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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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50 Brilliant, Original Questions to ask an Author

Authors are tired of getting the same questions at every interview. They’ve answered them a hundred times and will not be excited to answer them yet again. I can tell you exactly the questions writers get time and time again at every book reading and interview:

• Where do you get your ideas?
• What is your writing process like?
• What advice do you have for writers?

And if you look for other lists of interview questions for authors, they are remarkably uninspired. Everyone basically lists the same 20 questions that writers always receive.

My list below of interview questions are fantastic, but if those 50 aren’t enough, I would suggest you go here to see examples of fantastic interviews, and maybe pick up a few more good questions:

• These are the best interviews out there of writers, and there are thousands of them ( including four books ).

I’d also recommend that people curious about the writing process should read my informative blog post, “ 12 Steps to Write a Bestselling Novel .”

It will really illuminate the writing process.

Now, of course, the best question for a writer is one based on their book . Every author is excited to talk about their most recent book, or the big one they published a few years back. If you have a good question about a character or a plot point or the process of creating that book, they will be overjoyed to hear it.

But if you haven’t read their book yet, this is the next best thing: I’ve compiled a list of good questions for authors that are surprising and unique. I guarantee that these questions will surprise them for a second, and make them think about their answer.

50 Good Questions to Ask an Author

• What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
• What is the first book that made you cry?
• What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
• Does writing energize or exhaust you?
• What are common traps for aspiring writers?
• Does a big ego help or hurt writers?
• What is your writing Kryptonite?
• Have you ever gotten reader’s block?
• Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym?
• Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
• Do you think someone could be a writer if they don’t feel emotions strongly?
• What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
• Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
• If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
• How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
• What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
• What authors did you dislike at first but grew into?
• What did you do with your first advance?
• What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
• What are the most important magazines for writers to subscribe to?
• What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
• How do you balance making demands on the reader with taking care of the reader?
• As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
• What do you owe the real people upon whom you base your characters?
• How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
• What does literary success look like to you?
• What’s the best way to market your books?
• What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
• Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?
• What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
• How long were you a part-time writer before you became a full-time one?
• How many hours a day do you write?
• What period of your life do you find you write about most often? (child, teenager, young adult)
• What did you edit out  of this book?”
• Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
• What are the ethics of writing about historical figures?
• How do you select the names of your characters?
• If you didn’t write, what would you do for work?
• Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
• Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
• What was your hardest scene to write?
• Do you Google yourself?
• What one thing would you give up to become a better writer?
• What are your favorite literary journals?
• What is your favorite childhood book?
• What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
• Does your family support your career as a writer?
• If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
• How long on average does it take you to write a book?
• Do you believe in writer’s block? (DO NOT ask whether they’ve had writer’s block).

Now, if you’re a writer, I would suggest also reading my post, “ 12 Steps to Write a Bestselling Novel .”

It is the best advice you’ll ever receive about novel writing.

Happy Writing!

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79 comments

Thanks a lot!!!!

You got it!

Hi I have a eBook through Kindle and I’m ready to go for the paperback is it acceptable to do a trilogy after publishing a full length version of the same book on Kindle

It’s fine to do a paperback after providing an ebook of the same.

This was so helpful. I am an new book reviewer looking to start interviews as well. I love a lot of these questions!!!!

I know this is over a year old post but I wanted to respond out of curiosity. What books do you like to review? I am a new author and was looking for questions people would what to learn from reading my biography. This questions list seems helpful. This is very new because writing has never really been a thought until now. My decision to write stems from a tragic event and hopefully will blossom into something great. Have a great day.

This is very very helpful, thank you so much.

posted at 11:11 😉

This was helpful very helpful

Question 8: Have you ever gotten reader’s block? Question 50: Do you believe in writer’s block? (DO NOT ask whether they’ve had writer’s block).

Brilliant Angelica

Thx for pointing out, but first we need to ask, what’s a “readers’ block”??

When you feel like you can’t read or don’t want to read any more or can’t even decide what books to read.

This is awesome, thank you very much!

loll I noticed that too

Ashtyn, I don’t quite get what you and Angelica are noticing. One question is asking about writer’s block, and the other question is asking about reader’s block.

what is a reader block

When you have trouble reading. You don’t want to read, or you feel like you can’t read. It’s probably as common as writer’s block, but it doesn’t get talked about nearly as much.

I appreciate this! I have never had a phrase for it until now. Although looking back, it should have been obvious.

Ongoing this helped me a lot over the past years, like it helped me with the CFA book festival… And it worked!!!!

Thank you so much! I have an author I really want to do a interview with but I felt all the questions I came up with were cliche and unimportant.

Thank you so much! We have an author coming to our school and I have “question block” and had trouble thinking of questions that were actually interesting. Appreciate this a lot 😉

Thanks a million times

Thank so much for the help, we are skyping with Avi and I needed inspiration!

This was very helpful i needed it for a project and now i have my answers thank you so much!

Thanks! This helped me with my project very much! ^_^

oh did it really

Thanks for an entertaining list.

My dream is to be a writer in school we had a contest and i won a trophie thats why i want to be so happy today!

This is great! Very helpful! Thanks!

Thanks Alot

Thankyou very much.This informations helped me do my school english project!

Lol im doing that right now

Nice I will ask my friend’s mom as she is an author

This is really helpful and when I read it (I made a couple of questions before I came on here) I realized I was asking overused questions. Thanks for writing this post 🙂

Excellent questions. Thank you so much.

I copied this for my class. Thank you. REALLY USEFUL!!

thank you for this it helped a lot

Great one… I have a book launch coming up 20th of this month.. You all re invited

I am a new reporter for a local paper doing a feature on a local author. This is my first piece, so I want to impress. Thank you!!

So nice ones, i have found to be useful. Thank you a lot!

This is great.

These questions are amazing! Of course, not all questions fit in with the author’s I will interview but there are a good 30 that I can use. Thank you so much for posting them!

Love this! Thanks for this!

My question is: Can my mystery story rewrite a relatively unknown point of history that readers may, out of curiosity, research?

Yes. But there has to be enough details for the reader to make sense of the story without researching.

this is a helpful list. thx.

Thank you so much!! I used this for my book project and it helped me so much!

Thanks!!! For me now you’re the best

Reader’s block can also be caused by a boring book. Better to stop and find a better book.

Exactly my thought! I actually found it happens most when you got yourself stuck w/ one genre for too long & are already fed up w/ all the repetitive tropes yet you do not know this “trope fatigue”. Often as long as you’re willing to make yourself be adventurous & explore new types of reading materials, such as someone reading way too many young-adult fantasies, can start to explore maybe more mature-themed fantasy, or just give detective novels a try (I find myself solve my reader’s block most of the time through this principle ~~

Thank you so much. This list is making me think that the interview I am to do in a month will not be the hot mess of crickets chirping that I was afraid of and I actually am looking forward to hearing the author’s answers.

Hi, Thank so much for the help, but what is a reader block

Where you don’t want to read/can’t bring yourself to read anything.

This is great. Totally helped me in putting together some interview questions for the authors I host on my podcast. Cheers!

Why would an author make reference to his, or her writings as the ” finisher and author”? As oppose to an author and finisher?

can you change the type of book, say from memoirs to narrative or creative non fiction is it a difficulf process?

Thanks for sharing! This is wonderful its a great help. Keep sharing.

It will be of great help Thank you dear

I know this an older post, but I will be interviewing my first author next week and found this post very helpful! and this may be an ignorant quest but why shouldn’t we ask if they’ve had writer block or how they combat it? I am obviously new to this field and want to understand why it is taboo or rude to ask.

It’s asked too often, and you probably won’t get an interesting answer.

Hard to believe I had never googled myself since I published my first novel in 2015 – and the first page of results turned up a stunning review and article I had never seen.

I have just sent a fulsome apology to the editor/reviewer – and gotten a nice kick to help me get the SECOND novel in the Pride’s Children mainstream trilogy finished and published.

Interesting set of questions – though many seemed exclusively for traditionally-published authors. I take what I can from where I find it – thanks!

Question #8a nd #50 contradict each other, but otherwise,these are inspiring questions…..

8 and 50 do not contradict each other. One is reader’s block, one is writer’s block.

The question I’ve enjoyed the most is a question I got at a festival some years back: “where did you get your sweater from?”

