Phenomenal Author Bios
• Can you hire a freelancer to write your author bio?
• How to Write a Bio for Your Author Website
• Author Bio Template
• Where does your author bio go?
• How often should you update your “About the Author” page?

For clarification, on Amazon, there are 2 kinds of bio:

• The generic bio on your “ Author Page ”
• Separate bios for each of your books

The advice in this post is aimed at your bio on your individual book pages, although much of it will still be relevant to your main Author Page.

Why Should You Trust Me?

I've actually been writing and formatting books for a long time. Over 10 years so far, and counting.

But that's not the real reason, because there are plenty of authors who have lots of experience, but know next to nothing about the different parts of a book, or book formatting in general.

The real reason you should trust me is because I actually created my own formatting software that solved all my problems. I called it Atticus.

But this isn't meant to be a sales pitch. I just want to make sure it's clear that I know what I'm talking about. The amount of research that went into not only formatting my own books, but also creating a formatting software is huge.

I researched everything, which led me to learn all about every. single. part. of. a. book. And there were a lot more than I realized.

And of course, that includes the Author Bio.

So if all that makes sense, hopefully you'll come along with me as show you everything I've learned.

Also called “About the Author,” an author bio is:

• A paragraph about you as a writer
• Your credentials
• Your interests
• A call to action
• Other relevant information you want to share with your target audience

An author biography is your chance to connect with readers beyond just a byline.

Everyone needs a stellar front cover design, an attention-grabbing book title , and a sophisticated keyword strategy . But those book marketing musts simply draw users to see your book’s product page.

A good author bio (and book reviews and book description ) compels them to actually buy the book.

The author bio establishes you as the kind of writer whom your target market ought to read. It’s where you forge a connection with potential readers and get them to trust you. Readers should want to know what you have to say based on your author bio.

If you take the author bio seriously and get it right, you’ll sell more books.

You should include your name, relevant accomplishments, and a call to action in your author’s bio. Aim for a bio of 60-90 words in length.

If your book is humorous, inject humor. If your book is melodramatic, add a little melodrama. Tailor your bio to your genre, target audience, and the individual book it’s for.

If possible, include links to your website or social media , so people can find out more about you.

Include a picture when possible. This picture should be a professional headshot of you smiling or looking serious, depending on your genre. Do not skimp on the headshot. An unprofessional author headshot screams low-quality content.

Yes, a good author bio is actually important because:

• It builds credibility
• It affirms whether what you have to say is worth reading
• It tells your target audience that you have written a book for them
• Readers may relate to your personal story
• You will sell more books

“No one reads the author bio,” I hear you say. But you’re wrong. While not everyone cares about the author’s bio, some care a lot.

First of all, unless you’re a household name, you must build credibility with the reader. If a reader doesn’t think you’re credible, they will read your book with a cynical eye and judge every mistake they find. Or worse, they won’t buy your book in the first place.

Second of all, more than ever, consumers are buying books from writers they want to support. If someone learns more about and relates to the author, they are much more likely to buy.

Increase Your Book Marketing

See the Publisher Rocket effect, when you use the right keywords and categories to help get your book seen more on Amazon.

How to Write a Powerful Author Bio for Your Book

Here are 3 steps to write an awesome author bio (About the Author) and upload it onto Amazon:

• Figure out your genre and target audience
• Write the bio
• Add the bio to your book page

How do you write a bio for a first-time author? First-time authors might not be able to include any literary accomplishments, like other best-selling books and prestigious awards. But first-time writers can include relevant expertise that pertains to your book. Also, any author can inject personality and a call to action, no matter if this is their first book.

Step 1 : Figure Out Your Genre and Target Audience

Answer these 2 crucial questions to understand your genre and target audience:

Your author bio needs to compliment the genre and subject matter of your book. Bios irrelevant to the book confuse potential readers.

While this may seem like obvious advice, a lot of irrelevant content finds its way into many author bios. Consider:

• If your nightmare-inducing horror novel contains a perky and cheerful author description about your love for puppies and former career as a glassblower, you forfeit an opportunity to connect readers with your writing.
• If your middle-grade comedy has an author bio that reads like a middle school textbook , your audience may be confused whether you’re able to write comedy.
• If your book is a contemporary romance novel with a middle-aged female protagonist, your author bio’s personality and content should relate to the right target audience.
• If you’re writing about tax-deduction strategies for real estate investors, your bio should present your expertise — why anyone should listen to you on the subject.
• If your book is a spiritual guide to personal growth, some life-affirming positivity will improve your bio.

You need to think about your target reader. Hopefully, you had a type of reader in mind when writing the book . You always need to know who would want to buy and read your book.

Figure out your target reader, then write your author bio for that person.

For non-fiction authors, your ideal reader probably wants to read your credentials, your life experience, and what qualifies you to speak on a particular topic.

For fiction writers, your ideal reader may be looking for a unique, exciting personality to come out through the bio. You may briefly include credibility-building credentials, such as if you earned an MFA in Creative Writing.

In many cases, creating an “avatar” of your customer — with a name, location, and personality — is a valuable way to both develop your author bio and strategically target your book marketing efforts. Check out this guide on how to create a customer avatar.

Don’t add information “just in case” a different kind of reader might appreciate it. You end up with a behemoth of a bio that no one reads because it’s too daunting and unfocused.

Step 2 : Write the Bio

Now you need to write the actual words of the bio. Stick to this checklist on how to write an author bio:

• Begin with a punchy, impactful first sentence.
• Introduce your area of expertise or your unique personality, depending on the genre.
• Build credibility without overly bragging.
• Add a personal touch, such as a relatable profession or quirky hobby.
• Finish on a call to action (check out the new book, follow you on social media, etc.).

While you’re writing, always ask yourself, “Is this relevant to my reader?”

Most readers won’t care where you were born (unless it’s a book about where you live), what high school you went to, or that you always wanted to become a full-time writer.

This isn’t to say that your bio should be impersonal. On the contrary! This is your opportunity to make readers feel like they know you. Your personality and/or expertise should make them want to read what you wrote.

• Write in the third person. “About the author” demands the third person. While it may feel a bit weird to write “he” or “she” rather than “I” in the first person, there’s one significant benefit: Your relevant accomplishments and accolades will sound far less boastful.
• Don’t brag too much . Don't go overboard showing off because everyone knows you wrote it. Even if the author bio is in the third person, state your achievements, but don’t become a braggart. Sprinkle in a bit of humility and modesty as well.
• Keep your author bio short. The faster they can read about you, the faster they can buy your book. Aim for 60-90 words and don’t go above 150. It takes effort and practice to distill everything into such a short space. Once you’ve nailed it, you can fit a great deal of personality and information into those 60-90 words.
• Use the bio like a business card . Give readers a way to interact with you by adding your website or social media info. At the very least, they’ll be able to find out more about you and explore your other works. Adding this info at the end is the most common call to action in author bios.

Step 3 : Add the Bio to Your Book Page

You can add your author bio to your Amazon book page by visiting Amazon Author Central , select your book, and add it in the “About the Author” section.

You can add the “About the Author” page into your back matter for a physical book. On most word processors like Scrivener or Vellum, you should be able to generate the author bio into your print-ready file.

But one really annoying bit about adding an author bio to most books is that you have to copy and paste it for every book. This gets cumbersome when you have ten books and need to make one tiny change in each of them.

Unfortunately, most programs like Vellum and Scrivener do not have a way to do “templates” where you update a single Author Bio page, and it gets updated across all your books.

But Atticus can.

In Atticus you can save as a template and then reuse that template wherever you want. And the best part is, if you change the template, it will change it for all your books. Check it out!

Here are some real-life author bios from Amazon or on a back cover that combine most or all of the tips above:

Forgotten Legacy : Robin Perini, the Publisher’s Weekly and internationally bestselling author of Forgotten Secrets, is devoted to giving her readers fast-paced, high-stakes adventures with a love story sure to melt their hearts. A RITA Award finalist and winner of the prestigious Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award in 2011, she is also a nationally acclaimed writing instructor. By day, she’s an analyst for an advanced technology corporation, but in honor of her mother, Robin has become a passionate advocate for those who battle Alzheimer’s disease. She loves to hear from readers. Visit her web­site at www.robinperini.com.

[Length: 97 words]

D a mn Delicious Meal Prep: 115 Easy Recipes for Low-Calories, High-Energy Living : Chungah Rhee is the founder, recipe developer, and photographer of Damn Delicious. What began as a grad school hobby is now a top food blog, with millions of readers coming to her site for easy weeknight recipes and simplified gourmet meals. She lives and continues to cook non-stop in Los Angeles, with her corgi, Butters. Her first cookbook was published in 2016 by Oxmoor House. Visit her at damndelicious.net.

[Length: 70 words]

Long Range Shooting Handbook: Complete Beginner's Guide to Long Range Shooting : “Ryan Cleckner served as a special operations sniper team leader with the U.S. Army's elite 1st Ranger Bn. on multiple combat deployments. He is a graduate of the premier Special Operations Target Interdiction Course (SOTIC), among other military training courses, and has taught snipers and police sharpshooters from around the world. Ryan has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to explain complex topics in a simple and digestible way. Ryan is currently a firearms industry professional and an attorney.”

[Length: 83 words]

Diary of a Farting Creeper: Why Does the Creeper Fart When He Should Explode? (Volume 1) : Who is Wimpy Fart? Wimpy Fart loves Minecraft and writes awesome Minecraft books for YOU because you are the best Minecraft fans in the world. You can email Wimpy Fart to tell him about your favorite Minecraft books, or to talk about really loud farts. [email protected] Oh – Wimpy Fart reads all your awesome Amazon reviews and likes to know what you want to read about in Minecraft books!

[Length: 68 words]

Joanna Penn writes non-fiction books for authors and is an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author as J.F. Penn. She’s a podcaster and an award-winning creative entrepreneur. Her site, TheCreativePenn.com has been voted in the Top 100 sites for writers by Writer's Digest.

[Length: 49 words]

John Scalzi writes books, which, considering where you’re reading this, makes perfect sense. He’s best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller Redshirts, which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film, was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word “Whatever” into Google. No, seriously, try it.

[Length: 85 words]

If you're looking for author bio perfection, Scalzi’s is as close as you're gonna find. His bio lends himself credibility, demonstrates his personality, and has one of the most unique calls to action you'll ever read. How many of you actually googled “whatever” just now?

Yes, you can hire a freelance writer or a ghostwriter to write your author bio to make sure it’s as amazing as it should be. Their creative writing know-how can produce a bio worthy of a good read and help you better connect with your audience if you’re having a hard time with the bio.

Hopefully, because you’re a writer, you’re able to follow the steps in this article to create your own bio. But in many cases, writing about yourself is more challenging than writing any other prose. (No shame, I promise!)

To write an author bio for your website, follow these 8 tips and tricks:

• Determine what your book’s about, and tailor your bio to compliment the style and tone.
• Determine your target audience, and tailor your bio to attract those specific readers.
• Begin your bio with a punchy first sentence.
• Build credibility by demonstrating your accomplishments, but don’t brag too much.
• Add links to relevant interviews (on NPR or PBS, for example), news articles (ever been featured in The Wall Street Journal ?), and Amazon sales pages.
• Finish with a call to action — perhaps a link to your sales page.
• Make sure your word count is 60-90 words.
• When you review it, take out all irrelevant words. Will your target audience care about each word? If not, take that word out.

On an author’s website , you can go into more detail, list more important works or achievements, and link to other pages on your website to find more info.

Also, an author website bio lends itself more to the first-person than a book page bio. Feel free to use first person or third person, as long as you stick to one or the other.

There's no one-size-fits-all approach, but the following checklist provides a structure you can use as an author bio template:

• Add a personal touch, such as a hobby or favorite TV show.
• Finish on a call to action (check out the new book, follow on social media, etc.).

If you browse bestselling author bios, you'll notice they tend to follow this sequence.

The content and tone you include in your author bio will depend on several factors:

• Content and tone of your book
• Genre (or multiple genres)
• Previous works
• Previous achievements
• Personal preference
• Medium (eBook only, literary magazine, etc.)

In a print book, your author bio should go in the back matter of your book or on the dust jacket sleeve.

You should also place an author bio on your website that goes into a little more detail than the bio in your book.

For an eBook on Amazon, your author bio goes below the suggested books. Here are the headings that appear before the “About the Author” section:

You should update your “About the Author” page or individual author bios any time something significant changes in your life or career, especially honors and awards or when your next book comes out.

Publish a new book? Update all your old bios.

Win an award? Update all your old bios.

Featured on a famous talk show? You may want to update all your old bios.

Going through a divorce or other major family issues? If you mention your spouse or now-estranged children in your bio, you may want to change that. (I know that’s dark, but it happens and is worth considering.)

Earn a prestigious honor or academic position? You know what you should do.

I’ll show you mine…

In summary, the steps in this post take you through everything you need when writing your own author bio. Refer to them when you start writing – and you’ll have an engaging author bio that should easily sell more books.

My own author bio is listed just below for reference (and ridicule, if you like).

I don't have to tell you, I'm pretty much a techy goofball. Hopefully, my bio does a great job of conveying just that. Using humor and an upbeat tone, I want to let Kindlepreneur readers know exactly who I am as a content writer in 34 words.

Special thanks to John Scalzi for inspiring me to write this specific type of bio.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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67 thoughts on “ How to Write an Author Bio [With Examples and Templates] ”

After one year locked at home because of COVID-19, I decided to have as much fun as I had when teaching at school. That’s how “A Modern Superhero” was born. I enjoy good food, that’s why I need to do some exercise. By the way, run to my social media for some free perks.

