Tag: edit

How to Write an Author’s Bio

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[found on annerallen.blogspot.com]

“How to Write an Author Bio When You Don’t Feel Like an Author…Yet

(by Anne R. Allen)
  • Maybe you’ve got a novel finished and you’ve been sending out queries. Lots. And you’re getting rejections. Lots. Or worse, that slow disappointment of no response at all.
  • Or maybe you write short fiction and poetry and you’ve got a bunch of pieces you’ve been sending out to contests and literary journals. You’ve won a few local contests, but so far you haven’t had much luck getting into print.
  • You may still be afraid to tell more than a handful of people you’re a writer. You’d feel pretentious calling yourself an “author.”
  • But it might be time to start—at least privately.
  • Because one day, in the not too distant future, you’ll open your email and there it will be:
    • The response from an editor: “You’re the winner of our October ‘Bad Witch’ short story contest. We’d like to publish your story, Glinda: Heartbreaker of Oz in our next issue. Please send us your Author Bio.”
  • Or just when you were giving up hope, you get that reply from your dream agent:
    • “I’m intrigued by your novel Down and Out on the Yellow Brick Road.Please send the first fifty pages, and an Author Bio.”You’re so excited you’re jumping out of your skin, so you dash something off in five minutes and hit “send.”  Wow. You’re going to be in print! Or maybe get an agent. Let’s get this career on the road!
  • Whoa. You do NOT want to dash off an author bio in five minutes. Every word you send out there is a writing sample, not just those well-honed pages or stories.
  • So, write it now. Yes. Right now. Before you send off another query or enter another contest. Even though you’ve never published anything but the Halloween haiku that won second prize in your high school newspaper.
  • Actually, you want to write two bios: A paragraph suitable for a magazine byline, and a longer one-page version for sending to agents and later posting on your website, blog, etc.

♦♦♦

How to Write an Author Bio

  • Title it only with your name. Write in third person. Keep to about 250 words: one page, double-spaced–or 1/2 page single-spaced, if you include a photo above it. (I advise against this unless it’s specifically requested or you have a great, up-to-date, professional photo that makes you look like a contestant on one of those Top Model shows.)You’re aiming for a style similar to book jacket copy. The purpose is to make yourself sound professional and INTERESTING.
  • This may be perfectly accurate:  “Mrs. H. O. Humm is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Middle America with her dentist husband, 2.4 children and a dog named Rex.”
    • But a bio is all about making yourself stand out. “Hermione Oz Humm was born in the Emerald City and is an expert balloonist, ventriloquist and voice-over performer.”

♦♦♦

Things to consider including:

1) Whatever might make you newsworthy: OK, so you aren’t the baby who got rescued from that well forty years ago, and you never cheated on Robert Pattinson, but whatever is quirky or unusual about you, trot it out. Keep homing pigeons? Run marathons? Cook prize-winning chili? Put it in.

2) Work history: Here’s where you say you’re a welder or a fourth grade teacher or whatever, even if it isn’t related to the subject matter of your book.

NB: Don’t call yourself a “novelist” if you haven’t published one.

If you’re seriously underemployed and want to keep it to yourself, you can call yourself a “freelance writer,” but consider saying what else you do, even if it’s less than impressive. I remember when Christopher Moore’s first book, Practical Demonkeeping, came out and all the Central Coast papers ran stories about how a “local waiter” had just sold a book to Disney. If he’d called himself a “writer” there would have been no story.

3) Where you live: Your hometown might make a good focus for marketing. Plus people like to be able to picture you in your native habitat.

4) Education: This includes workshops or conferences as well as formal education—especially if you worked with a high-profile teacher. If you took a playwriting workshop with Edward Albee, even if it was 30 years ago, go ahead and say so.

5) Life experience and hobbies that relate to the book, or fascinate on their own: If you collect vintage Frisbees, and the book is about angsty teen werewolves at a Frisbee contest, include it. If you invented the Frisbee, it doesn’t matter what your book is about: toot that horn!

6) Travel/exotic residences: “Rudy Kipling once took a two-week tour of Asia,” meh. But “Mr. Kipling was born in Bombay and spent a year as the assistant editor of a newspaper in Lahore,” is something you want them to know.

7) Writing credentials/prizes: Here’s where you can list some of those credits in small presses and prizes that didn’t fit in your query. Include any books you’ve published, even if they were in a different field.