Thanks about to meet Joelle Charbonneau

I have a author interveiw soon and i was told by my classroom teacher to think of a “big juicy and meaty question” (lol) My mind was blank before reading this. thanks

I really hate your mention of “spirit animal” it is enforcing a stereotypical view of American Indians. I respectfully ask you to remove that.

I politely decline.

Great answer!

This article is very informative. Thanks for sharing such valuable insights.

Thank you so much for writing this article.

Thank you!!! this helped so much!!!

This is really helpful. Thanks.

Full disclosure: I’m a writer.

Some of these questions are good, but a lot of them make me cringe. I would hate to be asked some of these. And there are a few that are simply atrocious (#7 wins the gold medal with #8 close behind).

I’d also advise people wanting to interview a writer to do some research first. For instance:

1) Asking authors #36 when they’ve never used historical characters in their books would make no sense;

2) Don’t ask a self-published author #18, it wouldn’t be relevant.

On the plus side, #10, 11 & 49 are all great questions (there are others).

#50 is perhaps the best one here, because of the subtle shift in the phrasing (do not ignore the parenthesis is all I’ll say lol).

Brilliant set of questions. Thank you for helping with my preparation.

these questions suck

This was a fantastic list, thank you!

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

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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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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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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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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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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Posted on Jun 30, 2023

How to Write a Biography: A 7-Step Guide [+Template]

From time to time, nonfiction authors become so captivated by a particular figure from either the present or the past, that they feel compelled to write an entire book about their life. Whether casting them as heroes or villains, there is an interesting quality in their humanity that compels these authors to revisit their life paths and write their story.

However, portraying someone’s life on paper in a comprehensive and engaging way requires solid preparation. If you’re looking to write a biography yourself, in this post we’ll share a step-by-step blueprint that you can follow. 

How to write a biography: 

1. Seek permission when possible 

2. research your subject thoroughly, 3. do interviews and visit locations, 4. organize your findings, 5. identify a central thesis, 6. write it using narrative elements, 7. get feedback and polish the text.

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While you technically don’t need permission to write about public figures (or deceased ones), that doesn't guarantee their legal team won't pursue legal action against you. Author Kitty Kelley was sued by Frank Sinatra before she even started to write His Way , a biography that paints Ol Blue Eyes in a controversial light. (Kelley ended up winning the lawsuit, however).  

Whenever feasible, advise the subject’s representatives of your intentions. If all goes according to plan, you’ll get a green light to proceed, or potentially an offer to collaborate. It's a matter of common sense; if someone were to write a book about you, you would likely want to know about it well prior to publication. So, make a sincere effort to reach out to their PR staff to negotiate an agreement or at least a mutual understanding of the scope of your project. 

At the same time, make sure that you still retain editorial control over the project, and not end up writing a puff piece that treats its protagonist like a saint or hero. No biography can ever be entirely objective, but you should always strive for a portrayal that closely aligns with facts and reality.

If you can’t get an answer from your subject, or you’re asked not to proceed forward, you can still accept the potential repercussions and write an unauthorized biography . The “rebellious act” of publishing without consent indeed makes for great marketing, though it’ll likely bring more headaches with it too. 

✋ Please note that, like other nonfiction books, if you intend to release your biography with a publishing house , you can put together a book proposal to send to them before you even write the book. If they like it enough, they might pay you an advance to write it.  

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Once you’ve settled (or not) the permission part, it’s time to dive deep into your character’s story.  

Deep and thorough research skills are the cornerstone of every biographer worth their salt. To paint a vivid and accurate portrait of someone's life, you’ll have to gather qualitative information from a wide range of reliable sources. 

Start with the information already available, from books on your subject to archival documents, then collect new ones firsthand by interviewing people or traveling to locations. 

Browse the web and library archives

Put your researcher hat on and start consuming any piece on your subject you can find, from their Wikipedia page to news articles, interviews, TV and radio appearances, YouTube videos, podcasts, books, magazines, and any other media outlets they may have been featured in. 

Establish a system to orderly collect the information you find 一 even seemingly insignificant details can prove valuable during the writing process, so be sure to save them. 

Depending on their era, you may find most of the information readily available online, or you may need to search through university libraries for older references. 

For his landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow spent untold hours at Columbia University’s library , reading through the Hamilton family papers, visiting the New York Historical Society, as well as interviewing the archivist of the New York Stock Exchange, and so on. The research process took years, but it certainly paid off. Chernow discovered that Hamilton created the first five securities originally traded on Wall Street. This finding, among others, revealed his significant contributions to shaping the current American financial and political systems, a legacy previously often overshadowed by other founding fathers. Today Alexander Hamilton is one of the best-selling biographies of all time, and it has become a cultural phenomenon with its own dedicated musical. 

Besides reading documents about your subject, research can help you understand the world that your subject lived in. 

Try to understand their time and social environment

Many biographies show how their protagonists have had a profound impact on society through their philosophical, artistic, or scientific contributions. But at the same time, it’s worth it as a biographer to make an effort to understand how their societal and historical context influenced their life’s path and work.

An interesting example is Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World . Finding himself limited by a lack of verified detail surrounding William Shakespeare's personal life, Greenblatt, instead, employs literary interpretation and imaginative reenactments to transport readers back to the Elizabethan era. The result is a vivid (though speculative) depiction of the playwright's life, enriching our understanding of his world.

Many readers enjoy biographies that transport them to a time and place, so exploring a historical period through the lens of a character can be entertaining in its own right. The Diary of Samuel Pepys became a classic not because people were enthralled by his life as an administrator, but rather from his meticulous and vivid documentation of everyday existence during the Restoration period.

Once you’ve gotten your hands on as many secondary sources as you can find, you’ll want to go hunting for stories first-hand from people who are (or were) close to your subject.

With all the material you’ve been through, by now you should already have a pretty good picture of your protagonist. But you’ll surely have some curiosities and missing dots in their character arc to figure out, which you can only get by interviewing primary sources.

Interview friends and associates

This part is more relevant if your subject is contemporary, and you can actually meet up or call with relatives, friends, colleagues, business partners, neighbors, or any other person related to them. 

In writing the popular biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson interviewed more than one hundred people, including Jobs’s family, colleagues, former college mates, business rivals, and the man himself.

🔍 Read other biographies to get a sense of what makes a great one. Check out our list of the 30 best biographies of all time , or take our 30-second quiz below for tips on which one you should read next. 

Which biography should you read next?

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When you conduct your interviews, make sure to record them with high quality audio you can revisit later. Then use tools like Otter.ai or Descript to transcribe them 一 it’ll save you countless hours. 

You can approach the interview with a specific set of questions, or follow your curiosity blindly, trying to uncover revealing stories and anecdotes about your subject. Whatever your method, author and biography editor Tom Bromley suggests that every interviewer arrives prepared, "Show that you’ve done your work. This will help to put the interviewee at ease, and get their best answers.” 

Bromley also places emphasis on the order in which you conduct interviews. “You may want to interview different members of the family or friends first, to get their perspective on something, and then go directly to the main interviewee. You'll be able to use that knowledge to ask sharper, more specific questions.” 

Finally, consider how much time you have with each interviewee. If you only have a 30-minute phone call with an important person, make it count by asking directly the most pressing questions you have. And, if you find a reliable source who is also particularly willing to help, conduct several interviews and ask them, if appropriate, to write a foreword as part of the book’s front matter .

Sometimes an important part of the process is packing your bags, getting on a plane, and personally visiting significant places in your character’s journey.

Visit significant places in their life

A place, whether that’s a city, a rural house, or a bodhi tree, can carry a particular energy that you can only truly experience by being there. In putting the pieces together about someone’s life, it may be useful to go visit where they grew up, or where other significant events of their lives happened. It will be easier to imagine what they experienced, and better tell their story. 

In researching The Lost City of Z , author David Grann embarked on a trek through the Amazon, retracing the steps of British explorer Percy Fawcett. This led Grann to develop new theories about the circumstances surrounding the explorer's disappearance.

Hopefully, you won’t have to deal with jaguars and anacondas to better understand your subject’s environment, but try to walk into their shoes as much as possible. 

Once you’ve researched your character enough, it’s time to put together all the puzzle pieces you collected so far. 

Take the bulk of notes, media, and other documents you’ve collected, and start to give them some order and structure. A simple way to do this is by creating a timeline. 