Should I or should I not say what my day job is? Yes it has and no it hasn’t to do with my books. As I am an architect, I have well-structured novels! Lol. But is that boring? As I am not a van driver or pizza delivery girl, why would it interest anyone. I don’t know what’s boring anymore. Please help! Thanks.

Depending on your niche or subject, not sure. I’ll guess that you’re writing some sort of fiction. If that is the case, a mention of something that is important to you is fine, but don’t drag it on and focus on it. If you’ve used levity in your writing, then you can say something like “Architect by day, crime novelist by night.”

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How To Write An Author Bio (With Examples And Templates)

So you've written a book or started a blog and now need to craft an author bio to help readers get to know you. An author bio is one of the most important parts of establishing your writing platform, but it can also be one of the hardest to write. How do you condense your life's story and writing experience into a few short paragraphs? How do you make yourself sound accomplished yet approachable?

Don't worry, we've got you covered. In this article, we'll walk you through how to write an engaging author bio from scratch. We'll provide examples and templates to get you started, tips for choosing the right tone and perspective, and advice for including the key details that help connect you to your readers. By the end, you'll have all the tools you need to craft an author bio you can be proud to share. Writing about yourself doesn't have to be awkward or intimidating. With the right mindset and approach, you can make it fun and help your unique author voice shine through.

What Is an Author Bio and Why Is It Important?

An author bio is a short biography of yourself that accompanies your written work. Whether you're publishing a book, starting a blog, or pitching to media, an author bio helps establish your credibility and connect with your audience.

As an author, your bio is one of the first things people will read to get a sense of who you are. It should highlight your relevant experience, accomplishments, and qualifications in an authentic yet compelling way.

An author bio is an important part of your platform as a writer. It helps build credibility with your readers and establishes you as an authority in your niche. Keep your bio concise yet compelling, focusing on your most significant accomplishments and credentials. Use an authentic and friendly tone to connect with your audience on a personal level. Update your bio regularly to keep it current. With a strong author bio, you'll make a great first impression on anyone who reads your work.

Elements to Include in Your Author Bio

An author bio allows readers to quickly glimpse who you are and your background. The elements you include can help establish your credibility and connect with your audience. Here are some of the key things you’ll want to incorporate into your author bio:

1. Your name

Include your full name so readers know exactly who you are. You can also include any credentials or titles you may have. For example, “John Doe, Ph.D.”

2. A brief bio

Give readers a short 1-2 sentence bio summing up who you are and what you do. For example, “John Doe is a freelance writer and marketing consultant.” Keep this high level without too many details.

3. Your areas of expertise

Mention 1-3 areas you have expertise or experience in. For example, “John Doe specializes in content marketing, email marketing, and social media strategy.” This helps establish your credibility and lets readers know what topics you can knowledgeably write about.

4. A personal detail

Adding a personal detail or fun fact can help humanize you and connect with readers. But keep it light and avoid anything too controversial. For example, “When he's not writing, John enjoys hiking, cooking, and spending time with his family.”

5. Social media links

If you have social media profiles related to your writing or area of expertise, include links to them in your bio. For example:

Twitter: @johndoe

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johndoe

An author bio is a key part of your online presence as a writer. Keep it concise yet compelling, highlight your experience and expertise, and make a personal connection with readers. Follow these tips and you'll be crafting an author bio that represents you well in no time!

How to Write an Author Bio in 5 Easy Steps

Writing an author bio is an important way to connect with your readers and build your credibility as a writer. Here are five easy steps to craft an engaging author bio:

Step #1 Choose a Style and Perspective

Decide if you want to write your bio in first or third person. First person (“I have been writing for 10 years”) tends to be more personal while third person (“John Doe has been writing for 10 years”) sounds more professional. Think about your audience and writing style to determine which perspective fits best.

Step #2 Share Some Background

Give the reader a sense of your background and qualifications. Mention your areas of expertise, degrees or certifications, and years of experience. Keep this high-level without too many specific details. For example, “Jane Doe has over 20 years of experience as a content writer and has developed expertise in health and wellness topics.”

Step #3 Discuss Your Writing

Talk about your writing experience, style, and any publications or accomplishments. For example, “John Doe has published over 200 articles on Medium covering a range of productivity and lifestyle topics. His writing is known for its simple yet engaging style and actionable advice.” You can also mention any awards or recognition you’ve received.

Step #4 Share Some Personal Interests (Optional)

Include some of your personal interests and pursuits to give readers a more well-rounded sense of who you are. For example, “When not writing, Jane enjoys yoga, cooking, and spending time with family.” This part of the bio is optional but helps to humanize you and build a personal connection with readers.

Step #5 Review and Refine

Read through your draft bio and look for any areas that could be improved. Get feedback from others as well. Refine and edit your bio to ensure the tone and content are aligned with your brand and goals. Keep your bio to 2-3 short paragraphs for the best results.

With these steps, you'll be able to craft an author bio that highlights your experience, expertise, and personality. Your bio is a key part of your online presence as an author, so take the time to get it right!

Dos and Don'ts for Your Author Bio

When crafting your author bio, there are a few dos and don'ts to keep in mind:

• Do keep it short and sweet. Your bio should be 3 to 4 sentences at most. Any longer and readers may lose interest. Stick to the essentials about your background and experience.
• Do focus on your credentials and qualifications. Mention any relevant degrees, certifications or areas of expertise that make you an authority on your subject matter. For example, “John Doe has a PhD in Psychology from Harvard University and over 10 years of experience as a practicing therapist.”
• Do include a fun fact. Adding an interesting personal detail helps to humanize you and build a connection with readers. For instance, “When he’s not writing, John enjoys hiking with his two dogs and learning to cook Indian cuisine.”
• Don’t exaggerate or misrepresent yourself. Be authentic and honest. Lying or stretching the truth will only damage your credibility and reputation in the long run.
• Don’t get too personal. While a fun fact is fine, avoid oversharing details about your family life, health issues, religious views or other topics that don’t relate directly to your work. Your bio should maintain a sense of professionalism.
• Don’t use clichés or meaningless adjectives. Phrases like “passion for writing” or “expert communicator” are overused and ineffective. Show your expertise through concrete facts and examples instead.

Author Bio Examples

Writing an engaging author bio can be challenging. Here are 10 examples to model your own after:

1. The Humble Expert

"John Smith has over 20 years of experience as a business consultant. He has helped over 500 companies improve efficiency and increase profits. Outside of work, John enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with family."

This bio highlights the author's experience and expertise while remaining humble and personable. The details about hobbies and family make him relatable.

2. The Aspiring Authority

"Jane Doe is the founder of ABC Company and an aspiring authority on leadership and management. She frequently blogs and speaks on topics like improving company culture, effective communication, and the habits of high-performance teams."

This bio establishes the author as an aspiring expert in her field who is actively working to build her authority through content creation and public speaking.

3. The Lifelong Learner

"Mike Johnson has been a lifelong learner and educator. He has degrees in Psychology, Education, and Leadership. Mike has spent over 15 years teaching personal development skills to students around the world. He writes to share the life lessons and wisdom gained from his diverse experiences, adventures, failures, and continued learning."

This bio highlights the author's passion for continuous self-improvement and sharing knowledge with others. The tone is inspiring and reflective.

4. The Relatable Role Model

"Sara Williams is a mother of three, marathon runner, and health coach. She knows firsthand the challenges of balancing family, fitness, and a career. Through her writing and coaching, Sara aims to motivate and inspire women to pursue their goals and dreams despite obstacles or setbacks."

This bio establishes the author as a relatable role model for readers by highlighting shared life experiences and values. The uplifting and empowering tone is appealing.

5. The Quirky Character

"When Jack isn't writing or daydreaming up his next story, he enjoys woodworking, stargazing, and birdwatching—though not usually at the same time. Jack lives with his wife, two kids, and an energetic border collie in the Pacific Northwest. He likes pizza, craft beer, and all things retro."

This playful bio gives readers a glimpse into the author's quirky personality and varied interests with personable details. The lighthearted and humorous tone creates an instant connection with readers.

6. The Multifaceted Creative

"Emily Clark is a true creative at heart, with a passion for photography, painting, and writing. Her artistic endeavors serve as a means of self-expression and allow her to explore the world through different mediums. Emily's work often captures the beauty of everyday life, showcasing the extraordinary in the ordinary."

This bio introduces Emily as a versatile artist who finds inspiration in various forms of creativity. Her ability to capture the essence of everyday moments and transform them into art is a testament to her unique perspective and talent.

7. The Globetrotting Explorer

"Alex Rodriguez is an avid traveler and adventurer, always seeking new experiences and connections around the globe. From climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to diving in the Great Barrier Reef, Alex's wanderlust has taken him to breathtaking destinations. Through his writing, he shares captivating stories and insights gained from his journeys."

This bio showcases Alex as an intrepid explorer who embraces the thrill of discovering new cultures and landscapes. His travel experiences enrich his storytelling, offering readers a glimpse into the wonders of the world.

8. The Tech Guru

"Sarah Thompson is a tech enthusiast and expert, passionate about the latest advancements and their impact on society. With a background in computer science, Sarah has a deep understanding of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain. Through her writing, she simplifies complex concepts, making them accessible to readers of all backgrounds."

This bio positions Sarah as a knowledgeable authority in the ever-evolving world of technology. Her ability to bridge the gap between technical jargon and everyday readers makes her an invaluable resource for those seeking clarity in the digital age.

9. The Advocate for Change

"Michael Nguyen is a dedicated advocate for social justice and equality. Through his writing, he sheds light on pressing issues such as racial discrimination, gender inequality, and environmental sustainability. Michael's powerful words aim to inspire individuals to take action and create a more just and inclusive world."

This bio highlights Michael's commitment to raising awareness and driving positive change. His passion for justice resonates throughout his writing, empowering readers to become agents of transformation in their communities.

10. The Historical Storyteller

"Elizabeth Turner is a captivating historical storyteller, bringing the past to life with her vivid narratives and meticulous research. With a passion for uncovering forgotten tales and exploring different eras, Elizabeth transports readers to bygone worlds, immersing them in the rich tapestry of history."

This bio paints Elizabeth as a masterful weaver of stories, skillfully intertwining facts with imagination to create a mesmerizing journey through time. Her unwavering dedication to historical accuracy ensures that readers not only enjoy her narratives but also gain a deeper understanding of the past.

Author Bio Templates

Whether you're publishing a book or starting a blog, an author bio is an important way to connect with your readers and build your credibility as a writer. The good news is, author bios follow a pretty standard template you can use to craft your own.

Here are some examples to get you started:

Short Bio (50-100 words)

Use this for a quick intro on your blog, social media profiles, or the back of your book:

• [Your name] is a [your profession] and [other relevant info, e.g. award or accomplishment]. [He/She] lives in [location] with [his/her] [family member(s)]. [His/Her] [hobby or interest] include [activity 1], [activity 2], and [activity 3].

Medium Bio (100-150 words)

This provides a high-level overview of your background and credentials:

• [Your name] is a [your profession] and [other relevant info, e.g. award or accomplishment]. [He/She] has over [X] years of experience [in your field or relevant experience]. [His/Her] work has appeared in [publications or media outlets].
• Outside of work, [he/she] enjoys [hobby 1], [hobby 2], and [hobby 3]. [He/She] lives in [location] with [his/her] [family members]. [His/Her] latest [project or work] is [book title or blog name].

Longer Bio (200-500 words)

Use this on your website or in proposals to give readers a comprehensive sense of your experience and qualifications:

• [Your name] is a [your profession] and [other relevant info, e.g. award or accomplishment] with over [X] years of experience. [He/She] is passionate about [your work or area of expertise] because [reasons and motivations].
• [His/Her] work has appeared in [publications or media outlets]. [He/She] has written [X] books including [book title 1], [book title 2], and [book title 3]. [His/Her] latest [project or work] is [book title or blog name].
• Outside of work, [he/she] enjoys [hobby 1], [hobby 2], and [hobby 3]. [He/She] lives in [location] with [his/her] [family members].

Using these templates, you can craft an author bio that gives readers a well-rounded sense of who you are and builds your credibility.

Use Hypotenuse AI to Write Your First Author Bio

You've come this far, so why not take it all the way? Writing your author bio doesn't have to be difficult or time-consuming. Using a tool like Hypotenuse AI can help make the process fast and painless.

Hypotenuse AI is designed specifically to help authors craft compelling author bios . All you have to do is provide some basic details about yourself and your writing, and the AI will generate a draft bio for you. You can then easily review and revise the draft to ensure it captures your unique voice and story. Give it a try and let artificial intelligence help craft your compelling author bio!

Join 100,000+ marketers writing with Hypotenuse AI

How To Write An Author’s Biography—7 Best Facets To Share With Readers

• August 9, 2022

Writing an author bio is a crucial step in your writing career. 

How your bio is written will give publishers, critics, and readers their first impression of you. 

So, how do you portray yourself well in a short bio using 100-200 words, which is the standard author bio length?

Beyond the word limit, how do you write an author bio that makes an impact? Check out the tips and advice below, followed by examples of quality author bios from which to take inspiration.

If you are at a loss about how to write an author’s biography for your originally published work, this article is for you.

How to write an author’s biography

Readers, literary agents, and publishing companies want to know who you are. Artists are also businesses unto themselves, and a great pitch is key to good business. 

Consider your author bio as your sales pitch. Why should a reader read your work ? What’s in it for literary agents and publishers?

How many words are in an author bio?

A typical author bio is only around 100 words. As a writer, you know that 100 words are very few to share your entire life experience.

The challenge in writing your own bio lies in condensing all the critical, relevant, and interesting information about yourself in such a short passage.

What to include in an author bio

With all the information about your life, which is relevant to most readers and will pique their interests?

1. Your background 

Where are you from? And where do you live now? 

Readers often naturally resonate with those from their hometown or favorite city. Your home and current city/country are one line in your bio and may be condensed to half a sentence (examples to follow).

