Your Author Bio

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Books we didn't like, and why

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Paul Whybrow

Full Member
Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
In rejigging my online presence, via a blog, website and various social media accounts, I've had to describe myself in profiles of different lengths.

As with anything to do with writing, self-publishing and self-promotion little words can carry mighty weight. From the story itself to the title, to tags chosen to describe the plot and onto an author's biography, there are writing experts who'll coach you on what to use and what to avoid saying.

I freely admit that I'm nosy about finding out details about a creative person's life. The internet could have been invented for me: I'll read the Wikipedia pages for all the stars in a film that's on television, before moving to the director, cameraman and sound recordist. Contemplating the idea that some reader will be doing that with my bio is disconcerting.

I've often wondered how relevant an author's upbringing and career history are to their books. I see the significance if their parents are writers, as with Kingsley and Martin Amis, James Lee Burke and Alafair Burke, Stephen King and Joe Hill and Alice Walker and Rebecca Walker. But, what difference does it make if a writer's parents were aristocrats or servants? My father was a noted industrial photographer, so I grew up in a house full of cameras and photographs, but did that make me more observant? Would I write differently if Dad was a plumber?

What about an author's work history? I've done something like 50 different jobs, including career ladder professions, wage slave factory worker, manual labourer and charity volunteer on nature projects, street art, community centre and counselling. Such variety has given me an appreciation of what people do to earn a crust, more so than if I'd been a truck driver for 40 years.

How about a writer's romantic liaisons and marriages—always of keen interest to prurient readers—was the person who wrote the book promiscuous or a prude? A lot of authors' bios on the back flap of their novel end with something like 'She lives in Brighton with her husband, two children and three cats.'

That should be enough, surely?

One factor that readers apparently consider, is how experienced or knowledgeable is the author to write about their subject? In my writing genre of Crime, there are some noted writers who were policemen, profilers, lawyers, probation officers or criminals. Would I sell more books, if I confessed to burying my first two wives under the patio? I'm joking! ;)

We have the option to add biographical details to our profiles on The Colony. What I say in About me is more or less what I've been including on my blog, website and social media accounts.

I think it's important to open up and let readers into your life and way of thinking if you're going to foster loyalty to your books. Along those lines, I've written articles explaining why I wrote that particular Cornish Detective story, which will be open to readers leaving comments on my website. In the internet age, we all think we deserve to know about someone's life. How many reclusive writers manage to stay unknown these days?

I'm happy to interact with people that way, and further down the road, if I have any sales success, there may be public appearances and book signings. I would never want the level of recognition which makes authors household names, with fandom that intrudes, as with J.K. Rowling, Anne Rice and Stephen King.

Some authors adopt a whimsical approach to their bios:

* “Lemony Snicket has ridden the rails, gotten off track, and lost his train of thought. His investigative research has been collected and published in books, including those in A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions.”

* “Eric Carle invented writing, the airplane, and the internet. He was also the first person to reach the North Pole. He has flown to Mars and back in one day, and was enthusiastically greeted by the Martians. “Very strange beings,” he reported on his return. He has written one thousand highly regarded books; a team of experts is presently attempting to grasp their meaning. “It might take a century,” said the chief expert. Carle is also a great teller of stories — but not all of them are true, for instance those in this book.”

* "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 Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead, 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 and a chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Certificate in a monthly drawing."


How do you feel about putting yourself out there as a writing personality?

Is anything from your past going to help you sell books?

Feeling clueless about what to say? Reedsy has a free author bio template:

How to Write a Memorable Author Bio (with Template)

authors-bio-e1335802261631%5B1%5D.jpg
 
Yes, I've included bits of my travels to help someone connect, but there are some great ideas above, I'm checking out Reedsy. I love them :) I used a lovely editor through them.
 
The bios in my books tend to reflect the book and the audience--for example The Ipswich Witch, which centres on a B&B and features lots of breakfasts includes a bit about how I like to do breakfast baking. My dragon books always include something about my enjoyment of the mountains where dragons live. On my media page on my website, I've included '5 fun facts' about myself that veer into the odd, just for fun (for example, I note that I once delivered two goat kids at a dinner party).