Create a chronological timeline

It helps to organize your notes chronologically 一 from childhood to the senior years, line up the most significant events of your subject’s life, including dates, places, names and other relevant bits. 

You should be able to divide their life into distinct periods, each with their unique events and significance. Based on that, you can start drafting an outline of the narrative you want to create.  

Draft a story outline 

Since a biography entails writing about a person’s entire life, it will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can pick where you want to end the story, depending on how consequential the last years of your subject were. But the nature of the work will give you a starting character arc to work with. 

To outline the story then, you could turn to the popular Three-Act Structure , which divides the narrative in three main parts. In a nutshell, you’ll want to make sure to have the following:

• Act 1. Setup : Introduce the protagonist's background and the turning points that set them on a path to achieve a goal. 
• Act 2. Confrontation : Describe the challenges they encounter, both internal and external, and how they rise to them. Then..
• Act 3. Resolution : Reach a climactic point in their story in which they succeed (or fail), showing how they (and the world around them) have changed as a result. 

Only one question remains before you begin writing: what will be the main focus of your biography?

Think about why you’re so drawn to your subject to dedicate years of your life to recounting their own. What aspect of their life do you want to highlight? Is it their evil nature, artistic genius, or visionary mindset? And what evidence have you got to back that up? Find a central thesis or focus to weave as the main thread throughout your narrative. 

Or find a unique angle

If you don’t have a particular theme to explore, finding a distinct angle on your subject’s story can also help you distinguish your work from other biographies or existing works on the same subject.

Plenty of biographies have been published about The Beatles 一 many of which have different focuses and approaches: 

• Philip Norman's Shout is sometimes regarded as leaning more towards a pro-Lennon and anti-McCartney stance, offering insights into the band's inner dynamics. 
• Ian McDonald's Revolution in the Head closely examines their music track by track, shifting the focus back to McCartney as a primary creative force. 
• Craig Brown's One Two Three Four aims to capture their story through anecdotes, fan letters, diary entries, and interviews. 
• Mark Lewisohn's monumental three-volume biography, Tune In , stands as a testament to over a decade of meticulous research, chronicling every intricate detail of the Beatles' journey.

Finally, consider that biographies are often more than recounting the life of a person. Similar to how Dickens’ Great Expectations is not solely about a boy named Pip (but an examination and critique of Britain’s fickle, unforgiving class system), a biography should strive to illuminate a broader truth — be it social, political, or human — beyond the immediate subject of the book. 

Once you’ve identified your main focus or angle, it’s time to write a great story. 

While biographies are often highly informative, they do not have to be dry and purely expository in nature . You can play with storytelling elements to make it an engaging read. 

You could do that by thoroughly detailing the setting of the story , depicting the people involved in the story as fully-fledged characters , or using rising action and building to a climax when describing a particularly significant milestone of the subject’s life. 

One common way to make a biography interesting to read is starting on a strong foot…

Hook the reader from the start

Just because you're honoring your character's whole life doesn't mean you have to begin when they said their first word. Starting from the middle or end of their life can be more captivating as it introduces conflicts and stakes that shaped their journey.

When he wrote about Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild , author Jon Krakauer didn’t open his subject’s childhood and abusive family environment. Instead, the book begins with McCandless hitchhiking his way into the wilderness, and subsequently being discovered dead in an abandoned bus. By starting in medias res , Krakauer hooks the reader’s interest, before tracing back the causes and motivations that led McCandless to die alone in that bus in the first place.

You can bend the timeline to improve the reader’s reading experience throughout the rest of the story too…

Play with flashback 

While biographies tend to follow a chronological narrative, you can use flashbacks to tell brief stories or anecdotes when appropriate. For example, if you were telling the story of footballer Lionel Messi, before the climax of winning the World Cup with Argentina, you could recall when he was just 13 years old, giving an interview to a local newspaper, expressing his lifelong dream of playing for the national team. 

Used sparsely and intentionally, flashbacks can add more context to the story and keep the narrative interesting. Just like including dialogue does…

Reimagine conversations

Recreating conversations that your subject had with people around them is another effective way to color the story. Dialogue helps the reader imagine the story like a movie, providing a deeper sensory experience. 

One thing is trying to articulate the root of Steve Jobs’ obsession with product design, another would be to quote his father , teaching him how to build a fence when he was young: “You've got to make the back of the fence just as good looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know. And that will show that you're dedicated to making something perfect.”

Unlike memoirs and autobiographies, in which the author tells the story from their personal viewpoint and enjoys greater freedom to recall conversations, biographies require a commitment to facts. So, when recreating dialogue, try to quote directly from reliable sources like personal diaries, emails, and text messages. You could also use your interview scripts as an alternative to dialogue. As Tom Bromley suggests, “If you talk with a good amount of people, you can try to tell the story from their perspective, interweaving different segments and quoting the interviewees directly.”

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These are just some of the story elements you can use to make your biography more compelling. Once you’ve finished your manuscript, it’s a good idea to ask for feedback. 

If you’re going to self-publish your biography, you’ll have to polish it to professional standards. After leaving your work to rest for a while, look at it with fresh eyes and self-edit your manuscript eliminating passive voice, filler words, and redundant adverbs. 

Then, have a professional editor give you a general assessment. They’ll look at the structure and shape of your manuscript and tell you which parts need to be expanded on or cut. As someone who edited and commissioned several biographies, Tom Bromley points out that a professional “will look at the sources used and assess whether they back up the points made, or if more are needed. They would also look for context, and whether or not more background information is needed for the reader to understand the story fully. And they might check your facts, too.”  

In addition to structural editing, you may want to have someone copy-edit and proofread your work.

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Importantly, make sure to include a bibliography with a list of all the interviews, documents, and sources used in the writing process. You’ll have to compile it according to a manual of style, but you can easily create one by using tools like EasyBib . Once the text is nicely polished and typeset in your writing software , you can prepare for the publication process.  

In conclusion, by mixing storytelling elements with diligent research, you’ll be able to breathe life into a powerful biography that immerses readers in another individual’s life experience. Whether that’ll spark inspiration or controversy, remember you could have an important role in shaping their legacy 一 and that’s something not to take lightly. 

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How to Write an Author Bio: A Proven Guide with Examples

By c.s. lakin.

One of the important marketing tools a writer needs is an author bio. This descriptive bit of writing informs readers, in a few words, who you are, what you write, and what makes you unique . It’s the marquee announcing your author’s presence in the world of publishing.

Think about your author bio as your “elevator pitch” that sells you rather than your book. It may seem odd and uncomfortable penning your own biography, and writing about yourself in the third person (which is what you need to do) can make it feel even weirder.

Table of Contents

To compound matters, most of us don’t like to toot our horns and share glowing praise about ourselves. We know how off-putting it is to hear someone brag about themselves and their accomplishments.

Yet … we authors need to do just that—with at least a modicum of modesty or humility, along with professionalism. All of this in just a few lines. However, the length of your bio will vary depending on where it will appear. On sales platforms, it’s best to have at least a few paragraphs.

Some places, such as in online book catalogs, social media sites, and guest blog posts, will limit word or character count.

Hands down, your website is the place to shine on your About page.   Those first sentences are the most important—as with your book, if readers aren’t engaged right away, they’ll stop reading. Especially with nonfiction, people will quickly decide whether an author seems to have enough authority in a topic to be trusted.

In this age of speedy decisions, all it might take is a catchy, impressive author bio to get a potential reader checking out your books. How do you find the right balance? And how do you keep from boring readers?

You don’t want your bio to sound like a dry resume that features a laundry list of achievements. Yet you do need to tout the achievements or expertise that gives you credibility or clout.

How an Author Bio Can Help Your Career

Though you may not have considered this, your author bio can impact sales , draw in new readers, and affect the way potential readers formulate an opinion about you.

Yes, even just from a few lines.

Take this bio, for example, from author Maira Kalman, an Israeli-born American illustrator, writer, artist, and designer.

“She is known for her playful and witty illustrations and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times and The New Yorker .”

What kind of immediate impression do you get of her from reading this?:

In her own words: 

“born. bucolic childhood. culture-stuffed adolescence. played piano. stopped. danced. stopped. wrote. discarded writing. drew. reinstated writing. married Tibor Kalman and collaborated at iconoclastic yet successful design studio. wrote and painted children’s books. worried. took up Ping-Pong. relaxed. wrote and painted for many magazines. cofounded the Rubber Band Society. amused. children: two. dog: one.”