2. Personal background

Who are you, and what made you that way? What experiences have you had that relate to your book’s theme or story?

What do you love to write about? Are you into creative writing focusing on poetry? What’s your niche, your style, your inspiration?

How about your relevant work experience? Have you worked in publishing? Have you been featured in reputable literary journals or magazines? 

Use the questions and suggestions above as a guide. You don’t have to include all this information, or you can include more. 

The critical thing to remember is to keep everything simple and concise.

Follow the basic author bio template outlined below to get started.

Start your author bio a strong opening line. This is the reader’s first point of contact with who you are, so make it relevant and memorable. 

Consider mentioning where you’re from to connect with potential locals or establish yourself as a member of a cultural scene. 

New York City and Portland, Oregon are famous scenes for writers, and mentioning that you’re from there (as long as you really are!) can improve how a potential reader views you and your work.

4. Reputation and achievements

After your introduction, show off your previous experience and success by mentioning awards you’ve won or for which you’ve been nominated and previous work published. 

Highlighting your achievements in your author bio instills confidence in the readers that your work is high quality and worth their time.

5. Why should readers consider your work?

Now that you’ve introduced yourself and highlighted your achievements, it’s time to show potential readers why you’re a credible author in your niche. How does your experience make you an authority in the subject? 

You do not need to be a published author of ten books just to be able to show your authority in the field or genre you’ve chosen.

If you write about war, were you in service? If you write about art, are you an artist or art critic? Help readers feel confident by establishing your authority in your particular field or niche through your author bio.

6. Themes, style, genre

You’ve shown the reader why you can write about the niche. Now it’s time to offer them even more information about what to expect for your work. 

Over the next line or two, outline your style and themes. 

Are you in to creative writing or are you more focused on academic writing?

Do you mostly write contemporary romance? Historical fiction? Satire? 

Readers often choose books by their genre of preference, so it’s essential to highlight your genre , themes, and style in your author bio. Doing so attracts already-interested readers, whereby your style and themes are major selling points.

7. Off-time

What do you do when you’re not writing? You’re human, so you have other qualities, hobbies, and passions beyond your career. 

Using your author bio, let readers know what your personal interests are, the activities you like to do in your spare time or causes you are passionate about. 

Relatability is vital in readers’ purchasing decisions, so get vulnerable and show a more intimate side of yourself in your bio.

The template

Here are some helpful templates to give you an idea on how to structure your author bio:

[Author] was born in [location] and now resides in [location]. Known for their works [book title] and [book title] (or) published in [journal/publication], [author] has a lot to offer fans of [genre].

Having worked as [experience], [Author] offers experience-based insight into the world of [topic/niche]. [Author] explores [themes] with style, wit, and grace.

In their spare time, [Author] likes to spend time on [hobbies].

The above is a basic author bio template but a good starting point. Use the template to write your own author bio but feel free to edit and change the structure and content as you see fit.

Author bios: First person or third person?

Authors often write their own bios but write in the third person because doing so reads well and helps you sound more reputable and established. 

If you write in the first person (using ‘I’ statements), it’s too easy to sound overconfident and conceited. 

Keeping the bio narrative in the third person makes it much easier to talk yourself up without sounding arrogant or ‘tooting your own horn.’

The importance of an author bio

Your bio serves as a type of business card. 

A bio is crucial, whether as self publishing authors or as someone who published traditionally. It informs potential readers of your background, style, and character. 

Essentially, your bio is a sales pitch, one of y our book marketing tools. It’s the ‘why’ regarding a reader’s decision to read or purchase your work. 

Your bio helps you establish and improve your reputation, by putting forward a specific perspective on who you are.

Credibility and authority

What qualifies you to write about your niche or topic? If you write a book about travel and you inform readers of your extensive traveling experience, that gives your credibility and authority on the subject.

Readers are more likely to engage with your book if you write a non-fiction book about self-care and have experience working as a therapist or counselor.

Similarly, suppose you inform readers of your past success, such as getting published in a reputable literary journal or magazines like the Wall Street Journal or USA Today. In that case, they feel more confident that your work is worth their time and money.

Relatability

Famous authors such as Stephen King or Haruki Murakami don’t need to rely on their author bio as much as lesser-known or first-time authors. 

Such authors already have an established reputation that gives readers confidence and interest. 

However, if you’re a first-time freelance writer or don’t have the level of fame as the authors mentioned, your bio is how you instill confidence in the reader.

If a reader chooses to read work by an author whom they’ve never heard of, they naturally want to know more about said author. 

In what ways can you relate to the reader? For example, if you write a psychology book about anxiety, your experiences of struggling with and overcoming fear will be incredibly relevant and relatable information for the reader.

Several factors influence a potential reader’s purchasing decision when interested in a book from an author they’ve never heard. Book marketing covers a wide range of tools and activities.

These factors are often surface level, such as the book cover , the size of the book, and how they heard about it in the first place. 

Another major factor is the author’s bio. Your bio is not the same as other ‘hard sell’ marketing tactics, but rather a soft sell, a gentle persuasion to give your work a chance.

Examples of Author Bios

If you want to write a killer bio, it’s wise to take inspiration from great author bio examples. 

Below we’ve included the author bios of renowned authors John Scalzi ( Old Man’s War ,  Redshirts) , June Hur (The Silence of Bones, The Forest of Stolen Girls), and John Grisham (The Pelican Brief).

John Scalzi

John Scalzi writes books, which makes perfect sense considering where you’re reading this. He’s best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller Redshirts, which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film and was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right-thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word “Whatever” into Google. No, seriously, try it.

Scalzi’s wit shines in his opening line. Following the opener, we learn about his genre (sci-fi), previously published work, and literary achievements. 

Finally, he adds more humor to give the reader a warm, soft giggle. Scalzi’s personality shines through his bio and earns him the positive reputation he boasts today.

June Hur was born in South Korea and raised in Canada, except when she moved back to Korea and attended high school there. She studied History and Literature at the University of Toronto. She began writing her debut novel after obsessing over books about Joseon Korea. She can be found wandering through nature or journaling at a coffee shop when she’s not writing. June is the Author of The Silence of Bones and The Forest of Stolen Girls and currently lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter.

June Hur’s opening byline offers a crash course in her background. Following her opener, we learn about her education and early days as a writer. 

What makes June Hur’s bio so great is that it offers readers a peek into her personal life outside of writing, which makes her more three-dimensional and relatable.

John Grisham

John Grisham is the author of forty-seven consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judge’s List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series. Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system. John lives on a farm in central Virginia.

Grisham’s bio highlights his writing achievements and provides the reader with a sense of his credibility. The personal details of his life emphasize his belief in justice and equality. 

Grisham’s bio adds a personal touch that also makes him relatable – he offers the reader information about his home – a bit of information that also helps him come across as relatable to the reader, even amongst all of his accomplishments.

Your author biography is never really finished. The more you write , the more experience you gain, and the greater your reputation, the more you can adapt and come up with your own killer author bio.

Even if you’re a first-time author, don’t be intimidated by the bio. You may not have much experience now, but you can still introduce readers into your life and experience. In time, you will establish yourself as a respectable authority in your niche.

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Table of Contents

• Why Your Author Bio Is So Important

How To Write Your Author Bio

Template for author bio info.

• Author Bio Examples
• Your Bio Grows as You Grow

More Ways to Read

• Download a PDF

How To Write An About The Author (With Examples)

Don’t Have Time Right Now?

Unless you’re a household name author (Steven King, JK Rowling, Malcolm Gladwell), most people buying your book won’t know who you are.

So how will they learn about you?

And why is this even important?

That’s what this blog post will explain: how to properly write it, and why your author bio matters.

Why Your About The Author Is So Important

Even though very few authors think about it, and even fewer publishing guides talk about it, the “Author Bio” section impacts sales, reputation, book marketing and social media.

“Author reputation” is consistently cited as one of the main factors that influence a book buying decision. If you’re seen as an authority on your book topic, readers will buy your book and read it. One of the best ways to be seen as an authority is to have a great Author Bio.

For business the short bio can sometimes be more important than what’s actually in the book—the sad but true reality is that more people will read your author bio than your actual book.

It takes a long time to read a book, but it’s very easy to make a snap judgment based on a short paragraph, and most people do that.

This is doubly true for media and social media. Most people in media work very hard under tight deadlines and don’t have time to read long books or even pitch emails. But a good author bio cuts right to the point by saying: this is an important person I need to pay attention to.

Writing about yourself is a task that many even full time writers shy away from. Don’t make this mistake. A few simple steps can get an effective bio that will impress interested readers and help sell your book:

Step 1. Mention your credentials on your book subject:

It’s important to establish your credentials in your book’s topic area.

For example, if you’re writing a diet book, mention things like professional degrees, nutrition training or accomplishments, places you’ve worked, awards you’ve won, etc. Any credential that clearly signals your authority and credibility in your space works.

If you struggle with what to say about yourself, remember the idea is to make it clear why the reader should listen to you. What credential do you have–if any–that signals seriousness to the reader?

For some types of books and authors, this is harder to do. If there’s no clear way to signal direct authority or credentials—for example, you wrote a thriller or a romance novel—then don’t make up things or try to “invent” authority. Focus on the other parts of the author bio.

Step 2. Include achievements that build credibility or are interesting to the reader (without going overboard)

You’ll also want to include things you’ve accomplished in your life, especially if you don’t have direct credentials and authority in the book subject matter. This will help your audience understand why they should spend their time and money reading what you’ve got to say.

If you have something about you or your life that is unusual, even if it’s not totally relevant, you should still consider putting it in your bio.

For example, if you were a Rhodes Scholar, or you started a major national organization, or won a national championship in ping-pong—whatever. The point is to show the reader that you have done things that matter, even if they don’t matter to the book.

If you’re lacking on credentials or exciting things, you can always put in your passions and interests. Anything that you enjoy doing, writing about or consider a hobby, especially if they are relevant to the book topic.

That being said, do NOT ramble on and on about things that reader doesn’t care about. Put yourself in your readers shoes, and ask yourself, “Does this fact really matter to anyone but me?”

Step 3. Mention any books you’ve written, and your website (but don’t oversell them)

If you’ve written other books, especially on that subject, make sure to mention them. If you’re a bestselling author (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today or even Amazon) or won awards, even better.

If you’ve won multiple accolades and listing them all is becoming tedious, aim for brevity instead. Simply writing “John Smith is an award winning author whose works include …..” is more than enough to show your readers you know what you’re doing.

If you have an author website , an author page ( on Amazon or another 3rd party site) or anything else that helps promote your brand then you should make sure you include it at the bottom of your bio (assuming this meets your goals).

Again, you don’t want to brag here so just be humble and simply put something like “Find out more about John at www.johnsmithwriter.com”. It should be simple and have a clear call to action.

Step 4. Drop some relevant names, if they’re appropriate (without being crass)

Yes, name dropping can put off readers if it’s done wrong. But there’s a right way to do it.

For example, if you are relatively unknown, you can say something like, “The woman that Seth Godin called “the most important writer of our time” reveals to you the secrets of…” This way you are trading on Seth Godin’s reputation, and establishing your credentials at the same time (assuming he said this).

Also, if you’ve worked for or with very well-known people, name dropping is not seen as bad; it’s seen as an effective signal to the reader of your importance and ability. What matters is that there is a reason that you are using someone else’s name that makes sense, and is not just a gratuitous name drop.

Step 5. Keep short and interesting (without leaving anything important out)

While your readers are interested in finding out more about you, they don’t want to get bored, or listen to arrogant bragging about how great you are. If your bio is too long, or too full of overstated accomplishments and awards, it will turn your readers off and actually make you look less credible.

Typically, if you keep your word count around 100 words you’re ok. Anything longer than that means you’ve gone on too long about your accomplishments, your personal life or both. Cut it down to the most important things.

Step 6. Always Write in Third Person, Never First Person

Third person is “She is.” First person is “I am.” This is a small thing, but if you write in first person, it is a major sign of first-time amateurism.

This is a template to write your author bio. I’m not saying it’s the very best way to write an author bio, in fact, many of the best examples below do NOT fit this template. But, many people asked for an easy to follow template, and this is what we use with our authors.

• First sentence: “[Author] is [statement to establish credibility on this subject and / or authorship of previous books]”
• Second sentence(s): Statement(s) further establishing credibility or qualifications of author to write the book.
• Third sentence (optional): Historical “before that” information that is at least tangentially relevant to the book, or very compelling in another way.
• Fourth sentence: Endorsement of author’s credibility by others, awards, or some other social proof, if available.
• Fifth sentence: Tidbit of personal information or insight into life experience.
• Sixth sentence: Link to website or other resource (if relevant).

Here is how that looks in practice:

Will Leach is the founder of TriggerPoint Design, a leading behavior research and design consultancy specializing in using behavior economics and decision design to drive consumer decision making. He is a behavior design instructor at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University and has more than twenty years of behavior insights experience working with Fortune 50 companies to solve their most important behavior challenges. Will is the only two-time winner of the EXPLOR Award for his work in behavior design and is known as America’s foremost authority in applying behavior science to marketing. Will lives in Dallas with his wife and family.

If You Can’t Write About Yourself, Have Friends Help You

People, especially writers, have a hard time writing about themselves. Often, the Author Bio is the most difficult part of the marketing process for an author to write effectively.

If you are unsure about whether your author bio seems either incomplete, or too arrogant, run it by a few friends for feedback.

For example, when I was doing my first bio, I made all the mistakes I outlined above. I eventually had to have my friend Nils Parker write my bio for me. It’s always easier for your friends to praise you and see the amazing things you do.

If you don’t have writer friends, then hire a freelance writer to help you. It won’t cost much, but their creative writing know how will pay big dividends for you.

