Marketing Your Book, Part 2: Your Author Bio

In Part 1 of this series, you wrote out your book sales income goal. Exciting, right?

Once you’ve got a successful book marketing mindset, the sky is the limit as to what you can achieve.

The next thing you’ll want to do is write a fantastic author bio.

A well-written author bio is an essential element of solid, long-term book marketing. A compelling author bio could spur someone to buy and read your book post-haste. When writing a solid author bio, consider how you want to present yourself, your brand, as well as your author brand. Did you know when you become an author, you naturally become a brand? Yup, true story.

Here are some simple tips to write your author bio (and yes, you can start well before your book is published):

1. Write Multiple Versions. You’ll want to have a longer-form author bio for your website, on LinkedIn, and even for pitching podcasts (more on that later). Write a shorter, 2-3 sentence version for marketing material. And finally, a one-sentence bio for social media.

2. Write in the Third Person. It is understood you wrote your bio, the third-person style reads well and comes across as professional.

3. Brevity for the Win. One paragraph, consisting of 250-300 words, is the sweet spot for size. (No need to write a second book about your life!) Once you’ve written your bio, read it out-loud in a conversational tone to ensure it hits the right length (and note).

4. Focus on Your Awesomeness. Your author bio is meant to cause curiosity and communicate authority and competence. Include professional accomplishments and even a one-liner about your family. Some people will want to know more, believe me, and they’ll go looking for it!

5. Mention Education, Awards, and Credentials. Because you’re penning a nonfiction book, your credentials and education related to the subject you’ve written about can be included, as well as any awards, medals, and other honors.

6. Updates as Always, and Breaking News at Once! Every time you share your bio, give it a quick read to ensure it includes your most recent, related, and applicable information.

7. Creativity Welcome! It is important to achieve the right balance of information and authority, while adding in a dash of what makes you you. To that end, flair and creativity will guarantee you come across as both warm and competent. Your bio is extremely important, but you don’t want a boring bio to be the reason someone misses out on you or your book!

Be sure to start with Name, author of [the upcoming book] Title: Subtitle, … and go from there.

Your author bio is an asset, for sure. People say about you what you say about yourself, so take the time to write an interesting bio effectively describing you and your book. Note: I recommend reading Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence , so you’ll feel comfortable with some inspired self-promotion. (While being modest can be considered honorable, in order to sell yourself and your book, you need an impactful author bio for your book to make an impact!)

See you tomorrow! :)

Honorée Corder | I help professionals write, publish, market, and monetize their books.

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