Maira’s creativity bounces off the page with a unique voice and flair that presents her as both funny and approachable. What’s important to note is that her bio showcases her personality and implies the tone of her work.

Author Tanya Hall, in her book Ideas, Influence & Income , states that book sales are predominately author driven. According to Verson Digital’s 2009 Survey of Book-Buying Behavior, author reputation is the most important factor in a book purchase decision, followed by personal recommendation and price .

“… It comes down to a fundamental truth in the media world: we have a huge supply of and a limited demand for content. … Reading time is limited. … Information clutter is rampant. Think about your own behavior when you’re taking in a website, a blog, or even search results. You’re in speed mode, as you need to be in order to slog through all of the noise. … You’ve got to get [people] to stop and take notice.”

Grab attention and make an impression .

What are the 5 Elements of a Perfect Author Bio

There are varying strategies on how to write a terrific bio. Some say you should start with biographical detail that supports your expertise, then add bits to help people connect with you personally.

Others suggest you start with a bang—mentioning the biggest achievements first: “#1 NYT’s best-selling author of …” followed by sales numbers and how many languages your books have been translated into.

However, Maggie Lynch, writing in the ALLi blog,   shares her results from a survey she took of her list of romance readers on what influences them to buy a book (nearly 4,000 responses), and out of fifteen ranked data points, the top three were prior familiarity with the author (68%), the book cover (53%—does that surprise you?), and a friend’s recommendation (38%).

I nterestingly, bestseller status and literary prizes ranked last (2% and <1% respectively).

That might surprise you too, as it did me.

Certainly, if you’ve hit the tops of coveted best-seller lists or have won prestigious writing awards, you’ll want to note that somewhere in your bio. Still, others state you should start with your education:

“Sally Smith is a professor of anthropology at Harvard …” followed by the title of the book or series and what it’s about.

What you don’t want to include are things that are unrelated to what you write (unless you’re trying to be funny or show a quirky side of yourself, which I particularly like when reading about an author).

Let’s look at five key elements in an author bio. Yours might include some or all of them.

1. Publishing credentials

Lisa Gardner is one of my favorite authors, and I love the way she spruces up the long list of her well-deserved achievements and published titles.

Of course, she has a shorter version of this where needed. Notice her hilariously named CTA at the end of her bio.

“Lisa Gardner, a #1 New York Times thriller novelist, began her career in food service, but after catching her hair on fire numerous times, she took the hint and focused on writing instead. A self-described research junkie, she parlayed her interest in police procedure and twisted plots into a streak of internationally bestselling suspense novels, including her most recent release, Look for Me . With over 22 million books in print, Lisa is published in 30 countries. Her success crosses into the small screen with four of her novels becoming movies ( At the Midnight Hour ; The Perfect Husband ; The Survivors Club ; Hide ) and personal appearances on television shows (TruTV; CNN). Lisa Gardner’s novels have also received awards from across the globe. Her novel The Neighbor won the Best Novel from the International Thriller Writers while also receiving the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle, in France. She was also recognized with the Daphne du Maurier Award for The Other Daughter in 2000. Finally, Lisa received the Silver Bullet Award in 2017, in honor of her work on behalf of at-risk children and the Humane Society. Readers are invited to get in on the fun by entering the annual “Kill a Friend, Maim a Buddy” Sweepstakes at LisaGardner.com , where they can nominate the person of their choice to die in Lisa’s latest novel. Every year, one Lucky Stiff is selected for Literary Immortality. It’s cheaper than therapy, and you get a great book besides. Lisa lives in New Hampshire with her family and an assortment of crazy canines.”

2. Review blurbs by influential people

You can start your bio with an endorsement, or put it after your self-description, as Jake Needham does:

“Jake Needham is an American screen and television writer who began writing crime novels when he realized he didn’t really like movies and television all that much. Since then, he has published eleven titles in The Mean Streets Crime Novels series. “Jake Needham’s the real deal,” says Brendan DuBois, New York Times bestselling author with James Patterson of The First Lady.” His characters are moral men and women struggling in an increasingly immoral world, his suspense and plotting are top-notch, and his writing is exquisitely fine. Highly, highly recommended. For nearly thirty years, Jake lived and worked in Europe and Asia. Now he, his wife, and their two sons divide their time between their homes in Washington DC and on the Gulf of Thailand. You can learn more about Jake Needham at his official website: www.JakeNeedhamNovels.com .”

To me, that last paragraph could be replaced by something more entertaining than the list of places he’s lived, which likely don’t influence his stories in any direct way—or, if they do, it would help to know how and why.

3. Expertise and work experience

  It’s common to see bios begin with the author’s date of birth. Is that really something potential readers care about and will be impressed by?

I think not.

Having decades of experience in life isn’t going to intrigue readers as much as decades specializing in a field that pertains to their book.

Someone whose career as an astronaut launched her into space and who logged time on the International Space Station brings credibility to her thriller set on a space station.

Check out Sean Black’s bio:

“Sean Black grew up in Scotland, studied film in New York, and wrote [sic] the screenplays for many of Britain’s best-known TV dramas. To research the first two Ryan Lock thrillers, he underwent weeks of intensive bodyguard training and spent time inside America’s most dangerous maximum security prison, Pelican Bay Supermax in California. In Gridlock , he takes his readers deep inside the murky world of America’s multi-billion-dollar adult entertainment industry.”

By adding that bit about what he went through to do his research, he sparks interest and inspires respect for his diligence to get the facts straight before writing his novels .

Here’s another example of sharing expertise with a dash of humor to liven up what might be construed as a dry list of experiences:

“Z. Kelly is the author of the Hollywood Alphabet Thriller Series. He spent over thirty years in the field of law enforcement. His experience includes dealing with felony offenders, making sentencing recommendations to the courts, running a jail, and developing innovative programs to keep our streets safe. His law enforcement experience was in Southern California, not too far from the famous Sunset Strip, and includes run-ins with some of America’s craziest criminals, not to mention a few wannabe actors, and even an Oscar-award winner!”

Phillip Margolin’s bio succinctly ties in some of his best-selling titles with the trademark element of his series, with a nod to his expertise and background that gives him credibility:

“Phillip Margolin has written nineteen novels, many of them New York Times bestsellers, including his latest novels Woman with a Gun, Worthy Brown’s Daughter, Sleight of Hand , and the Washington trilogy. Each displays a unique, compelling insider’s view of criminal behavior, which comes from his long background as a criminal defense attorney who has handled thirty murder cases. Winner of the Distinguished Northwest Writer Award, he lives in Portland, Oregon.”

A section of Kathy Reichs’s very long bio (which contains an impressive list of publications), shares her extensive and fascinating work experience (and it continues on way beyond this excerpt):

“Dr. Reichs is also a producer of the hit Fox TV series Bones , which is based on her work and her novels. From teaching FBI agents how to detect and recover human remains, to separating and identifying commingled body parts in her Montreal lab, as a forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs has brought her own dramatic work experience to her mesmerizing forensic thrillers. For years she consulted to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina, and continues to do so for the Laboratoire de Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Québec. Dr. Reichs has travelled to Rwanda to testify at the UN Tribunal on Genocide, and helped exhume a mass grave in Guatemala. As part of her work at JPAC (Formerly CILHI) she aided in the identification of war dead from World War II, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Dr. Reichs also assisted with identifying remains found at ground zero of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”

An author with such intriguing and relevant work experience is smart to include it in her bio.

You may not think you have any expertise worth including, but, with some creative effort, you might find something in your past that influenced the writing of, say, your novel about alien invasions.

Spending a good portion of your childhood on the roof with a cheap telescope looking for ET will at very least express your enthusiasm (or obsession) for the topic.

4. Humor and cleverness

  Brian Rathbone keeps his bio short and eclectic:

“#1 International bestselling fantasy author Brian Rathbone is a bit odd. After growing up training standardbred racehorses, he went to work at a nuclear plant before helping to build the Internet. When he isn’t writing, Brian tells a few too many bad dragon jokes on Twitter and spends a lot of time thinking about unicorns.”