Examples of Author Bios

I’m going to show you a lot of different bios. Some are the best author bios I’ve read, whereas some feel like they were written by cheap self-publishing companies. The point is to give you an idea of how many different authors did them, so you can find your own author bio writing style:

Example 1 – High Status And Short: Lynn Vincent

This bio is the perfect “less is more” for an author with a lot of credentials. When you have done what Lynn has done, you can just say it quickly and succinctly.

Lynn Vincent is the New York Times best-selling writer of Heaven Is for Real and Same Kind of Different As Me. The author or coauthor of ten books, Lynn has sold 12 million copies since 2006. She worked for eleven years as a writer and editor at the national news biweekly WORLD magazine and is a U.S. Navy veteran.

Example 2 – High Status But Undersells: Michael Lewis

Contrast this to Michael Lewis, who is a very well known author, but still leaves quite a bit out of his bio that would help many readers understand who he is and why they should care (even Michael Lewis is not famous enough to assume people know him).

Michael Lewis, the author of Boomerang, Liar’s Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball, The Blind Side, Panic, Home Game and The Big Short, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their three children.

Example 3 – Bad Amanda Ripley

Many authors have different bios on different books (because they leave the bio writing to their publisher, which is a huge mistake). You can see the difference in the author Amanda Ripley.

Her bad bio is strangely both boring and overselling:

Amanda Ripley is a literary journalist whose stories on human behavior and public policy have appeared in Time, The Atlantic, and Slate and helped Time win two National Magazine Awards. To discuss her work, she has appeared on ABC, NBC, CNN, FOX News, and NPR. Ripley’s first book, The Unthinkable, was published in fifteen countries and turned into a PBS documentary.

Example 4 – Good Amanda Ripley

Contrast that to this good bio, where she comes off as much more of an authority—mainly because her other books are mentioned, as were her awards.

Amanda Ripley is an investigative journalist for Time, The Atlantic and other magazines. She is the author, most recently, of THE SMARTEST KIDS IN THE WORLD—and How They Got That Way. Her first book, THE UNTHINKABLE: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes–and Why, was published in 15 countries and turned into a PBS documentary. Her work has helped Time win two National Magazine Awards.

Example 5 – Bad Doctor Bio: Dr. David Perlmutter

This is a long, uninterrupted string of hard to process things. Dr. Perlmutter is very qualified, but mentions everything (including medical school awards) which detracts from the overall effect.

David Perlmutter, MD, FACN, ABIHM is a Board-Certified Neurologist and Fellow of the American College of Nutrition who received his M.D. degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine where he won the research award. Dr. Perlmutter is a frequent lecturer at symposia sponsored by such medical institutions as Columbia University, the University of Arizona, Scripps Institute, and Harvard University. He has contributed extensively to the world medical literature with publications appearing in The Journal of Neurosurgery, The Southern Medical Journal, Journal of Applied Nutrition, and Archives of Neurology. He is the author of: The Better Brain Book and the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Grain Brain. He is recognized internationally as a leader in the field of nutritional influences in neurological disorders. Dr. Perlmutter has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated radio and television programs including 20/20, Larry King Live, CNN, Fox News, Fox and Friends, The Today Show, Oprah, Dr. Oz, and The CBS Early Show. In 2002 Dr. Perlmutter was the recipient of the Linus Pauling Award for his innovative approaches to neurological disorders and in addition was awarded the Denham Harmon Award for his pioneering work in the application of free radical science to clinical medicine. He is the recipient of the 2006 National Nutritional Foods Association Clinician of the Year Award. Dr. Perlmutter serves as Medical Advisor for The Dr. Oz Show.

Example 6 – Good Doctor Bio: Dr. Benjamin Carson

Contrast this to Dr. Carson, who focuses only on the credentials and status signifiers that the reader would care about and understand, like his specialties and companies he works for.

Dr. Benjamin Carson is a Professor of Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery, Oncology, and Pediatrics, and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. He is also the author of four bestselling books—Gifted Hands, Think Big, The Big Picture, and Take the Risk. He serves on the boards of the Kellogg Company, Costco, and the Academy of Achievement, among others, and is an Emeritus Fellow of the Yale Corporation.

He and his wife, Candy, co-founded the Carson Scholars Fund (www.carsonscholars.org), a 501(c)3 established to counteract America’s crisis in education by identifying and rewarding academic role models in the fourth through eleventh grades, regardless of race, creed, religion and socio-economic status, who also demonstrate humanitarian qualities. There are over 4800 scholars in forty-five states. Ben and Candy are the parents of three grown sons and reside in Baltimore County, Maryland.

Example 7 – Good Balance: Tim Ferriss

Tim does lean aggressively into the idea of listing all the cool things he’s done and noteworthy outlets that have talked about him, but still makes his bio interesting and relevant to the reader of his books:

Timothy Ferriss is a serial entrepreneur, #1 New York Times best- selling author, and angel investor/advisor (Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Uber, and 20+ more). Best known for his rapid-learning techniques, Tim’s books — The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef — have been published in 30+ languages. The 4-Hour Workweek has spent seven years on The New York Times bestseller list.

Tim has been featured by more than 100 media outlets including The New York Times, The Economist, TIME, Forbes, Fortune, Outside, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and CNN. He has guest lectured in entrepreneurship at Princeton University since 2003. His popular blog www.fourhourblog. com has 1M+ monthly readers, and his Twitter account @tferriss was selected by Mashable as one of only five “Must-Follow” accounts for entrepreneurs. Tim’s primetime TV show, The Tim Ferriss Experiment (www.upwave.com/tfx), teaches rapid-learning techniques for helping viewers to produce seemingly superhuman results in minimum time.

Example 8 – Out of Balance (Confusing & Overselling): Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl is similar to Tim, but runs several unrelated things together in a confusing way, and mentions things that no reader would ever care about (e.g., the director of a movie based on her book). This same bio could be 25% shorter and much stronger.

Cheryl Strayed is the author of #1 New York Times bestseller WILD, the New York Times bestseller TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, and the novel TORCH. WILD was chosen by Oprah Winfrey as her first selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. WILD won a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, an Indie Choice Award, an Oregon Book Award, a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and a Midwest Booksellers Choice Award among others. The movie adaptation of WILD will be released by Fox Searchlight in December 2014. The film is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and stars Reese Witherspoon, with a screenplay by Nick Hornby. Strayed’s writing has appeared in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, The Missouri Review, The Sun, Tin House, The Rumpus–where she wrote the popular “Dear Sugar” advice column–and elsewhere. Strayed was the guest editor of BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2013 and has contributed to many anthologies. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages around the world. She holds an MFA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and their two children.

Remember: Your Bio Grows as You Grow

Treat your author’s bio as a living document. Just because you’ve written it once, doesn’t mean it’s finished. As you grow and change as a writer so should your bio, and the best part is that it’s easy to change a byline.

Also, remember that if you are writing for different genres or different topics that some of your accomplishments and past works will be more relevant to your readers than others. It’s a good idea to tweak your author bio for the next book you release.

Getting your author bio right is an important task. In fact, this small section is usually the ONLY source of information potential readers have about you (except maybe Google), and that’s why it is one of the most important pieces of marketing material you write for your book.

Take it seriously, get it right, and it will help you sell books.

The Scribe Crew

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How To Write An Author Bio – Ideas from Bestsellers

POSTED ON Mar 24, 2021

Written by P.J McNulty

Your author bio is the perfect chance to let readers know more about you, your background, and why you’ve written your books.

But how do you make sure your bio engages people rather than repelling them?

What are the technical aspects of an author bio you need to know?

And what are some shining examples you can use to inform your own bio?

Need A Nonfiction Book Outline?

We’ve gathered together some examples to help you sell more books and turn your readers into fans. 

What is an author bio?

Where is an author bio used, what are the benefits of an author bio, how do you write an author bio.

• Author bio examples – Hal Elrod
• Author bio examples – Ramy Vance
• Author bio examples – Tony Robbins  

Action steps for your author bio

An author bio is a short piece of writing, usually between 150 and 300 words, that lets readers know more about the author whose book they are thinking of reading. 

A good author bio establishes not only who an author is, and a little bit about their life, but also why they have written the book and some of their professional achievements. 

There are lots of places where an author bio can be featured. 

Some of the most common include:

• Books. It’s rare to find a book without some kind of author bio in. This helps both readers browsing in a bookstore to know if your book is right for them, as well as people who have read the book to learn more about you.
• Retailers. A lot of online book retailers allow you to upload a bio. Amazon Author Central is a great example, but it’s common to a lot of other bookstores as well. 
• Social media. You might feature your full bio on social media, or have extracts, for example in a Twitter bio. You can also use parts of your bio as visual content, for example on Pinterest or Instagram. 
• Author websites. For established authors, a full website is a must-have. Any good author website should have a bio section where interested people can find out more. 
• Blogging biographies. If you want to post on other authors' blogs as a guest writer, a shortened version of your bio should feature at the end of your posts and contain links to your author platform. 

A version of your bio is useful anywhere and everywhere you can think of that potential readers might want to learn more about you.

So if you’re going to take the time to write a good author bio, how can you expect to benefit? What makes it worth taking the time to craft the best bio possible?

Here are four powerful benefits of a good author bio. 

• Differentiation. It's unlikely that your book is unique among all the books out there. Hopefully, it has a unique and fresh angle, but there are probably similar books on offer. However, there's only one you! Your author bio makes your book stand out from others like it.
• Credibility. Your bio is a chance to show exactly why you are qualified to write that book in particular. Have you won awards? Do you have a certain educational or professional background that makes you suitable? Don’t brag, but calmly and clearly state your relevant achievements. 
• Connection. You can also use your author bio as a way to offer a bit of flavor about your life and who you are. If you’re humorous, show it! You can form a sense of connection with readers by authentically expressing your personality and who you are.
• Platform. An author bio is also the perfect place to promote your wider platform. You can include links to your author website, social media handles, Goodreads page, or anywhere else that people can deepen their connection to you.

 Of course, you only get these benefits if you write your bio the right way. A bad or boring author bio only risks alienating readers and dissuading them from checking out your book further. 

Now that you know exactly what an author bio is, and how it can help you succeed, let’s check out exactly how to create one.

To write an author bio, simply follow these five simple steps.

Step 1 – Read relevant bios 

It’s difficult to get a feel for the type of content found in an author bio unless you read some relevant examples in a careful, considered way. 

Take the time to read five or ten bios of authors you admire who write the same type of book as you. 

What do you notice? Is there a particular tone they all seem to take? Are the bios structured similarly? Which strike a chord with you the most, and why is that?

This step isn’t about plagiarising or copying. 

Instead, it's about finding the type of author bio you like and find effective and then creating your own authentic version of that.  

Step 2 – Brainstorm your key points

Before you write a draft of your bio, make a list of the must-have information it will contain. 

This could include your most pertinent biographical details, lists of your awards and achievements, and a few little flavorful details to show your personality and create some rapport with your reader.

Step 3 – Draft your bio 

Now that you’ve got the list of key points to include, it’s time to shape them into a readable draft of your bio. 

But what kind of structure should you use?

As a guideline, you might find this template to be a good starting point:

• Start with a powerful and gripping introductory sentence
• State your background and how it is relevant to the book you are writing
• Show your credibility by mentioning awards and other professional achievements 
• Sprinkle in a little flavor and personality 
• End your bio on a funny note or include a link to a part of your author platform 

After you’ve finished drafting, read back over your bio. Make sure it fits with the word count guidelines and includes all the key points you hoped for. 

Step 4 – Create alternative versions 

Because author bios are fairly short, you have the luxury of being able to create several alternative versions and deciding on the best. 

You can also have slightly different bios for different purposes, such as some that are more professional and others that lean into humor to a greater extent. 

If you don’t see any value in this step, feel free to skip it. 

Step 5 – Get feedback and refine

Now that you have a series of alternative reader bios, or even just a solid draft of a single version, it’s time to get some feedback and make improvements. 

If you already have people in your network you feel would be suitable to get feedback from, by all means reach out and ask them. But don't take the feedback of just anyone. You want to avoid people who will sugarcoat or aim to please you, as well as those who don't read the type of book you are working on. 

Step 6 – Update your bio as needed

Your author bio isn’t something you should write and forget about. Instead, be sure to update it over time as you achieve new things. This isn’t to say that you should constantly tweak it. That would be annoying. But give it a refresh from time to time, both in terms of its content, and also to make sure it still conveys the tone you want to get across. 

Author bio examples

While it’s one thing to read some best practice tips on writing your author bio, it’s another entirely to see some effective examples from the real world. 

To get your author bio juices flowing, here are some examples from bestselling authors. 

Hal Elrod 

Hal Elrod is one of the best-known modern motivational and self-help authors. Let’s take a look at Hal’s author bio. 

“Hal Elrod is on a mission to Elevate the Consciousness of Humanity, One Person at a Time. 

As the author of one of the highest rated books on Amazon, “The Miracle Morning” (which has been translated into 37 languages, has over 3,000 five-star reviews and has impacted the lives of over 2,000,000 people in more than 70 countries)… he is doing exactly that.

What's incredible is that Hal literally died at age 20. His car was hit head-on by a drunk driver at 70 miles per hour, his heart stopped beating for 6 minutes, he broke 11 bones and woke up after being in a coma for 6 days to be told by his doctors that he would probably never walk again.

Not only did Hal walk, he ran a 52-mile ultra-marathon and went on to became a hall of fame business achiever, international keynote speaker, author, and grateful husband & father-all before he turned 30.

Then, in November of 2016, Hal nearly died again – his kidneys, lungs, and heart were failing, and he was diagnosed with a rare, and very aggressive form of cancer and given a 30% chance of living.