It was interesting this week--my maths students discovered I'm also an author. They immediately bombarded me with questions about my books and my income (thinking I was rich. LOL!). And in the next instant, they were online looking me up, finding EVERYTHING even remotely associated with me, and finding every tidbit of information fascinating. Kinda weird...no...really weird. Makes me wish I'd used a pen name, actually...Not that there is anything online that is incriminating or whatever, but that sort of voracious devouring of info about me was unsettling to watch. And the fact 11 year-olds are savvy enough to search it out...

And of course, that means it doesn't really matter what you include on your bio--if your readers are interested, they'll dig up every single place you've ever been mentioned online.
 
I absolutely hate being asked for a bio. I don't find anything at all about myself interesting enough to fill a blurb with, and it's not what the reader is there for anyway. Just accept that to some Cartesian degree I exist, I wrote something, read it if you want and get on with your life.
 
I must admit, I don't see why you should "put yourself out there" at all, especially as an indie author. I think that's the wrong way to approach the subject. What you might consider putting out there instead is a carefully curated version of yourself, or an entirely invented persona, or... whatever authorial presence is going to sell you the most number of books. [I'm using you here in the plural sense. These aren't targeted comments.]

As fiction writers, we create characters, right? Why can't an author's public persona simply be another creation? Again, especially as an indie author, you're running a business. Why wouldn't you bring the same creativity to the selling of your book as to the writing of it?

If, for example, you loathe the notion of "putting yourself out there", why not create a real phantom, a real urban myth? Done well, it's not going to harm your sales. Banksy, anyone?
 
I must admit, I don't see why you should "put yourself out there" at all, especially as an indie author. I think that's the wrong way to approach the subject. What you might consider putting out there instead is a carefully curated version of yourself, or an entirely invented persona, or... whatever authorial presence is going to sell you the most number of books. [I'm using you here in the plural sense. These aren't targeted comments.]

As fiction writers, we create characters, right? Why can't an author's public persona simply be another creation? Again, especially as an indie author, you're running a business. Why wouldn't you bring the same creativity to the selling of your book as to the writing of it?

If, for example, you loathe the notion of "putting yourself out there", why not create a real phantom, a real urban myth? Done well, it's not going to harm your sales. Banksy, anyone?
Isn't this what everyone does online anyway? It's all a big masquerade party on the internet.
 
whatever authorial presence is going to sell you the most number of books.
Have you seen the interviews with Lee Child? He changed his own name to his author name, and lots of other bits and pieces I can't remember, all based on his market research!
For example, he said that author names should be simple, short, and between A-C, as browsing customers (in his genre, I assume) couldn't read/didn't have the concentration to get further than that...
 
On the necessity of keeping some parts of your life private, I found a HuffPost article Being Private In A Public World in which this standpoint struck me as vital:

"The divide between the personal and the public is disintegrating, and though it allows individuals to speak their minds and spread their ideas in a way never before possible, it comes at the cost of dissipating the line between private and public. It is essential for all of us to maintain the last vestiges of privacy and bear in mind, whether we are searching for information on someone's Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or if we are feeling aggrieved that a YouTuber didn't share something about his or her life with us, that we all have a right to keep some aspects of our lives to ourselves, free from the prying eyes of the Internet- even those people who make a living sharing their lives with the world."

There has to be a line of demarcation between oneself and the public. The more people know about someone in the public eye, including the author whose book they liked, the more they want to know.

When writing our stories, we try to move our readers by creating empathy, or at least sympathy, for the dilemmas our MC faces. The internal dialogue the protagonist has may be heartfelt, speaking of what it means to human, but their thoughts aren't necessarily the writers.

Anything about sex will be assumed to be your predilections. And, what of extreme views and activities? In my short stories, novellas and novels, I've written through the eyes of a hunt supporter, a fascist, a pimp, a drug dealer, a masochistic sex slave, an illegal immigrant trafficked into slavery and narcissistic psychopaths who prefer money and possessions to people. None of these characters are me!

The trouble is, that to demonstrate that, I'd have to let reporters and readers pry into my life. Maybe there's no escape.
 
The only thing I worry about is if I write of my personal experiences with the abduction of General Dozier by the Red Brigades, but if they wanted to harm me they would have done it then. The other is witnessing the effects and being the target of demonic possession. If that fictionalized memoir gets published, I'm not sure how that person will react.
 
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Hi all.

Books we didn't like, and why

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