Granted, Brian’s bio could shed light on the types of stories he’s written (other than just stating they’re fantasy), but he’s opted with tickling readers’ fancies in the hopes that will be enough to check out his novels.

Here’s another short and fun bio that mixes expertise with humor and personal tastes:

“Jerry Hatchett is a digital forensic expert who works cases across the country and around the world. A lifelong technogeek, he has also consulted for hit TV shows like The Blacklist , Blind Spot , and more. When not forensicating or writing, he loves reading other authors, watching great movies, and trying to survive his too-smart dog Data.”

A famous author (whose real name is Daniel Handler) focuses solely on being clever, not needing (or wanting) to spend time listing all his many best-selling novels and the dozens of languages they’ve been translated into:

“Lemony Snicket had an unusual education which may or may not explain his ability to evade capture. He is the author of the 13 volumes in A Series of Unfortunate Events, several picture books including The Dark , and the books collectively titled All The Wrong Questions.”

While giving a lengthy personal history of your life might be wholly unrelated to your books, it can amuse readers who find the author’s voice engaging into wanting to know more. Take  for example:

“Raised in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, William Kent Krueger briefly attended Stanford University—before being kicked out for radical activities. After that, he logged timber, worked construction, tried his hand at free-lance journalism, and eventually ended up researching child development at the University of Minnesota. He currently makes his living as a full-time author. He’s been married for over 40 years to a marvelous woman who is a retired attorney. He makes his home in St. Paul, a city he dearly loves. Krueger writes a mystery series set in the north woods of Minnesota. His protagonist is Cork O’Connor, the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage—part Irish and part Ojibwe. His work has received a number of awards, including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, the Dilys Award, and the Friends of American Writers Prize. His last eight novels were all New York Times bestsellers.”

  Interesting that, instead of starting with his acclaim, he launches into some of his unrelated work experience in an effort to be personable and come across as an eclectic guy.

5. Calls to Action (CTAs)

  Here’s Kelly Collins’s author bio, which bolts out the gate with a CTA:

“ Like FREEBIES? Join the VIP readers at bit.ly/KellyCollinsVIP for members-only exclusives! ~ Tip: Just hit “FOLLOW” for notifications about deals and new releases! ~ Kelly Collins is an international bestselling author of over two dozen novels. Her two most popular series, The Aspen Cove Romance Series and The Second Chance Series feature irresistibly hot small-town heroes and sassy quick-witted heroines who find love in unlikely places. When not reading or writing romances, Kelly can be found walking the Colorado trails with her friends, sitting in front of her favorite slot machine in Cripple Creek, or sneaking into her favorite donut shop. She can also be found on: FACEBOOK – http://facebook.com/AuthorKelleyCollins TWITTER – http://twitter.com/kcollinsauthor INSTAGRAM – http://instagram.com/authorkellycollins You can learn more about Kelly at www.authorkellycollins.com “

Notice how she starts off with an offer, then shares her success (international bestselling author), followed by the names of her series, and a fun, sassy description of the kind of stories she writes.

Adding that personal section humanizes her so her bio isn’t just a list of her products. She wraps up by making it easy for readers to find and follow her.

Final Thoughts on Your Author Bio

It’s easy to impress readers with a long list of awards and successes.

But what if you aren’t there yet? What if you’ve only just published your first book? What if you’re not an expert in anything? How can you make your author bio impressive and engaging?

Focus on the elements of humor, creativity, and cleverness that help showcase your author voice .

And share something intriguing about your book that might make it stand out.

Author John Gwynne has published two novels, and while he doesn’t have a long list of awards, he’s created a nice blend of background, personal information, and modest acclaim for his first book:

“John Gwynne studied and lectured at Brighton University. He’s been in a rock ’n roll band, playing the double bass, travelled the USA and lived in Canada for a time. He is married with four children and lives in Eastbourne, running a small family business rejuvenating vintage furniture. His first novel, Malice , won the David Gemmell Morningstar award for best debut fantasy. Valour is his second novel.”

Joel Pitney, marketer, writes:

“Some authors don’t feel like they have enough to say about themselves; but just the fact that you’ve written a book makes you important enough to have at least a 3-4 line bio! Think creatively about what elements of who you are might be of interest to readers; don’t be shy!”

Don’t forget to regularly update your bio .

When you have new releases come out, a great new review blurb, win an award or hit the top of a best-seller list, go find all the places your bio is posted and update it. How to find all those places? The easiest way is to keep a spreadsheet listing them and their links. These include social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, your website, all sales platforms (Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo, etc.), and anywhere else your books are promoted or mentioned (that you have control over).

Try running your bio by some friends and see what they like or don’t like about it. If you really feel stuck, consider hiring an editor or a marketing-savvy copywriter. If you write in multiple genres, you may want to tweak the content and tone of each to be best suited for that genre.

For my fantasy novels, I mention that I write in other genres but don’t list those titles. For my nonfiction, my bio is all about my teaching expertise, the type of books (writing craft), and my related work as a writing coach and instructor.

While your bio may be one of the shortest pieces of writing you ever do, don’t discount its importance. A weak or boring bio might be off-putting to potential readers, but a glowing, creative bio could result in countless new fans of your books.

Put the time in and do it right!

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How To Write A Biography Of An Author?

Writers find creating an author bio one of the most daunting tasks. A perfectly written author bio can make it easier for the readers to know the writer better giving a concise and quick overview of their writing.

Ideally, it is a brief passage, mostly a paragraph, which introduces the author, mentions their credentials, work summary, details of other creations, and provides details of anything else that a reader may be interested in knowing.

An author must try to regularly update their bio so potential readers and fans seeking them can get access to the essential details about them. This guide contains everything you need to know about how to write a biography of an author. Further, we will also give you some author biography examples for easier understanding.

• What does an author bio include?

What Is The Basic Template For An Author’s Bio?

• How To Write An Author Biography For A Book?
• Author Biography For The Journal
• Author Biography For A Research Paper
• Author’s Bio For A Blog?

Tips To Keep In Mind

Frequently asked questions, what does an author bio include.

In all honesty, there is no one-size-fits-all formula. However, if you know about the author, you can easily personalize and compile the information to match your requirements.

So, ideally, what should an author bio have? The author bio should include author’s name, distinguished accomplishments, and a call to action. Ideally, contain the biography in a maximum of sixty to ninety words in length.

See, if, for instance, the bio is to be attached with a dramatic book, you can include some drama based books in the author’s bio. Similarly, if you have a funny book at hand, you can include some humor related work done by the author in the bio.

Personalize the bio to suit your target audience (both readers and future publishers) and genre. Further, in the author bio, you can include links to the author’s socials. It will help your readers get an insight into author’s personal life.

A photograph should also be a part of the author’s bio.

Now, let us look at the biography template and what should it cover with some author biography examples.

How to write an author biography? Here is a basic template for an author’s bio.

1. Commence with a Byline

It is a single-line statement that gives an insight into who the author is and includes the book’s name.

2. Talk about the theme of the book

Next, you need to state what the author writes about:

• Fiction or non-fiction
• Previously published books
• Area of interest

3. List down the credentials.

Herein, you will provide author’s credentials. It can include best-seller lists, college degrees, and accolades. If you are a fiction writer, you can also talk about your life interests.

4. Add a personal touch.

Adding color to the bio helps the reader imagine who you are and if they can relate to you. It is your way of nudging the reader to buy the book. Some things you can add are:

• Including the location in your byline.
• Some peek into your lifestyle.
• One-liner to illustrate the kind of author you are.

How To Write An Author Biography?

How to write a biography of an author? Here is a guideline for assistance.

1. Use a professional picture.

Typically, authors also like to include a picture in their author bio. It should be a professional headshot of you looking grave or smiling. Be very careful with the headshot. Readers automatically equate an unprofessional picture with your book’s quality.

2. Keep the opening catchy for an instant connection.

Your Byline is the first thing that the reader reads about you. So, do not let it go in vain. You can use the vital and relevant facts that the readers and agents care about the most. It should also have the name of your book.

Adding personal information like:

• Your place of birth
• When you started writing
• Your contributions to the writing field
• Where you are from
• Your previous publications and awards

These personal details can help formulate a bond between you and the reader. The idea is to ensure the reader knows your background to feel connected and motivated to know further.