After enduring the most difficult year of his life, Hal is now cancer-free and furthering his mission as the founder of The Miracle Morning book series, host of the “Achieve Your Goals” podcast, creator of the Best Year Ever [Blueprint] LIVE event, and Executive Producer of The Miracle Morning MOVIE – a documentary that reveals the morning rituals of some of the world's most successful people.

Hal is grateful to be alive and living his mission alongside his wife and their two young children in Austin, TX.

To contact Hal about media appearances, speaking at your event, or if you just want to receive free training videos and resources, visit www.HalElrod.com .”

As you can see, Hal Elrod’s bio touches on a lot of the ideas we found in this article. 

Some of the things we most liked about it include:

• First sentence. Hal Elrod's bio has a first sentence that is concise and tells you everything you need to know about his personal mission. 
• Emotionally engaging. By sharing details of Hal’s life, his bio takes you on an emotional journey. This makes you admire Hal and feel inspired to learn from him. 
• Small personal touches. Aside from the deeper emotional aspects, the bio contains some of the more usual personal information, such as living in Austin with his wife and kids. 
• Call to action. This bio ends with a clear call to action to visit Hal’s author website.

Ramy Vance is a self-publishing rockstar. Let’s take a look at his author bio. 

“Ramy Vance is the creator of the GoneGod World – a universe dedicated to myth, magic, mischief and mayhem. 

He lives in Edinburgh with his wife, demonic baby, monstrous 5-year old and imaginary dog.

Terrified, he pretty much stays in his office and writes.”

• Funny. This is a genuinely hilarious bio. It not only uses jokes but the humor ties in with his writing by using words like demonic and monstrous. 
• Punchy. Vance’s bio is one of the shortest on the list, clocking in at under 50 words. This is shorter than recommended, but it does a good job for a brief bio. 
• Light personal touches. You learn a little bit about Ramy’s life here, but it doesn’t bore you or give too many details. 

Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins is probably one of the best-known motivators and self-help gurus (although he doesn’t use that word) in the world. Let’s see what his author bio contains. 

“Tony Robbins is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. 

For more than thirty-nine years, millions of people have enjoyed the warmth, humor, and transformational power of Mr. Robbins's business and personal development events. 

He is the nation's #1 life and business strategist. He's called upon to consult and coach some of the world's finest athletes, entertainers, Fortune 500 CEOs, and even presidents of nations. 

Robbins is the chairman of a holding company comprised of more than a dozen businesses with combined sales exceeding five billion dollars a year. 

His philanthropic efforts helped provide more than 100 million meals in the last year alone. He lives in Palm Beach, Florida.”

• Credible. Tony Robbins’ bio drips with credibility. It makes big claims but backs them up with convincing justifications. 
• Quantified. Tony’s use of numbers is great here. Mentioning “five billion dollars” and “100 million meals” is very effective. 
• Tone. The tone of Robbins’ bio is professional and concise. It’s businesslike and straight to the point. 

Hopefully, you've taken a lot from this guide to crafting an effective author bio. 

If you’re ready to take action and start working on your own bio, follow these five simple steps:

• Identify 10 relevant bios to read and make notes on. 
• Combine and summarize your author bio notes, looking for commonalities. 
• Bullet point the essential info for your bio. 
• Draft a bio using the structure shown above.
• List 5 people in your network you will reach out to for feedback when you have a full bio ready.

After you’ve taken that initial action, you’ll have plenty of momentum to build upon to write the full thing.

An effective author bio really can help you sell more books, so why not get started right away?

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Author Biography Examples: Tips and Samples

An author biography can be a powerful tool in establishing credibility and connecting with readers. Crafting a compelling bio requires a delicate balance of showcasing professional accomplishments while injecting personality and relatability. For aspiring writers, author biography examples can serve as invaluable guides to help navigate this process effectively.

When writing an author biography, it is essential to strike a balance between professionalism and personal flair. A well-crafted bio provides readers with insight into the author's background, expertise, and interests, helping to establish trust and credibility. Tips and samples can offer practical guidance on how to structure an engaging bio that resonates with the target audience.

Whether you are a seasoned writer looking to refresh your bio or a novice seeking inspiration, studying author biography examples can offer valuable insights into best practices. By examining different styles and approaches, authors can identify what resonates most with their audience and tailor their own bio accordingly. Crafting a captivating author biography is a skill that can significantly enhance an author's online presence and help forge meaningful connections with readers.## Notable Author Biographies

When exploring author biography examples , it can be inspiring to delve into the lives of renowned writers who have left a lasting impact on the literary world. Here are a few notable author biographies to provide insight into the diverse backgrounds and experiences that have shaped some of the most celebrated literary figures:

Jane Austen

• Born: December 16, 1775 in Steventon, United Kingdom
• Notable Works: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma Jane Austen's personal life remains somewhat mysterious, as she led a relatively quiet existence. Her novels , however, have endured the test of time, known for their witty social commentary and timeless romance.

Ernest Hemingway

• Born: July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, United States
• Notable Works: The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises Hemingway's adventurous spirit and bold writing style defined a generation of literature. His experiences in war and travel greatly influenced his work, leading to a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

Maya Angelou

• Born: April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States
• Notable Works: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Still I Rise, The Heart of a Woman Maya Angelou's poignant autobiographies resonated with readers worldwide, shedding light on themes of identity and resilience. Her versatility as a writer and activist continues to inspire generations.

These author biographies provide a glimpse into the diverse backgrounds and experiences that have shaped the literary landscape. By studying the lives of these notable authors , aspiring writers can gain valuable insight into the creative process and the enduring impact of storytelling.

Key Components of an Author Biography

When crafting an author biography, it is crucial to include key components that provide readers with relevant information about the writer. A well-rounded author biography can help establish credibility and build a connection with the audience. Here are some essential elements to consider when creating an author biography:

Introduction : Begin with a brief overview of the author's background and expertise. Mention any relevant academic qualifications or professional experience that enrich the writer's credentials.

Writing Achievements : Highlight the author's significant accomplishments in the writing field. This can include published works , awards , or recognition received for their contributions to literature.

Personal Insights : Share some personal details to give readers a glimpse into the author's life outside of writing. This could include hobbies, interests, or experiences that have influenced their work.

Writing Style : Briefly describe the author's writing style to give readers an idea of what to expect from their content. Mention any unique traits or themes that are recurrent in the author's work.

Relevance : Emphasize the relevance of the author's work to the target audience. Explain how the author's writing addresses current trends or key issues in the industry.

In summary, a well-crafted author biography should provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the writer's background, accomplishments, personal insights, and writing style. By including these key components, authors can effectively engage and connect with their audience, establishing a strong foundation for building a loyal readership.

Strategies for Crafting a Compelling Bio

Crafting a compelling author biography is crucial for establishing credibility and connecting with readers. Here are some effective strategies to make your bio stand out:

1. Keep It Concise and Relevant

• Focus on key highlights : Mention relevant achievements and credentials.
• Avoid unnecessary details : Stick to the most impactful information.

2. Showcase Personality

• Inject personality : Share a personal anecdote or quirk to make the bio engaging.
• Use a conversational tone : Make it relatable to readers.

3. Highlight Expertise and Achievements

• Emphasize expertise : Mention areas of specialization or genre focus.
• Include accolades : Showcase awards, publications, or notable accomplishments.

4. Include a Call-to-Action

• Guide readers : End with a call-to-action, such as inviting them to connect on social media or visit your website.
• Encourage engagement : Prompt readers to explore more of your work.

5. Update Regularly

• Stay current : Regularly review and update your bio to reflect recent achievements or changes.
• Keep it fresh : Ensure your bio remains relevant and up-to-date.

Data and Statistics

Below are some statistics on the impact of a compelling author bio:

By implementing these strategies and keeping your bio updated, you can create a compelling author biography that resonates with readers and enhances your online presence.

Examples of Effective Author Bios

When it comes to crafting an author bio that captivates readers and showcases one's unique personality, several elements come into play. Here are some examples of effective author bios that can inspire and guide aspiring writers:

1. Short and Impactful

• Mark Taylor : Mark Taylor is an award-winning author known for his concise storytelling and compelling characters. His bio reads, Award-winning author. Lover of words. Coffee addict. Always chasing the next great story.

2. Establishing Credibility

• Emily Ross : Emily Ross is a seasoned writer with over a decade of experience in the publishing industry. Her bio mentions, With ten years in the editing world, **Emily Ross** is passionate about bringing stories to life and helping writers achieve their dreams.

3. Showcasing Personality

• Samuel Greene : Samuel Greene infuses humor and quirkiness into his author bio, stating, Part-time writer, full-time dreamer. Often found lost in fictional worlds or sipping tea while pondering the meaning of life.

4. Engaging the Reader

• Laura King : Laura King draws readers in with a relatable and inviting bio: Book lover. Dog mom. Writer by day, reader by night. Passionate about crafting stories that resonate with the heart.

Effective author bios should be a blend of professionalism, personality, and authenticity. By incorporating key details about their writing style, interests, and background, authors can connect with their audience on a deeper level and leave a lasting impression.

How to Showcase Your Personality in a Bio

When crafting an author biography, showcasing your personality can set you apart and make a lasting impression on readers. Here are key tips to effectively infuse your unique persona into your bio:

1. Reflect on Your Writing Style

• Align the tone and style of your bio with your writing. If your work is witty and humorous, let that shine through in your bio.
• Make sure your bio reflects your brand as an author. Are you known for suspenseful storytelling or insightful non-fiction? Ensure this is evident in your bio.

2. Share Personal Anecdotes

• Inject authenticity by sharing relevant personal stories or experiences. These anecdotes can humanize you and create a connection with your readers.
• Avoid oversharing . Keep the focus on anecdotes that are engaging and add value to your bio.

3. Highlight Your Achievements and Passions

• Showcase your accomplishments and accolades, but do so humbly. Letting readers know about your successes can lend credibility to your work.
• Passion speaks volumes . Mention hobbies or interests that reflect who you are outside of writing. This can intrigue readers and make your bio more memorable.

4. Use a Consistent Tone

• Maintain a consistent voice throughout your bio. Whether it’s casual and friendly or professional and polished, ensure it suits your overall brand image .
• Consider who your target audience is. Tailor your tone to resonate with the readers you want to attract.

5. Keep It Concise and Engaging

• Capture attention with a compelling opening sentence. Engage readers from the start to encourage them to read on.
• Avoid lengthy paragraphs. Use bullet points or short sentences to make your bio easy to scan .

By following these strategies, you can create a well-rounded author bio that not only informs readers about your background but also gives them a glimpse into who you are as a person and a writer.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Author Biographies

When crafting an author biography, it's essential to avoid common mistakes that can hinder its effectiveness. Here are some key pitfalls to steer clear of:

Avoid Over-sharing: While it's important to provide relevant personal details, authors should refrain from including irrelevant or overly personal information in their biographies. Focus on aspects that are directly related to their writing career.

Steer Clear of Irrelevant Credentials: Authors should ensure that the credentials they highlight in their biographies are directly related to their writing expertise . Including irrelevant or outdated credentials can dilute the impact of the bio.

Watch Out for Lengthy Biographies: Author biographies should be concise and to the point. Long-winded or overly detailed bios can lose the reader's interest. Aim for a good balance between providing valuable information and keeping it succinct.

Avoid Generic Statements: Authors should steer clear of clichés and generic statements in their biographies. Instead, focus on unique selling points and what sets them apart from other writers.

Check for Grammar and Spelling Errors: It's crucial to proofread the biography carefully to catch any grammar or spelling mistakes . Errors can detract from the author's professionalism and credibility.

Inaccurate Information: Authors should ensure that all the information provided in their biography is accurate and up-to-date. Factual errors can undermine the author's credibility.

By avoiding these common mistakes, authors can create engaging and effective biographies that resonate with readers and showcase their writing talents authentically.

Balancing Professionalism and Creativity in Bios

Crafting an author bio that strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and creativity is crucial for making a lasting impact on readers. Here are some key tips to help authors achieve this delicate equilibrium:

Maintain a Professional Tone : A well-written bio should exude professionalism by highlighting the author's credentials, expertise, and achievements in a concise and factual manner.

Showcase Personality : While professionalism is important, injecting a touch of creativity and personality into the bio can make it more engaging and memorable for readers. Consider incorporating humor , quirky details , or personal anecdotes to showcase the author's unique voice.

Highlight Relevance : Focus on highlighting aspects of the author's background that are most relevant to their work. This could include relevant experience , education , published works , or awards .

Engage the Reader : A compelling author bio should not only inform but also pique the reader's interest. Consider ending the bio with a call-to-action , inviting readers to explore the author's work further or connect on social media.

Length Matters : Strive for a balance between providing enough information to engage the reader and avoiding overwhelming them with excessive details. Aim for a bio length of around 100-200 words for a brief and impactful introduction.

In summary, the key to creating an effective author bio lies in striking the right balance between professionalism and creativity. By crafting a bio that showcases expertise while also revealing the author's unique personality, writers can make a strong connection with their audience and leave a lasting impression.

Incorporating Social Proof in Your Bio

Incorporating social proof in an author biography can significantly enhance credibility and trustworthiness. Here are some effective ways to leverage social proof in your bio:

Testimonials and Endorsements : Including quotes from readers, fellow authors, or well-known personalities can validate your expertise and resonate with your audience. These endorsements act as social proof of your writing skills.

Awards and Accolades : Mentioning any awards , honors , or recognitions you have received helps establish your authority in the writing field. Readers are more likely to trust an author with a proven track record of success.

Publication Highlights : Highlighting noteworthy publications or featured articles in prestigious outlets showcases your writing proficiency. It reinforces the idea that your work is valued and respected by others.

Social Media Followers : If you have a substantial following on social media platforms , such as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, consider mentioning your follower count . A large following indicates a strong reader base and can attract new followers.

