Writing Bio for your Website Author page

Writing a bio for yourself is one of the toughest jobs a writer can have. Write one for your character? No problem. Write one of a friend? A little more difficult. But one for to write about oneself, that can be the hardest challenge. Especially, making it interesting. You writer’s bio should be short and succinct. It will take some editing to produce a great paragraph that defines you as a professional. 

So, here are some page guidelines and questions you can answer.

Bio Writing Questions

Your Name (and or Pen name)

Author

Company Name (if you have one, like ABC Editing)

Website URL if any

Email address

Author Bio

• What do you do? Have a full-time job other than writing? Are you a mother, a teacher, a wife, a husband, a father, a boss ... What do you do when you aren't writing? This gives your audience something to connect with. 

• Where are you from? This one can be specific ... Dallas, Texas ... to more specific ... Greenville in Dallas, Texas ... to simplistic ... a farmer in Texas. But by giving somewhere, you are giving another point to connect with the audience. (oh, I have a sister in Dallas!)

• What do you write? Genre and Niche. (romantic suspense in the middle ages?) The more specific you nail down your writing, the more the audience can get to know you.

• Where did you study writing? (Don't Panic! Some writers have degrees and lots of training and most of us learned as we went.) Here you want to mention any school experiences in writing (editor of the paper?), any writer's groups you are involved in (secretary of your local writing group? member of local or national groups?), any online or college courses you may have taken, and other activities like a writer's contest you may have entered (Yes, you may not have won, or you may have, but you can keep that for yourself if you like. Listing it shows you are involved in the process of learning).

• Do you have anything published? Articles, newsletters, books? List them and provide quick links so they can be checked out. Blurbs should be one sentence for each publication max. You want them to go to your Publications, but a bio is supposed to be short and sweet. Don't advertise here. 

• Finally, something about you. A little story that describes your daily life or something special you do in your life. (Do you knit, carve wood, foster kittens, volunteer somewhere, or just have funny kids you are raising? Anything crafty, unique to your area, funny, or playful will work. Do you go to every baseball game for your local team? Do you have a crazy dog that licks everyone's boots that visit? A kid that loves to be in the school plays but never gets on stage because they just want to watch? Something that audiences can connect with even if it isn't their thing exactly.

That is a lot of questions. Here's the catch. For a website page, you want to keep the answers to no more than 3 paragraphs of about 5 sentences each (and don't make them really really long). Okay, for listing your author credits, you can do a bullet list and not count that. But everything should be short and sweet. 

No negatives, and no long paragraphs. 

It won't be read. 

Now, if you also have a business (editing, publishing, artwork, ect.), you want a bio on it as well.

Business Bio

Is this your own business? If so, please explain what you do in a few sentences.

What industry do you work in? Describe your professional role.

Describe the values that shape the work you do for clients.

List 5-7 benefits to working with your company.

In what ways would you say that your approach is different, innovative and/or better than other companies like yours?

Explain the types of services and/or products you offer (or would like to offer) future clients.

About You – Career Background

Briefly detail your work history. Do you have a "story" worth telling? If so, share it! How did you get where you are today?

Please list 4-6 personal strengths and how they benefit the people who you help in your daily work.

Provide a list of work you have done (not everything... really) and some references from clients. 

With all this, you should be able to come up with a Long Bio, a Short Bio, and a brief 3-Sentence Bio that you can use in your media kit, on your one sheet, and on your website. 

Now that you have all this written, go back and write it in third person (as if you sixth-grade teacher was telling all this to his or her class about you in an introduction.) Remember to stick with sixth-grade words and don't get too flowery. Yes, add spice, but make it nice. 

There you have it. Go for it. And happy writing.