3. Know the genre and the audience

To decide the audience and genre, answers the two questions:

• Who are you writing for?
• What is this book about?

Ideally, the author’s bio should complement the subject matter and the genre. You may confuse your potential audience if the biography is irrelevant to the book and genre.

Now, think about the target audience. You probably had a type of reader in mind when you wrote this book. Every writer should know who will buy and read the book. After understanding the target audience, you can write the bio to meet that person’s needs.

You can include an excerpt from your personality if you are a fiction author. Also, if you have achieved something extraordinary, talk about it in the credentials.

On the contrary, for the non-fiction authors, readers are interested more in your life and credentials. It helps them know what qualifies you to create a book on this subject.

Some authors have adopted a unique strategy of creating an avatar of their ideal customer – with a name, personality, and location. It is an excellent marketing effort and helps create a concise author bio.

4. Write in the third person.

Of course, you are writing the bio, but you should still write it in the third person. It gives it a professional and trustworthy tone and makes it easy to display and read everywhere.

For instance:

Instead of – I am a three-time published author.

Go for – Ravin is a three-time published author.

5. Keep it short

Your bio should be as impactful and informative as possible. Also, list your hobbies and all facets of your careers, but you should still curtail it to 400 words.

6. Mark your achievements and awards

Do not shy away from including things you have achieved in your life. It becomes essential if you do not have direct authority in the subject matter or credentials. It makes it easy for the audience to know why they must spare their time to go through your book.

For instance, it can be a significant show point if you win a national championship in chess. These tell the reader that you have done several other things in life beyond this book.

However, if you have nothing specific to include in your achievements and credentials, you can list your interests and passions. It can have anything you love writing about or enjoy doing, or a hobby, particularly if it is associated with the book.

7. Make it relatable

An author bio should be a peek into your views, world, personality, and values. It also should give away what a reader must expect from your writing. Ideally, if a reader likes you, they will also enjoy what you write. Because in your book, every page has your essence in it.

So, if you make the bio relatable and depict your personality, the readers connect with it better. It invokes curiosity, and they want to read the book to satiate this.

8. Make it look credible.

We live in a digital-friendly world. So, you never know, when someone comes up and asks you, ‘why should I listen to you?’ Readers who pay for the book have every right to question you, especially if it relates to the authenticity, reliability, and accuracy of something mentioned by you.

So, from your bio, you need to be honest and maintain credibility. For this, your bio should answer three questions:

• Why should the readers believe you?
• Why are you qualified to write on the subject?
• Why should they buy your book?

9. Social media links

Lastly, you want the reader to connect with you. You do not want the relationship with your reader to end with this book. It is vital to hold on to them. It will help you in the second book and so on.

When they connect with you outside of the book (on social media), they know about you as a person in your skin and blood. It makes them feel closer to you. So, leave your link to give them a peek into your life.  

Bio Writing Based on Types of Publication

How to write a biography of an author for a book.

• Your author bio should be brief. So, do not talk about every facet of your hobbies and career. You can keep it short and crisp. It is best to contain all the information in 400 words.
• Write it in the third person to make it seem more professional.
• Commence the bio with a one-liner, stating your name, the book’s title, your profession, and where you are from.
• So, make it exciting and relevant, and get creative. Keep it as close to the book’s genre and theme. You can mention your achievements, but unless directly associated with the book or too exciting or adventurous, please keep it brief.
• Include some information about your interests and hobbies to establish a bond with the reader. Lastly, put a professional, good-quality picture. Let us see one of the best author biography examples.

“Victoria Lee grew up in Durham, North Carolina, where she spent twelve ascetic years as a vegetarian before discovering that spicy chicken wings are, in fact, a delicacy. She’s been a state finalist competitive pianist, a hitchhiker, a pizza connoisseur, an EMT, an ex-pat in China and Sweden, and a science doctoral student. She’s also a bit of a snob about fancy whiskey. Victoria writes early in the morning, then spends the rest of the day trying to impress her Border collie puppy and make her experiments work.”

Source: Victoria Lee Press Kit

How To Write An Author Biography For The Journal?

It should include a biographical statement with your complete name. Further, list your academic program, interest in the writing’s subject and genre, personal history, and field placement. The word length should not be over 75 words for a journal author bio. Here is one of the best journal author biography examples.

“Kathryn Saclarides is a second-year social administration student at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and Spanish from Vanderbilt University and a master’s in bioethics from La Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, Spain. Her current field placement is with the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC). She is interested in migration patterns, ethnic neighborhoods, and transnational communities.”

Source: The University of Chicago

How To Write An Author Biography For A Research Paper?

An author bio for the research paper should list your degrees, information about your alma mater, year of qualifications, and subject of study. In addition, you can also talk about your current area of work. Lastly, to make the reader feel familiar, including some personal details can help. You can also include your awards and accolades. Keep it brief, but try to include all vital information. Write the whole bio in the third person.

“Paul Linn received the M.Sc. degree in engineering from the ABC University of Technology, Poland, in 1991 and a Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics from the University of XYZ, the US, in 1990. He currently works as an assistant professor at the Institute of Computer Engineering, ABC University of Technology. His current research interests include the dynamics and control of robotic systems, adaptive control and social robots.”

How To Write An Author Biography For A Blog?

Start with personal details about yourself. Explain what you do in the third person. Include an element of validation so that the readers see you as a credible source. In addition, list some interesting details about yourself. Provide links to your social media and include an inbound link to the website for SEO optimization. Overall, the bio should be concise. You can have a professional-looking headshot to add as a picture with the bio.

“Kiel Berry is the Executive Vice President of Machine Shop. Prior to Machine Shop, Kiel worked at Creative Artists Agency and began his career at JPMorgan Investment Banking. Kiel is the author of STUNT: Navigate The Journey. Follow him on Twitter at @kielberry.”

• Inject a sense of your personal, unique style
• Speak about endorsements from renowned figures
• Include only relevant details.
• Link the title to the book’s sales page.
• Add headlines like bestselling or award-winning to the Byline if applicable.
• Use the bio to cross-promote other books.
• Do not forget to update the bio regularly.
• Do not write in anything other than the 3rd person.
• Make it engaging and personal.
• Use a friendly, warm tone.

Bonus Tip – Do not exceed more than 100 words.

Related : Article Title Writing Guide , How to Write an Academic Book Review? , How to write a synopsis? , How to prepare an article outline?

Ques 1. Can I write a book with no experience?

Ans . Yes, you can always write a book without any experience. There is always a first time for everything.

Ques 2. How do I write a biography about myself?

Ans . You should start in third person and go on to

• Introduce yourself – your first name and last name.
• State your brand or company’s name.
• List your professional role
• Discuss your values and passions
• Mention your interests
• Talk about your professional achievements
• Include links to your socials and a headshot

Ques 3. Where does the author bio go in a book?

Ans . You will find the author’s bio on the last left-hand page of the book. Some writers also place it on the book’s back cover, toward the bottom.

Ques 4. Are Author bio generators useful? Name a few tools for the same.

Ans . Yes, author bio generators can be beneficial for creating a good biography.

Some tools that can help are:

• Author Bio Box
• Molongui Authorship
• Co-Authors Plus
• Simple Author Box
• About Author
• Awesome WordPress Author Bio
• Avatar Elementor Author Box

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101 Imaginative And Fun Author Interview Questions

You’re ready to interview an author for your blog.

Or maybe you’ve started a podcast and are wondering how to interview an author for it? 

We’re here to help — both with preparing for the interview and with making your list of author interview questions. 

As authors with an insatiable appetite for authentic stories, we created this post to answer the question, “What are good questions to ask an author about a book?”

There are loads of questions you could ask.

But these will make the interview more enjoyable for you and your guests. 

For authors, these questions can help prepare you for interviews and know what to expect when you’re called on to talk about your work.

How Do You Prepare for an Author Interview? 

Best author interview questions, author interview questions about their book, fun author interview questions, questions about writing, questions to ask authors about other books and authors, personal questions for authors.

Preparing for an author interview requires more than a list of good questions to ask an author.

Both of you need to be in the right frame of mind. 

But since you’ll be the one conducting the interview — and the author is offering their time and answers for your readers’ or listener’s entertainment — it’s on you to make sure this interview is a positive experience for your guest. 