Collaborations and Partnerships : Mentioning any collaborations with well-known authors , publishing houses , or media outlets can further enhance your credibility. It shows that you are respected and trusted within the writing community.

Reader Reviews and Ratings : Including positive reviews or ratings from readers on platforms like Goodreads or Amazon can influence potential readers to engage with your work. Authentic feedback acts as compelling social proof.

By strategically incorporating social proof elements in your author biography, you can establish a strong reputation and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Remember, authentic and relevant social proof can make a significant impact on how your author bio is perceived.

Optimizing Your Bio for Different Platforms

Crafting a captivating author biography is essential, but tailoring it for various platforms can significantly amplify its impact. When optimizing your bio for different platforms, consider the following tips:

Understand Platform Requirements : Each platform has its own character limits, so ensure your bio fits within those constraints without losing its essence.

Maintain Consistency : While adapting your bio for different platforms, maintain a consistent tone, voice, and key information across all of them for brand coherence.

Use Keywords : Incorporate relevant keywords in your bio to improve search engine visibility and attract the right audience. Sprinkle these strategically without overloading.

Include Call-to-Actions (CTAs) : Depending on the platform, adding a CTA can prompt readers to take desired actions, whether it’s visiting your website, following you, or purchasing your book.

Utilize Hashtags Wisely : On platforms like Instagram and Twitter, hashtags can increase discoverability. Research trending and relevant hashtags in your niche and incorporate them thoughtfully.

Tailor to Audience Demographics : Understand the demographics of each platform's user base and adjust your bio to resonate with those audiences effectively.

Visual Appeal : Platforms like Instagram rely heavily on visuals. Consider incorporating emojis, line breaks, or formatting to enhance the visual appeal of your bio.

Track Performance : Utilize platform analytics to monitor the performance of your bio. Analyze what works best on each platform and refine your bio accordingly.

Remember, versatility is key when optimizing your author bio for different platforms. By customizing it to suit the nuances of each platform, you can maximize engagement and effectively connect with your audience.

Crafting a Memorable Author Biography

Crafting a memorable author biography is essential for establishing credibility and connecting with your audience. Here are some key tips to help you create a captivating author bio:

Focus on Your Unique Selling Point (USP): Highlight what sets you apart from other authors. Whether it's your writing style, experiences, or expertise, your USP should be front and center.

Keep it Concise and Relevant: A good author bio is succinct and relevant. Stick to the most important details that showcase your credibility and expertise.

Include Professional Achievements: Mention any awards, publications, or significant achievements that add credibility to your profile.

Inject Personality: Don't be afraid to infuse a bit of personality into your bio. A touch of humor or personal anecdote can make you more relatable to your readers.

Consider Your Target Audience: Tailor your bio to resonate with your target audience. Use language and tone that will appeal to the readers you are trying to reach.

Update Regularly: Keep your author bio up to date. As you publish new works or achieve milestones, make sure to reflect these changes in your biography.

Remember, your author bio is often the first impression readers will have of you, so make sure it's engaging, informative, and true to who you are as a writer. By following these tips, you can craft a compelling author biography that will leave a lasting impact on your audience.

(Data or Statistics can go here if needed)

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25 Eye-Catching Author Bio Examples

Ranking high on the list of Things Authors Hate To Write, biographies are something that can make even the most seasoned writer pull their hair out. Why do we hate writing them so much? Probably because it involves writing about ourselves. We write stories about other people, so having to turn the spotlight on ourselves can be daunting at best and downright cringe-inducing at worse.

However, a solid author bio is actually an important marketing tool. It can impact sales, your reputation, and help you grow a fanbase. The more fans you have, it follows the more sales you'll see. If you're a nonfiction writer, your bio is particularly important as it establishes your authority/expertise to write about the topic in your book and also your credibility with readers.

Check out these 25 authors who absolutely nailed their authors bios, and don't be scared to take notes! If you want additional inspiration, you can always use HubSpot's AI Content Writer to generate an author bio example or two. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

In no particular order:

• Courtney Milan's Author Bio
• Sarah J. Maas' Author Bio
• Michael Siemsen's Author Bio
• Jonathan Maberry's Author Bio
• Glynnis Campbell's Author Bio
• Kwame Alexander's Author Bio
• Nora Roberts' Author Bio
• Alyssa Cole's Author Bio
• Colleen Hoover's Author Bio
• Gillian Flynn's Author Bio
• David Baldacci's Author Bio
• Adam Silvera's Author Bio
• Mia Sosa's Author Bio
• April White's Author Bio
• Rick Mofina's Author Bio
• Chuck Wendig's Author Bio
• Skye Warren's Author Bio
• J. T. Ellison's Author Bio
• Karin Slaughter's Author Bio
• Julia Quinn's Author Bio
• Craig Martelle's Author Bio
• Vanessa Riley's Author Bio
• Aiden Thomas' Author Bio
• Tiffany D. Jackson's Author Bio
• Angie Fox's Author Bio

So, what makes a great author bio, and how can you write one?

Write in the third person

There's a reason this is called an author biography and not an author autobiography . Though you are the person who is more than likely writing your bio, you want it to sound as though someone else wrote it—someone who's objective and not biased toward you. Of course, being that you're the author, that sounds totally weird, since you more than likely are biased toward yourself. Still, establishing a third-person perspective when writing about yourself automatically establishes objectivity and professionalism, and inspires trust on the part of the reader.

Be mindful of tone

This is an important one, and what tone you use depends on the kind of writing you do. If you're a fiction author, you can usually get away with a more casual tone. Other subgenres lend themselves well to a bit of humor, too—generally lighthearted romance, chicklit, women's fiction, romantic comedies are good subgenres where humor tends to be well received. However, gauge this based on your writing and your understanding of your audience, or the type of audience you'd like to have. Conversely, if you're writing more serious fiction like literary fiction, hard sci-fi, epic fantasy or historical, then you might want to go easy on the humor and instead focus more on your expertise. Though it's fiction, readers might like to know that you have a Master's degree in Military History, or perhaps you've got a medical or science background that helped you write your biopunk novel. The same rules apply to nonfiction as well—humor or a light tone can be leveraged depending on the subject matter. If you're writing a lighthearted, uplifting personal development book, readers may appreciate your sense of humor. On the other hand, if you're writing a book about personal finance or navigating mental health issues, then perhaps you might focus on a more neutral tone and highlight your credentials instead.

Speaking of… discuss your credentials

The success of all books, whether they're nonfiction or fiction, rely on the credibility of the author. This credibility leaves the reader with a sense of trust, knowing that whatever they're reading was written by someone who could be called a subject matter expert. When readers trust you, they're more apt to tell the world about your book. And they're also apt to purchase your next one.

Credentials can look differently depending on the author and the kind of book being written, but they do need to align with the writing somehow. For instance, if you're a mechanic by education and experience, you're probably not the best person to write a nutrition book, unless you have those credentials. If you're a lawyer, you probably want to steer clear writing a book about medicine—unless you have those credentials as well. People want to read the work of someone who knows what they're talking about, so making it clear that you are indeed that subject matter expert immediately puts a reader's mind at ease.

You might be wondering how credentials work if you're a fiction writer. While it's certainly true that signaling authority in a field as a fiction writer is indeed more difficult—for instance, you don't have to be a scientist by education or profession to write a hard biopunk novel—subject matter expertise or at least thorough research can be indicated with a bibliography of sources, if you consulted actual medical journals or papers or textbooks on which to base your novel. If you write political thrillers, maybe your credentials come from the time you spent working for a three-letter agency, or maybe you write police procedurals because you were once a cop. You also don't need to have lived the life you're writing about. You don't need to have a law enforcement background to write an FBI series, and you don't need to have worked as a CIA asset in order to write an awesome spy thriller. But the authority you should have is a clear understanding of how storytelling mechanics function. Your writing should be top-notch and thoroughly edited—this is what establishes your authority as a professional writer, and when it comes to fiction, oftentimes that's enough.

Include your achievements

Did you graduate college with a degree in Creative Writing? Mention that. Did you attend graduate school and obtain an MFA? Have you won awards, scholarships, or fellowships for your writing? Readers need to know. Have you been published before? List those journals, magazines, anthologies, and/or individual publications.

This point correlates directly to the previous one about credentials, because they indicate to the reader that, essentially, you know what you're doing, and they're in the hands of an expert writer who is going to tell them an amazing story.

Say you don't have many—or any—achievements like the ones mentioned. That's okay, too! This could be a good place to list your relevant interests and hobbies. For instance, if you've written a political thriller, maybe you have a well-documented interest in politics, the American government, and conspiracies. Maybe in between novels, you spend your time reading tons of books about the subject. Maybe your serial killer novel is inspired by your interest in true crime, and for the writing of the book you read as many serial killer biographies you could get your hands on and conducted hundreds of hours of research. This, too, shows the reader why your book will be written as expertly as possible.

Mention your backlist

The author bio is a great place to mention your other books, if you have them. Perhaps the book the reader's holding is part of a series—do they know that there are more books? Point them in the direction of relevant work. You could briefly mention other works you have that are totally different than the one they're reading. For example, if they just completed your serial killer novel, they may or may not be interested in your contemporary romance. A safe way to introduce readers to your other work is to direct them to your website, but keep in mind you're not selling them on this, only pointing it out.

Keep it short

While you might be able to write about yourself for pages and pages, the truth is most readers only want to read about a couple of paragraphs about you, just enough to get to know, learn why you wrote the novel if that's applicable, and where they can keep up with your work. Unless you have a huge resume related to writing—you've got TV shows and movies and merch related to your books—you'll probably want to keep it short and sweet. The challenge is to weave in as much relevant information about yourself in as few words as possible, in order to entice the reader to stick with you but not overwhelm with information they simply won't care about. But, hey, we are writers, after all!

Hopefully taking a peek at these varied author bios that each feature something we touched on in this article will get your creative juices flowing—about yourself! Don't be daunted by thought of writing about yourself. This is your opportunity to show the world what an excellent writer you are, and why they definitely need to get into your book. Happy writing!

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How to Write An Author Bio That Attracts Readers 

Has a stranger ever asked you, “What can you tell me about yourself?”

And did you feel all the blood drain from your face as you thought, “Who even am I?!”?

Pretty much everyone can relate to that feeling…but it’s even worse for authors.

Because a reader is not just trying to get to know you. They’re trying to figure out if they want to buy your books.

Calling this a daunting task is an understatement…so we’re going to walk you through writing an author bio that grabs attention. And we’ve included over 20 unique examples because seeing them in action is the best way to learn!

What is An Author Bio

An author biography briefly tells the reader everything they need to know about the author’s credentials, writer journey, and previous works.

It’s not just a simple overview, it’s a book marketing tool used to summarize who you are while convincing them that your books are worth buying.

Do You Need An Author Bio?

With 99.9% confidence, we can say that most readers don’t know who you are. Your author biography will be the first contact for them. You need one because:

• It helps build trust with the reader.
• It allows the reader to relate to you.
• It promotes your books and other work.
• It increases book sales.

The biography of an author carries the same essence as their books. Therefore, if a reader likes yours, they’ll feel more confident that they’ll like your books too.

How to Write an Author Bio

A successful author bio will paint yourself as interesting and your books as worthwhile. These tips will help you create one that fits you best:

Aim for the target audience

You can only nail your author bio if you’ve considered who you’re writing it for. If it helps, you can create an image in your head about who this reader could be. Use these to help you form that picture:

• Their age group,
• Their hobbies and lifestyle,
• Where they are from, etc.

Then you need to write what this type of reader wants to get out of reading your bio.

For example, if you’ve written cookbooks about quick meals for busy parents, it would be worth mentioning that you’re also a parent and how many kids you have so the reader can build trust in your brand.

How long should it be?

It can be anywhere from 60-150 words, but never over (unless you’re doing a tasteful ‘About’ page on your website).

If you’re using it for your book, we suggest 60-90 words, but you could do much less if it suits you.

The length will be determined by a few factors:

• How much privacy would you like to maintain about your personal life
• What else would you like to promote, for example, a podcast or your organization
• How many awards have you won
• How many quotes or endorsements would you like to share
• What perception of your brand do you want to create

Want To Give Your Readers An Engaging Online Experience?

Get an author website that showcases your books, grows your list, and attracts publishers and promoters.

Write in the Third Person

Why does it have to be in the third person, you ask?

It’s a tale as old as time. Or in other words, it’s industry standard.

You come off as professional if it’s in the third person and it can be used anywhere.

Speaking of…

Where will you use it?

You’ll have to write a few variations of your author bio so you’re prepared for every situation. 

You’ll need:

• A longer one for your author website ,
• A punchy one for social media,
• A captivating one for your book’s product page (for example your Amazon book page – you can use Amazon Author Central to do this),
• A compelling one to go alongside a book blurb
• A convincing one for book proposals  
• An informative one for book signings , interviews, speaking engagements articles, book press releases , etc.

Balance facts with personality

Let the readers into your world with some cool facts about you, whether it’s awards you’ve won or accomplishments of the company you’re a part of – if it relates to your work. This creates an outline for your professional prowess.

Without professionalism, readers may be tempted to run for the hills. But that doesn’t mean your author bio can’t have personality.

As a matter of fact, when you add some personal details that’s your chance to reel them in.

With personal details, you can color in that outline to form a fuller, beautiful image for readers to have in their minds when they think of you.

Author Bio Example: Christopher Paolini

Check out this example:

Christopher Paolini is the creator of the World of Eragon and the Fractalverse. Holder of the Guinness World Record for youngest author of a bestselling series. Qualified for marksman in the Australian army. Scottish laird. Dodged gunfire . . . more than once. As a child was chased by a moose in Alaska. Has his name inscribed on Mars. Firstborn of Kenneth and Talita. Husband. Father. Asker of questions and teller of stories. His latest novel, Fractal Noise, will be published on May 16th, 2023.

