It’s easy to overlook the importance of your Author Bio on your book cover. Often, author bios are tucked away on the back cover or at the bottom of some articles you’ve written. Yet, an effective author bio is mandatory if you’re self-publishing a book and want to make writing a career.

If you have no author bio at all, readers may be puzzled by its absence, but if your bio is bad, your potential buyers may simply change their mind about purchasing your book.

Thankfully, composing an author bio is way easier than writing a whole book. First and foremost, keep your bio brief (between 50-150 carefully crafted words).

Another important convention is to write your bio in the 3rd person point-of-view rather than in 1st person. While you want your writer’s voice to shine through, 3rd person grants your bio an air of professionalism, and allows you to “brag” without sounding immodest. “Judy Smith is the recipient of several Book-of-the-Year Awards” sounds much better than “I’ve received several “Book-of-the-Year Awards,” doesn’t it?

If you’re writing non-fiction, you want your bio to mention your expertise, and mentioning your education probably couldn’t hurt. Even outside of academia, it’s nifty to show-off any higher degrees you may have, such as an MFA or a Doctorate.

If you’re writing fiction, mentioning your relevant life experience in your bio is useful. For example, if you’re writing a novel about running, readers will buy into your story more readily if you’ve run a few marathons yourself.

A common way to add a personal touch to the bio is to share information about your family. Avoid charting out your entire life story. Instead, stick to where you’re currently living (unless a previous residence pertains to your book’s subject). With regards to your family, only mention what you’re comfortable with (and what they’re comfortable with). For example, some authors are happy to say they have a wife, a teenager, and a turtle. Other authors will omit that personal information altogether.

Remember that your bio doesn’t just exist on the back cover of your book. You can, and should, use the same bio in your marketing, such as your author webpage, your Amazon sales page, and on your various social media platforms, etc.

If you require the assistance of a professional copywriter to collaborate on your author bio with you, the optional “Cover Pitch Enhancement” service at Outskirts Press may be of value to you. With this pre-production service, a professional copywriter will collaborate with you to make sure your title, your sub-title, your back cover headline, back cover synopsis, and your author bio are as professional and effective as they can be.

And right now, that service is free with the promotion code ccpitch.

But that’s not all! When you purchase the Ultimate Black & White or Ultimate Full-Color publishing package using that promotion code during this limited-time offer, a professional cover designer will also create a unique custom cover exclusively for your book based upon your specifications. 

This is the single best way to get the best possible cover for your book and it’s free when you start publishing with Outskirts Press right now. Simply enter promotion code ccpitch in the shopping cart when you securely place your order online today before this deal expires.

Have you written a book that you’d like to publish?

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The post How to Write an Author Bio that STANDS OUT appeared first on Self-Publishing News for Self Publishing Authors.