Related: 16 Best Self-Publishing Companies For Your Writing Business

To that end, keep the following tips in mind:

• Know your audience (just as important for interviewers as it is for authors). 
• Ask open-ended (not YES or NO) questions.
• Make the author the star of the interview.
• Prepare questions that will pique your audience’s curiosity. 
• Keep your audience engaged by inviting them to ask questions.
• Be punctual and respect the author’s time. 

The better prepared you are for each author interview, the more likely your readers or listeners are to keep coming back for more. 

101 Author Interview Questions 

You need a list of good questions to ask a writer, and we aim to make your job easier.

The questions below are divided into popular categories, so you can choose the types of questions most interesting to your audience.

1. At what point do you think someone should call themselves a writer?

2. What difference do you see between a writer and an author?

3. Have you ever considered writing under a pseudonym , and why or why not?

4. What do the words “writer’s block” mean to you? 

5. How do you process and deal with negative book reviews? 

6. Are there therapeutic benefits to modeling a character after someone you know?

7. What is the most difficult part of your writing process? 

8. How long have you been writing or when did you start? 

9. What advice would you give to a writer working on their first book?

10. What, to you, are the most important elements of good writing ?

11. What comes first for you — the plot or the characters — and why?

12. How do you develop your plot and characters? 

13. When did you first call yourself a writer? 

14. How do you use social media as an author? 

15. What’s your favorite and least favorite part of publishing? 

16. What would you say to an author who wanted to design their own cover?

1. How many books have you written and which is your favorite?

2. What part of the book did you have the hardest time writing?

3. What part of the book was the most fun to write?

4. Which of the characters do you relate to the most and why?

5. If you’re planning a sequel, can you share a tiny bit about your plans for it?

6. What is a significant way your book has changed since the first draft? 

7. What perspectives or beliefs have you challenged with this work?

8. What inspired the idea for your book?

9. How would you describe your book’s ideal reader?

10. How much research did you need to do for your book? 

11. How important was professional editing to your book’s development?

12. What was your hardest scene to write , and why?

13. What characters in your book are most similar to you or to people you know?

14. How long did it take you to write this book ? 

15. How did you come up with the title for your book ?

16. Would you and your main character get along? 

17. If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

1. What is your writing process like? Are you more of a plotter or a pantser?

2. What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused? 

3. If you were to write a spin-off about a side character, which would you pick?

4. If you could spend a day with another popular author, whom would you choose?

5. What is your schedule like when you’re writing a book?

6. Have you ever traveled as research for your book? 

7. What’s your favorite writing snack or drink?

8. How do you celebrate when you finish your book? 

9. What do you think of NaNoWriMo? Worth it? 

10. What is your kryptonite as a writer?

11. What risks have you taken with your writing that have paid off?

12. When was the last time you Googled yourself and what did you find?

13. Which of your characters are most likely to be an activist, and what kind?

14. Do you play music while you write — and, if so, what’s your favorite?

15. Have pets ever gotten in the way of your writing? 

16. If your book were made into a movie, which actors would play your characters? 

17. Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved? 

More Related Articles:

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1. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?

2. What do you think is the best way to improve writing skills?

3. What advice would you give to help others create plotlines?

4. What has helped or hindered you most when writing a book? 

5. Does writing energize or exhaust you? Or both? 

6. What is the best money you’ve ever spent with regard to your writing?

7. What are common traps for new authors? 

8. How many hours a day do you write?

9. What are your favorite blogs or websites for writers? 

10. At what time of the day do you do most of your writing?

11. What’s your writing software of choice? 

12. How do you come up with character names for your stories?

13. Do you participate in writing challenges on social media? Do you recommend any?

14. When you’re writing an emotional or difficult scene, how do you set the mood?

15. Whom do you trust for objective and constructive criticism of your work?

16. What are the essential characteristics of a hero you can root for? 

17. What do you do to get inside your character’s heads? 

1. What books do you enjoy reading?

2. Are there any books or authors that inspired you to become a writer?

3. What books helped you the most when you were writing your (first) book?

4. What books did you grow up reading?

5. What authors did you dislike at first but then develop an appreciation for?

6. Name an underappreciated novel that you love.

7. Has any hugely popular novel left you thinking you could write it better?

8. Have you ever tried to write a novel for a genre you rarely or never read? 

9. What book (or books) are you currently reading? 

10. If you could be mentored by a famous author, who would it be? 

11. Do you prefer ebooks, printed books, or audiobooks most of the time?

12. What are your favorite series or series authors?

13. Have you listened to any audiobooks? Which did you enjoy the most?

14. If you could be a character in one of your favorite books, who would you be?

15. What author in your genre do you most admire, and why?

16. Have you used an app to borrow ebooks or audiobooks from the library?

17. What books have you read more than once in your life? 

1. Has writing and publishing a book changed the way you see yourself? 

2. Is there a particular genre you would love to write but only under a pseudonym?

3. Do you see writing as a kind of spiritual or therapeutic practice? 

4. As a writer, what would you choose as your spirit animal? 

5. What spiritual or therapeutic practices help you get into the right headspace? 

6. At what stage (or stages) of your life have you done most of your writing? 

7. What’s the trickiest thing about writing characters of the opposite gender?

8. What do the words “literary success” mean to you? How do you picture it?

9. If you didn’t write for a living, what would you probably do for work?

10. Would anyone in your family disapprove of anything you’ve written?

11. Does anyone in your family read your books? 

12. Who has been the biggest supporter of your writing? 

13. Do you have other writers in the family? 

14. If you could invite any three people for dinner, whom would you invite? 

15. Would you share something about yourself that your readers don’t know (yet)?

16. If you had to describe yourself in just three words, what would those be?

17. If you had the power to cure a disease of your choosing, what would it be? 

Are you ready for your next author interview?

Now that you know how to interview an author, which authors do you have in mind? And which of the author interview questions in this post stood out enough to make you want to add them to your own interview list? 

Your questions don’t have to sound original. It’s more important to ask questions your readers or listeners want the answers to. 

And as much as possible, give them a reason to check out the author’s books. 

That’s the beauty of author interviews. Done right, they make the authors you’re interviewing more interesting and relatable to your audience. 

May every author you interview be glad you did. 

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120 Questions to Ask an Author

Diving into an author’s mind is a journey flush with discovery, understanding, and connection. Whether you’re a budding writer seeking wisdom from a seasoned scribe, a passionate reader aiming to delve deeper into your favorite books, or an interviewer eager for an authentic conversation, the right questions are key.

This collection of thought-provoking questions ventures beyond the typical to unlock the heartfelt stories, intricate processes, and visionary aspirations that pulse within the heart of every author.

Get ready to explore the rich tapestry of writing life and the colorful threads that writers weave into their literary tapestries.

Table of Contents

Writing Process and Inspiration

• What daily habits or routines do you find most beneficial for your writing?
• How do you overcome writer’s block?
• What was the initial inspiration for your latest book?
• Can you describe the moment when a story idea first comes to you?
• How do you develop your characters and decide their traits?
• Do you plot your stories in advance or let them unfold naturally?
• How much does your own life influence your storytelling?
• What is your favorite part of the writing process?
• How do you maintain a consistent writing mood and tone throughout a book?
• What role does research play in your writing?
• How has your writing process evolved over your career?
• Do you have any specific writing rituals?
• What is the most challenging aspect of writing for you?
• How do you balance storytelling with maintaining literary quality?
• How important is the setting to you, and how do you build a believable world?
• What kind of writing software or tools do you use?
• How do you decide on the point of view of your stories?
• In what ways has your initial idea ever dramatically changed by the time the book is completed?
• What sparks your creativity when you’re feeling uninspired?
• How do you know when your manuscript is finally done?

Background and Personal Experiences

• How have your personal experiences shaped the themes in your books?
• Did you always know that you wanted to be an author?
• Can you share a pivotal moment in your life that has influenced your writing?
• How does your cultural background affect the stories you tell?
• What book or author has profoundly impacted you as a writer?
• Was there ever a moment you felt like giving up on your writing career?
• How do you incorporate elements of your upbringing into your work?
• How has your education influenced your writing style?
• Can you talk about a significant turning point or breakthrough in your career?
• What personal experiences are you hoping to explore in your future works?
• How do you approach writing about sensitive or personal topics?
• In what ways do you connect with your protagonists?
• What impact does your family and their support have on your writing journey?
• Have you ever written a character based on someone you know?
• What locales from your life do you bring into your writing?
• What’s the most autobiographical element you’ve ever incorporated into a book?
• How do real-world events influence the topics you choose to write about?
• Can you share an instance where reader feedback significantly influenced your perspective on your own work?
• How has your previous professional experience affected your writing?
• What’s the most unexpected thing writing has brought into your life?