Why it works

The biography of this author has many personal tidbits but the one that may appeal the most to a reader is near the top of the paragraph.

Keep it concise and relevant

An author bio includes a magnitude of information, and you are tasked with keeping all of it concise and to the point.

To do this you have to share your accolades and achievements with caution. If you add too much then you’ll likely leave the reader snoring. And if there’s irrelevant information, the reader will just be confused.

An author bio is about saying a lot in a few words.

Include contact links

There’s nothing wrong with plugging your social media and author website links at the bottom of your author bio.

It’s a great way to get your readers to stay connected with you and it serves as a neat CTA (call-to-action).

And that leads us to…

Call them to action

If the reader is interested after reading your author bio, you’ll want to have a CTA that tells them what to do next.

It could be as simple as asking the reader to follow you on your social media profiles or to check out your latest book release.

If they’ve made it to the end of your biography, you might as well try and keep that momentum going!

Author Bio Example: Suzanne Leonhard

Check out the CTA in this author bio for example:

Suzanne Leonhard is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Formerly published with Harper Collins, she now writes post apocalyptic thrillers to satisfy her love for end times fiction. She lives on the beautiful Florida coast with her husband and a whole lotta cats. You can email Suzanne at [email protected], visit her website at suzanneleonhard.com, or join her on her Facebook page @TheGoliathCode.

Suzanne’s bio briefly shares what she’s comfortable with and effectively ends off with a few CTAs that encourage her fans and newcomers to keep in touch.

19 Inspiring Author Bio Examples

Authors are not just limited to the words they write on the page, and no one author is the same as another.

So, to make sure you write the best author bio you can, we’ve included 20 examples that highlight a different element. You have the pick of the bunch!

1. Fantasy author bio

Author Bio Example: Chloe Gong

Check out this Fantasy author bio:

Chloe Gong is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Secret Shanghai novels, as well as the Flesh and False Gods trilogy. Her books have been published in over twenty countries and have been featured in The New York Times, People, Forbes, and more. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and international relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York City, pretending to be a real adult. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok under @thechloegong, or visit her website at www.thechloegong.com.

Chloe’s author bio is classy and shares just the right amount. Her accoladed books followed by her reach to twenty countries show off her worldwide appeal and her writing ability. Fantasy readers will be intrigued by the book names and have more trust in her after seeing her many achievements. Her last line does all the heavy lifting on her personality. Her target readers will definitely relate to her.

2. Romance author bio

Author Bio Example: Maggie Carpenter

Check out this Romance author bio:

International and Amazon Best-Selling Author Maggie Carpenter, pens thrilling, romantic tales starring Rope Wrangling Cowboys, Motorcycle Bad Boys, Mafia Masters, Amorous Aliens, and Sexy Shifters. Regardless of love’s challenges, her books always end in a heart warming HEA. For her daily brain break, she heads off to a barn where she spends time with her beautiful, smart, dark bay mare, Miss Bonny.  Social Media Links. Newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/MaggieNL (Free book at sign up) https://www.MaggieCarpenter.com https://www.facebook.com/MaggieCarpenterWriter/ https://www.facebook.com/MaggieCarpenterWriter/ (Friends Page) https://tinyurl.com/MaggiesGroup (Facebook Group) https://www.instagram.com/maggiesub/ https://twitter.com/magcarpenter2 https://tinyurl.com/MaggiesAmazonPage https://www.bookbub.com/profile/maggie-carpenter Email: [email protected]

Maggie’s author bio has all the markings to get romance readers’ eyes widened. It cleverly mentions the types of tales you may encounter in her novels while using a well-known acronym in the community (HEA – Happily Ever After). This actively engages the target reader along with the backing in the first-line hook: “International and Amazon Best-Selling Author.” We then get to peek inside her life as she ends the paragraph with a personal anecdote.  Don’t forget the plentiful links she’s shared – endless possibilities to connect with her!

3. Thriller Adventure author bio

Author Bio Example: Andrew Clawson

Check out this Thriller Adventure author bio:

Andrew Clawson writes thriller and adventure novels that make readers think and keep them turning pages long into the night, blurring the line between fact and fiction.  He is the Amazon best-selling author of multiple series, including the Parker Chase thrillers, all of which have been #1 Amazon category best-sellers. ​His other series include the TURN novels and the Harry Fox adventures. Andrew’s books are action-packed journeys blending fact and fiction, often taking a wild ride through the past to reveal mysteries and conspiracies that threaten the world today in stories where the action never stops and each page turns faster than the last. Andrew lives in Pittsburgh with his family and their rescued black cat, a wonderful little guy who thinks he’s a dog. To learn more, please visit his website at andrewclawson.com.

We like Andrew’s author bio because the purpose is clear: convince the reader to buy the book. The first sentences describe how readers experience his book. Then he backs that up with past work done and a notable accolade.  He sells the themes inside his books with a pacey middle paragraph that again hints at what to expect. 

4. Sci-Fi author bio

Author Bio Example: Andy Weir

Check out this Sci-Fi author bio:

ANDY WEIR built a two-decade career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian, allowed him to live out his dream of writing full-time.  He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of such subjects as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail. He lives in California.

Which Sci-FI reader wouldn’t want to read Sci-Fi from a nerd with experience in software and knowledge of physics?  This author’s biography says so much in very little time, expanding on both his personal and writing life in a concise manner.

5. Children’s author bio

Author Bio Example: Tonya Flores’s

Check out this Children’s author bio:

Children’s author Tonya Flores is an outgoing, energetic, busy mom of two who believes in real life superheroes! Passionate about child development, Tonya is thrilled to now be able to dedicate her time to pursue a long-time dream of helping children grow to become the best version of themselves. Known for her dedication in the pursuit of goals, Tonya is committed to helping children around the world recognize their unique abilities and grow up to be happy, confident, and fulfilled. 

Tonya’s author bio does less to sell her books and more her background. This will instill confidence in the parents who are looking to read books to their children which will impact them positively while entertaining them.

6. Non-fiction author bio

Author Bio Example: Robert M. Sapolsky

Check out this Non-Fiction author bio:

Robert M. Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate’s Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, and Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. He is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. He lives in San Francisco.

This author bio screams non-fiction with a sophisticated voice.  This short piece manages to list a few past books, an accolade, and share Robert’s field of knowledge. This biography’s main purpose is to show the link between the author’s expertise to the books written.

7. Multiple genres author bio

Author Bio Example: Macy Blake

Check out this Multi-genre author bio:

Macy Blake believes in unicorns and fairies, in moonbeams and stardust, and that happily ever after comes in all colors of the rainbow. She loves to lose herself in paranormal romance, living vicariously through her favorite sexy fictional heroes. These days you can often find her lost in her imagination, trying to capture the magic of her own worlds. When she’s not writing, she’s busy arguing with her feisty German Shepherd, Minerva, and attempting to train her adorable pound puppies, Pomona and Severus.

Macy’s bio skillfully expands upon the themes and genres of her work in the first sentence, leaving the rest of her bio the responsibility of laying out her personal side. This author bio is full of personality, giving the reader an idea of the writing style inside her many genres.

8. Achievements

Author Bio Example: Fonda Lee

See how this author bio displays achievements:

Fonda Lee is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of the Green Bone Saga, beginning with Jade City and continuing in Jade War and Jade Legacy. She is also the author of the acclaimed young adult science fiction novels Zeroboxer, Exo and Cross Fire, and has written comics for Marvel. Fonda is a three-time winner of the Aurora Award, and a multiple finalist for the Nebula and Locus Awards. Fonda is a recovering corporate strategist, black belt martial artist, Eggs Benedict enthusiast, and action movie aficionado. Born and raised in Canada, she now resides in Portland, Oregon. Follow Fonda online at www.fondalee.com and on Twitter @fondajlee.

We’re hit immediately with an achievement to grab our attention in this author bio. Some of Fonda’s popular work is sprinkled in and a coating of wonderful accolades solidifies the author’s impressive CV.  The end of the paragraph lets us get to know Fonda in a way that intrigues and makes the reader relate.

9. Experience & Expertise

Author Bio Example: Brit Bennett

See how this author bio provides proof of expertise:

Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. She is a National Book Foundation “5 under 35” honoree, and her essays are featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel.

This author bio example is packed with lines that explain the author’s experience and expertise. Although it can seem harder to show expertise in fiction writing, Brit has represented it well here.  Her work with the publications will go a long way to bolster her author brand for readers and industry professionals.

10. A nice picture

Author Bio Example: Angie Thomas

Check out the headshot to the left and the author bio below:

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She can also still rap if needed. She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. Her debut novel, The Hate U Give, was acquired by Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins in a 13-house auction. Film rights have been optioned by Fox 2000 with George Tillman attached to direct and Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg set to star.

This author bio example is all about the headshot.  Picking the right picture to go alongside your bio is vital. It needs to suit the text next to it while corresponding to your brand. We love Angie’s picture because it conveys personality while being very welcoming. With some good lighting and camera work, you can do your headshot that hits all the checkmarks.

11. Past jobs

Author Bio Example: J. Z. York

Check out how this author bio reveals past jobs:

J Z York is new to fiction writing, with Pulse her debut novel.  An Air Force Veteran, she enthusiastically accepted assignment as a first woman in an all-male career field.  She’s been a professional photographer, cat rancher, dog magnet, miniature horse breeder, and unlucky guinea pig grandmother (sorry Jenniva). Working in several aspects of the film and television industry, she enjoyed collecting anecdotes while crashing numerous Cannes and Telluride Film Festivals, and L.A. gold statue award events.  She loves things that zoom, above, or over the ground. This week she’s living in Southern California.

As a new author, you may want to share your past jobs to either show how interesting a life you’ve led or how your experiences relate to your writing.  This a fun way to provide an overview while engaging the target reader with your personality and your life pre-writing career.

12. Endorsements

Author Bio Example: Katherine Center

See how this author bio displays endorsements:

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She’s the New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, The Bodyguard, and her newest, Hello Stranger. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” The movie adaptation of her novel The Lost Husband (starring Josh Duhamel) hit #1 on Netflix, and the movie of her novel Happiness for Beginners, starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes, opens July 27 on Netflix. Katherine’s summer 2022 book, The Bodyguard, was an instant New York Times bestseller, a People Best New Books pick, and nominated for Book of the Year by Book of the Month Club. Bestselling author Emily Henry calls The Bodyguard “a shot of pure joy,” and bestselling author Helen Hoang calls it “a perfect feel-good rom-com.” Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.

You could either pick one stellar review or decorate your bio with a few. This author bio example uses endorsements to further expand on Katherine’s branding as well as the themes of her books. Sometimes it’s overkill to go all in on so many aspects in a bio, other times, like in Katherine’s case, it’s the right amount to attract your ideal reader.

13. First-Time Author

Author Bio Example: Jennifer Ballow

This is how you do an author bio if you’re a first-time author:

Jennifer Ballow is a licensed master-level social worker & holds a degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a devoted mother to twin girls and a passionate advocate for children, people with disabilities, and older adults. As a children’s book author, Jennifer hopes to inspire children and their caregivers to connect through reading, imagination, and creative writing activities.

When you’ve just put out a debut novel, you need to immediately build trust with your audience and appeal to their needs. Jennifer Ballow’s author bio takes into account her branding and her personal life to provide a mixture just perfect for a newcomer’s bio.

14. Keeping it short

Author Bio Example: Veronica Rossi

Here’s how you keep an author bio short and sweet:

VERONICA ROSSI is the NY Times and USA Today Best Selling author of the UNDER THE NEVER SKY series for young adults. She was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, grew up in California and graduated from UCLA. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two sons, one of whom just surpassed her in height.

Veronica’s author bio is short, concise, and informative. She includes her past work, her genre, and some personal elements from her life. However, the personal element that stands out is her cultural background. It’s subtle yet effective at representing what is important to her – where she came from.

15. Your image and brand

Author Bio Example: Marie Forleo

This is how you let your brand shine:

A born-and-raised Jersey girl with nothing more than passion, a laptop, and a dream, Marie Forleo has created a socially conscious digital empire that inspires millions across the globe. Named by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation, she’s the star of the award-winning show MarieTV, with over 52 million views, and host of The Marie Forleo Podcast, with almost twelve million downloads. Marie has taught entrepreneurs, artists, and multipassionate go-getters from all walks of life how to dream big and back it up with daily action to create results. She runs the acclaimed business training program B-School and the writing program The Copy Cure. Her latest book, Everything is Figureoutable, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. Learn more at www.MarieForleo.com.

This author bio is more focused on branding than the book itself – which is fine given this author’s goal! Marie name-drops and showcases her main cause. It all supports her image and gives the reader justification for why she was equipped to write her book.  The lesson is if you have statistics and endorsements to work with, let them speak for themselves. 

16. Pen names

Author Bio Example: Lily Menon

This is how you reveal your pen name:

Lily Menon has always been enamored of romantic comedies and happily-ever-afters in all shapes and sizes. Her very first love story, written at age nine, was about a handsome young boy who wooed the heroine with books, chocolates, and a very fat puppy. Now Lily lives with her own handsome boy (who indeed wooed her with books, chocolates, and fat puppies) in the mountains of Colorado, where she spends her days dreaming up kissing scenes and meet-cutes. When she’s bored, Lily also masquerades as New York Times bestselling YA author Sandhya Menon. MAKE UP BREAK UP is her first adult romance. Visit her online at www.lilymenon.com.