Themes and Content

• What themes do you find yourself returning to in your writing?
• How do you weave social commentary into your stories?
• Can you discuss how you chose the genre you’re known for?
• What responsibility do you feel as an author to educate or influence your readers?
• How do you tackle the challenge of writing from perspectives different from yours?
• In what ways do you hope to impact the reader’s view of the world?
• Do you ever find it difficult to write about dark or complex themes?
• How do you ensure your book’s themes are resonant and relevant?
• What is the key message you aim to convey in your latest work?
• How do you create a balance between plot-driven and theme-driven storytelling?
• What do you hope readers take away from your stories on an emotional level?
• How do you handle the inclusion of controversial topics in your writing?
• Can you explain the significance of the recurring symbols found in your work?
• What is the most challenging theme you’ve dealt with in your writing?
• How does your worldview shape the themes that emerge in your books?
• How do you keep your stories fresh while exploring familiar themes?
• How important is moral ambiguity to the narratives you create?
• Do you believe fiction should have a clear moral or lesson?
• How do you incorporate elements of different cultures into your work and ensure they are represented authentically?
• How do you balance historical accuracy with creative liberty in crafting your stories?

Readers’ Engagement and Reception

• What has been the most surprising reader reaction to one of your books?
• How do you engage with fans of your work?
• In what ways has reader feedback shaped your approach to writing?
• How do you handle negative reviews or criticism?
• What do you enjoy most about book signings and reader events?
• How do you think the digital age has affected the relationship between authors and readers?
• What is the most heartfelt thing a reader has ever said to you?
• How do you interpret and incorporate the reader’s expectations into your work?
• Has a reader ever interpreted your work in a way you hadn’t anticipated?
• Do you find social media an effective tool for connecting with your audience?
• How has your perception of your own work changed based on reader interpretations?
• What is your strategy for building anticipation and excitement for a new release?
• How do you feel when your characters resonate deeply with readers?
• What’s the most creative way you’ve seen a fan celebrate or promote your work?
• How do you hope to grow your reader base with each book?
• What role do book clubs and discussion groups play in your interaction with readers?
• Do you read fan fiction based on your worlds or characters?
• How does it feel to see your stories adapted by others in different formats like fan art or cosplay?
• What has been the most constructive piece of feedback you’ve received from a reader?
• How have fan interactions influenced your perspective on writing and storytelling?

Future Projects and Endeavors

• What can readers look forward to in your next book or project?
• Do you plan to explore new genres or styles in your future work?
• How far ahead do you plan your writing projects?
• What’s the most exciting aspect of the project you’re currently working on?
• Do you have a dream project or collaboration you aspire to realize one day?
• Are there any sequels or spin-offs in the works that your readers can anticipate?
• How do you decide which project to work on next?
• Can you hint at any surprises or new directions in your upcoming work?
• What do you hope to achieve in the next phase of your writing career?
• How do you keep your future projects fresh and avoid repeating past ideas?
• Are there any other creative mediums you want to explore outside of writing?
• Do you foresee taking a break from writing anytime soon?
• What kind of legacy do you hope to leave with your body of work?
• How do you balance multiple projects at the same time?
• Can you share something about an upcoming project that hasn’t been revealed yet?
• How does current technology or social change influence what you plan to write next?
• What challenges are you facing with your current work-in-progress?
• Are there hidden clues or easter eggs in your existing works that hint at your future projects?
• How do you think you’ll evolve as an author in the next decade?
• Do you ever revisit your old works with the thought of reinterpreting or expanding them?

Advice for Aspiring Writers

• What is the most critical advice you would give an aspiring writer?
• How can new authors best deal with the fear of putting their work out there?
• What common pitfalls should aspiring writers avoid?
• What do you believe is the key to building a successful writing career?
• How should aspiring writers approach the editing process?
• Can you share advice on finding and working with literary agents and publishers?
• What writing resources or communities do you recommend for new writers?
• How important is networking in the writing community?
• What strategies do you suggest for staying motivated during the writing process?
• How can writers effectively market their work in today’s digital landscape?
• What’s one thing you wish you had known when you first started writing?
• How do you suggest aspiring writers handle rejection and setbacks?
• What role should writing competitions and contests play for new authors?
• How can writers improve their craft outside of writing—any particular habits or activities?
• What’s the most effective way for an author to find their unique voice?
• How do you recommend balancing writing with the demands of a day job?
• What’s your view on self-publishing versus traditional publishing?
• Can you share tips for crafting a compelling book proposal or query letter?
• What’s the most effective way to build a portfolio or body of work?
• How should writers approach continuity and series planning if they want to write multiple books?

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you interview a writer.

Interviewing a writer involves preparation, respect for their work, and fostering an environment conducive to open discussion. 

Here are some steps:

• Thoroughly research their work and background
• Prepare a mix of broad and specific questions
• Establish a respectful and conversational tone
• Actively listen
• Be flexible with the discussion’s direction
• Always be considerate of the author’s time and boundaries
• Afterward, express gratitude for their participation

Can writing be a full-time career?

Yes, for some people. Writing as a full-time career requires not only talent and dedication to the craft but also an understanding of the publishing industry, marketing, and often a bit of luck. 

Many authors supplement their income with related activities such as speaking engagements, workshops, and teaching.

How do authors connect with readers?

Authors connect with readers through various methods, each offering a unique avenue for interaction and relationship-building. Here are some common approaches:

• Engaging on social media platforms
• Attending book signings and readings
• Writing blogs or newsletters
• Managing personal websites
• Responding to fan mail
• Participating in book clubs
• Delivering podcasts and interviews
• Joining literary conferences and workshops

What is the role of an author in today’s society?

Authors play a multifaceted role in society: storytellers, cultural critics, educators, and entertainers. They often reflect societal values, challenge narratives, and contribute to the ongoing dialogue about our world through their writing.

Final Thoughts

Every question in this list opens the door to more knowledge and deeper empathy and connection. The insights gathered here offer a valuable tapestry of understanding, empowering readers and future storytellers to appreciate the depths behind the page.

These questions aren’t just about satisfying curiosity; they’re about building bridges between the creator and the consumer, adding vibrancy and meaning to the shared experience of literature.

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Can You Recognize This Novel From a One-Line Description?

By J. D. Biersdorfer May 6, 2024

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Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s multiple-choice quiz designed to test your knowledge of books and literary culture. This week’s challenge asks you to identify five famous 20th-century novels based on a very simple one-sentence plot description.

Just tap or click on the title you think is correct to see the answer and a snippet of the original coverage in The Times. After the last question, you’ll find links to the titles in case you’re looking for a something to read.

A man runs around Dublin all day in June 1904.

“Birchwood,” by John Banville

“Borstal Boy,” by Brendan Behan

“Ulysses,” by James Joyce

“Strumpet City,” by James Plunkett

A young girl grows up in an impoverished urban area and, inspired by nature’s tenacity, strives to get an education as a key to success in life.

“Angels on Toast,” by Dawn Powell

“Brown Girl, Brownstones,” by Paule Marshall

“My Sister Eileen,” by Ruth McKenney

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” by Betty Smith

A man recalls his childhood and young adulthood in high society for thousands of pages and has a memorable encounter with a snack food.

“The Remains of the Day,” by Kazuo Ishiguro

“In Search of Lost Time,” by Marcel Proust

“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” by James Joyce

“The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck

An American in Paris, dealing with social alienation and other issues, has a relationship with an Italian bartender.

“Paris France,” by Gertrude Stein

“Giovanni’s Room,” by James Baldwin

“Gigi and the Cat,” by Colette

“The Ambassadors,” by Henry James

A clairvoyant woman keeps a journal for decades and records the dramatic lives of several generations of her family through love and political upheaval.

“In the Time of the Butterflies,” by Julia Alvarez

“The Kitchen God’s Wife,” by Amy Tan

“Paradise,” by Toni Morrison

“The House of the Spirits,” by Isabel Allende

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