By day you may be an author, and by night you may be…a different author. And you can share that in your author biography too! Just in case your ideal target may be interested in other genres, you leave the door open for them to discover your pseudonym’s work. Lily (or Sandhya) does this well. She’s curated an engaging author bio with her books’ themes and personal aspects. She finally caps it off with a clever line leading to her pen name’s work.

17. Author website

Author Bio Example: maggiecarpenter.com

Check out this ‘About The Author’ Page example:

WHO IS MAGGIE CARPENTER? The Answer May Surprise You. Yes, she is prolific author, penning over a hundred published titles, with heroes ranging from hunky cowboys, Harley-riding bikers and handsome billionaires, to brawny barbarians and amorous aliens. She’s known for page turning, nail biting suspense, steamy scenes and dreamy HEA’s. But Maggie has a history as colorful as one of her characters.  Hailing from a tiny town in New Zealand, her first taste of notoriety came as a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. Then it was off to Los Angeles where she was picked up by a modeling agency, and went on to star in film and episodic television. But her foray into the entertainment world didn’t stop there. She launched a highly successful live show as a stage hypnotist. Known as Sonjia: The Mistress of Mesmerism, she performed for the boys in uniform at Camp Pendleton, thrilled crowds in L.A. nightclubs, flew down to Sydney, where she incorporated illusions into her act, then returned to her homeland and wowed the audiences across the country. Now she works late into the night writing sexy, intriguing stories. Always at her side is her adorable terrier mix rescued from a junk yard in Tijuana, and she never misses a day riding her beloved dark bay mare .

The limit on word count kind of goes out the window on an author website – which, if used well, can really pull in your ideal audience. Maggie Carpenter has a colorful background matched with a conversational tone that can grab the reader’s attention. She starts by describing themes and then she gives some context to her personal life, intertwined with her writing life.

18. Your book’s themes 

Author Bio Example: Lauren Eckhardt

Check out this example on how to use themes:

Lauren Eckhardt is an award-winning Young Adult and Women’s Fiction author, who has a particular love of writing stories centered around second chances in life and the self-strengthening journeys of the characters through them. She currently lives in Illinois with her husband and two boys, happily surrounded by books . www.AuthorLaurenEckhardt.com

In the first line, the genre and the author’s accolades are planted as hooks. Lauren understands her target readers and what they’re looking for so she displays her genre’s themes in a conversational tone. 

19. Social media bio

Author Bio Example: Susan Dennard – @stdennard

Check out this Instagram author bio:

✍️ NYT bestselling author. 🎮 Come for the #ChooseWithSooz… 📚 Stay for the awesome books. 🌙 Next up: #TheHuntingMoon, in stores Nov 7! 🔗 linktr.ee/stdennard

Susan’s Instagram bio is excellent for the fast-paced social media world. It’s laid out in a bullet point format with appropriate emojis. It’s catchy and straight to the point while clearly aiming at the target audience.

A Simple Author Bio Template

You can be creative with your author bio while still being concise and brief. But if you’re stuck and you need an outline, we’ve got you covered with this author bio template:

• Credibility: Establish the author’s credibility with accolades, popular books published, experience and expertise, etc.
• Endorsements (if none, leave out): Add Endorsements that back up the credibility well.
• Other Work: Include other works like podcasts, TV shows, pen name’s works, or any other ventures the target reader would find of interest.
• Personal Touch: 1-2 lines of personal information that add flare and color to the author bio – only add what you are comfortable with.
• Call To Action: Include a call to action (CTA) and links to social media profiles, newsletters, new book releases, etc.

Remember to keep your author bio between 60-150 words and only include what you think readers would want to know!

Author Bio Mistakes To Avoid

Avoid these common author bio mistakes if you don’t want readers rolling their eyes or falling off to sleep:

• Qualification overload: Please refrain from adding your irrelevant qualifications and awards – but if you have a lot of relevant ones (good for you!), keep them to the headliners.
• The salesman: Your readers shouldn’t feel like they’re avoiding eye contact with the Mall kiosk employees selling samples when they read your bio – keep the sales talk to a minimum 
• Missing the target: Make your genres’, themes, and selling points clear, so you don’t make your target reader feel like they’re in the wrong place.
• The time-traveler: Some phrasing may have worked back in the day but it’s outdated now, so steer clear of cliches and putting dates in your bio that will make it very clear when you haven’t updated it in a while.

Where You Can Put Your First Author Bio

It’s easy for a reader to find an author on the all-knowing online oracle (Google!), so an author bio is an essential part of building an online presence. This is how readers will learn about you and your work, so you must make sure it’s as appealing as possible.

That means the words you use and the style in which it’s delivered. While you can’t exactly make your Amazon book page any color you like, you can do that on your author website.

Unlike social media, with an author website , you get to set the rules. And it’s a great place to put your first author bio too.

You’re just one inquiry form away from a stunning online presence that represents your brand. If you’re interested, get in touch!

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Question: How do I write a great author bio for my book cover and website?

Your author biography or “About the Author” is your chance to let the reader know a little bit about you and any relevant information or credentials that support your ability to write the book they are considering purchasing. Think of it as your calling card.

It’s important to have several different versions of your biography including shorter versions for social media profiles or article mentions, and longer versions for your book’s cover, author website, author sales sheet, and more.

Key Elements of a Great Author Biography

Your author biography should accompany any mention of your work. It is a valuable tool in your book marketing kit that helps agents, publishers, media outlets, or potential readers get a sense of who you are and why your book will be a great read. New authors have the opportunity to introduce themselves, while more established authors have the opportunity to mention any accolades for previously published work.

Whether a debut or more experienced author, there are four main things you should try to accomplish with your author biography that will make it more effective:

1.  Establish your authority – share any credentials, areas of expertise, or awards that validate your ability to write on the topic or tell the story.

2.  Reveal your “why” – let readers know why you chose this topic or story, and why your perspective on it matters.

3.  Share something personal – are there interesting or relevant aspects of your background that might be intriguing to readers? Or, do you have hobbies or passions you want readers to know about? Sharing something personal allows readers to connect with you.

4.  Point to where they can find out more – if you have an online presence – and we highly recommend you do – include your author website address or a couple of your social media handles at the end. This important “call to action” will hopefully entice readers to learn more.

Some authors include information on where they grew up and where they currently live. You don’t have to share this type of personal information if you are not comfortable, but you could miss out on some local or regional opportunities if you don’t. For example, many media outlets like to support local authors and if you don’t include your location in your biography, you won’t show up in their research for potential interviews. Readers also love supporting local authors so you could miss out on some book sales as well.

If you’re writing under a pen name or pseudonym and wish to remain anonymous, don’t include any identifiable information in your biography. Instead, focus on establishing your authority as a writer and how your writer voice is unique.

Author biographies should always be written in 3rd person, which is the “he/she” voice. It can be strange to write about yourself in this way, so try drafting your biography in the 1st person “I” voice to start, and then convert it to 3rd when finalizing. When written in 3rd person, your author biography appears more professional and trustworthy.

Author Biography Tips for Nonfiction Authors

When writing in nonfiction categories such as business, how-to, self-help, or travel, it’s important to quickly establish why you are qualified to write on the topic. This can include relevant work or travel experience, degrees, or certifications. Readers want to know why they can trust the information or solutions you are presenting in your book. Here are some additional tips for nonfiction authors:         

•  Include any services you offer that are relevant to the topic. •   Mention any speaking experience if you are available to speak on the topic. •   Include a professional headshot when there is room. •   When writing memoir , it’s important to include any personal information that is relevant to the experience or life event about which you are writing.

Author Biography Tips for Fiction Authors

For fiction authors, you want to be clear about the genres and subgenres you write in and the themes about which you enjoy writing. Fiction readers tend to gravitate toward specific categories of books because they enjoy the elements, tropes, and themes that are present. Including this information in your biography helps readers make an informed decision about the books they buy, and enables you to build a loyal readership. Here are some additional tips for fiction authors:

•  The tone of your biography should complement the tone of your writing. If your books are humorous, for example, include some humor in your biography. •   Mention any accolades related to writing craft or bestseller status. •   Share any awards or nominations you’ve received , even for short work. •   If you’ve created a memorable author brand or have become known for a certain style of writing, be sure to include it. •   Share what inspires your writing or ideas if relevant.

The Benefits of Preparing Multiple Author Biographies

It’s important to prepare at least three versions of your author biography that address different media and marketing needs. You’ll want a short and snappy version that can be plugged into your social media profile or added to any articles you publish. This version should be around 50 words or less and typically includes a couple of sentences that focus on your writing credentials, what you write, and where readers can find out more about you. While this may not seem like many words, you can see below that it provides ample space to include the key elements:

Before you start writing your author biography, make a list of everything you can potentially include. As you draft and revise, focus on the most pertinent pieces of information and cut the rest. Along with your book description and quotes from reviews or testimonials, your author biography should be a quick read that entices readers to learn more and buy your book.

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Dictionary of Literary Biography This set of reference books is often the most efficient place to find a scholarly biography of a literary author. It provides in-depth information on the life of each author, including information that helps you connect the author's life and writings. D. H. Hill Jr. Reference Collection PN451 .D54 (Learning Commons) -- Note: To find a particular author, use look in the Cumulative Index at the end of the last volume of the set

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The History Behind Arizona’s 160-Year-Old Abortion Ban

The state’s Supreme Court ruled that the 1864 law is enforceable today. Here is what led to its enactment.

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By Pam Belluck

Pam Belluck has covered reproductive health for more than a decade.

The 160-year-old Arizona abortion ban that was upheld on Tuesday by the state’s highest court was among a wave of anti-abortion laws propelled by some historical twists and turns that might seem surprising.

For decades after the United States became a nation, abortion was legal until fetal movement could be felt, usually well into the second trimester. Movement, known as quickening, was the threshold because, in a time before pregnancy tests or ultrasounds, it was the clearest sign that a woman was pregnant.

Before that point, “women could try to obtain an abortion without having to fear that it was illegal,” said Johanna Schoen, a professor of history at Rutgers University. After quickening, abortion providers could be charged with a misdemeanor.

“I don’t think it was particularly stigmatized,” Dr. Schoen said. “I think what was stigmatized was maybe this idea that you were having sex outside of marriage, but of course, married women also ended their pregnancies.”

Women would terminate pregnancies in several different ways, such as ingesting herbs or medicinal potions that were thought to induce a miscarriage, Dr. Schoen said. The herbs commonly used included pennyroyal and tansy. Another method involved inserting an object in the cervix to try to interrupt a pregnancy or terminate it by causing an infection, Dr. Schoen said.

Since tools to determine early pregnancy did not yet exist, many women could honestly say that they were not sure if they were pregnant and were simply taking herbs to restore their menstrual period.

Abortion providers described their services in discreet but widely understood terms.

“It was open, but sort of in code words,” said Mary Fissell, a professor of the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Abortion medications or herbs were called “female lunar pills” or “French renovating pills,” she said.

Newspaper advertisements made clear these abortion services were available.

“Abortion is commercializing in the mid-19th century, up to the Civil War,” Dr. Fissell said. “You couldn’t pretend that abortion wasn’t happening.”

In the 1820s, some states began to pass laws restricting abortion and establishing some penalties for providers, according to historians.

By the 1840s, there were some high-profile trials in cases where women who had or sought abortions became very ill or died. Some cases involved a British-born midwife, Ann Trow Summers Lohman, known as Madame Restell, who provided herbal pills and other abortion services in New York , which passed a law under which providers could be charged with manslaughter for abortions after quickening and providers and patients could be charged with misdemeanors for abortions before quickening.

But strikingly, a major catalyst of abortion bans being enacted across the country was the emergence of organized and professionalized medicine, historians say.

After the American Medical Association, which would eventually become the largest doctors’ organization in the country, formed in 1847, its members — all male and white at that time — sought to curtail medical activities by midwives and other nondoctors, most of whom were women. Pregnancy termination methods were often provided by people in those vocations, and historians say that was one reason for the association’s desire to ban abortion.

A campaign that became known as the Physicians’ Crusade Against Abortion began in 1857 to urge states to pass anti-abortion laws. Its leader, Dr. Horatio Robinson Storer , wrote a paper against abortion that was officially adopted by the A.M.A. and later published as a book titled “ On Criminal Abortion in America. ”

Later, the association published “ Why Not? A Book for Every Woman ,” also written by Dr. Storer, which said that abortion was immoral and criminal and argued that married women had a moral and societal obligation to have children.

Dr. Storer promoted an argument that life began at conception.

“He creates a kind of moral high ground bandwagon, and he does that for a bunch of reasons that make it appealing,” Dr. Fissell said. In one sense, the argument coincided with the emerging medical understanding of embryology that characterized pregnancy as a continuum of development and did not consider quickening to be its defining stage.

There were also social and cultural forces and prejudices at play. Women were beginning to press for more independence, and the male-dominated medical establishment believed “women need to be home having babies,” Dr. Fissell said.

Racism and anti-immigrant attitudes in the second half of the 19th century began fueling support of eugenics. Several historians have said that these undercurrents were partially behind the anti-abortion campaign that Dr. Storer led.

“People like Storer were very worried that the wrong Americans were reproducing, and that the nice white Anglo-Saxon ones were having abortions and not having enough children,” Dr. Fissell said.

A moralistic streak was also gaining prominence, including with the passage of the Comstock Act in 1873, which outlawed the mailing of pornographic materials and anything related to contraception or abortion.

By 1880, about 40 states had banned abortion. Arizona enacted its ban in 1864 as part of a legal code it adopted soon after it became a territory.

The law, ARS 13-3603, states: “A person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years.”

“It was an early one,” Dr. Schoen said, “but it is part of that whole wave of legislation that gets passed between the 1860s and the 1880s.”

Pam Belluck is a health and science reporter, covering a range of subjects, including reproductive health, long Covid, brain science, neurological disorders, mental health and genetics. More about Pam Belluck