If you’re writing this for an agent or publisher, remember books that didn’t sell well are going to work against you with a marketing department, so you might want to leave out self-published books if your sales weren’t in the thousands. You should also skip older books self-published with a vanity press, unless your sales were spectacular.
8) Family: Use discretion here. If you write for children and have some of your own, it would be useful to mention them. If your family has an interesting claim to fame (like your sister just won an Olympic medal) or if family history has made you uniquely qualified to write this book (Your grandfather was Dwight Eisenhower’s valet and you’re writing about the Eisenhower/Kay Summersby affair.)
9) Performing history: It’s helpful to show you’re not paralyzed by the thought of public speaking. You can mention you’re the president of your local Toastmasters, or host a jug band program on a public access station, or you played the Teapot in last year’s production of Beauty and the Beast at the local community theater.
10) Your online presence: This is where you can mention your blog. Also put in your twitter handle and list what other social media you participate in.

♦♦♦

How to Write a Short Author Bio

  • Again, write in third person. For the first sentence, this format works pretty well:
    •  “Name is a ______ who lives in ______ and does ______. “
  • Then you can add one or two of the following:

1. S/he is a member of _____ (if you’re a member of any writing organizations like RWA or SCBWI)

2. S/he has won_____ (writing awards—yes, you can mention the Halloween haiku.)

3. S/he has been published in _____ .

4. S/he has a degree in _____ from_______.

  • Then add something interesting and unique about yourself, preferably something related to the piece, like:
    • “S/he played Glinda the Good Witch in a Middle School production of The Wizard of Oz.”
  • When writing these bios, think like a reporter. What would make good copy in a news release? Think unique, quirky or funny.
  • All set? Good. Now go look in the mirror and say, “hello, author!”
  • Then sit down at the computer and write those bios. Right now!“*
 [found on http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-to-write-author-bio-when-you-dont.html]

What’s that word?

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Dictionaries—every writer needs them! This is the absolute best resource that Editing Addict has found on the dictionary front:

ONELOOK.COM

This dictionary allows you to type in ONE place, and yet see EVERY dictionary’s varied results.
 
Writing a book that takes place in Britain? Better find out if their definition of words are the same as yours!
 
This tool helps you to do that.
 
Perfection. Enjoy. Write!
 
 

Blogging Legalities for Writers

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[found on weblogs.about.com]
“Regardless of the type of blog you write or the size of your blog audience, there are legal issues all bloggers need to understand and follow. These legal issues are in addition to the blogging rules that bloggers should follow if they want to be accepted into the blogging community and have a chance for their blogs to grow.
 
If your blog is public and you don’t want to get into legal trouble, then you need to keep reading and learn about the legal issues for bloggers listed below. Ignorance isn’t a viable defense in a court of law. The onus is on the blogger to learn and follow laws related to online publishing. Therefore, follow the suggestions listed below, and always check with an attorney if you’re not sure if it’s legal to publish specific content or not. When in doubt, don’t publish it.”  
 
For more information on the legalities of blogging, see the link below.
 [found on http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingethics/tp/Legal-Issues-Bloggers-Must-Understand.htm]

Punctuation Hilarity

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[found on dailywritingtips.com]

“I’ve finally got round to reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.

Here’s a book that is not only useful and fun to read, its phenomenal popularity carries a moral for every writer:

Don’t worry about following the market. Don’t try to produce another DaVinci Code or Harry Potter. Write what you’re enthusiastic about and kindred spirits will find your book.

Who could have guessed that a book about punctuation would hit the top of the charts?

First published in April of 2004, Eats, Shoots and Leaves spent 25 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list and by October of that year had gone back to press 22 times to bring the total of copies in print to a million. I can’t guess how many copies are out there by now.

At a bit more than 200 pages including the bibliography, this little book describes the rules that govern the use of:

    • apostrophe
    • comma
    • colon
    • semi-colon
    • dash
    • hyphen
    • period

Plenty of other writing guides exist that describe the use of punctuation symbols, but the Truss book livens the discussion by throwing in history, examples of offensive punctuation, and the cheeky attitude that any English speaker smart enough to achieve an elementary school education ought to be smart enough to use apostrophes correctly.”

[found on http://www.dailywritingtips.com/review-of-eats-shoots-and-leaves]
 

Affect an Effect…What?

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[found on writersdigest.com]
“The misuse of the words “affect” and “effect” is such an epidemic that some folks are considering assembling regional support groups to deal with the problem. But while the words are often used incorrectly, deciding whether to use affect or effect isn’t as tough to as you may think.
 
Let me explain.
 
Affect is generally used as a verb: A affects B. 
The eye-patch affected my vision. 
In this sentence, the eye-patch (A) influenced my vision (B).
 
Effect, on the other hand, is almost exclusively used as a noun: (A) had an effect on (B). 
Acting like a pirate has had a negative effect on my social life.
 
So the basic rule of thumb is that affect is almost always a verb and effect is usually a noun.
There are deviations from this, but when in doubt, stick to the rule.
 
If you need help remembering, think of this mnemonic device: The action is affect, the end result is effect.“

[found on http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/affect-vs-effect-2]

Nom de Plume [Pen Name]

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[found on rachellegardner.com]

“Should I Use a Nom de Plume?

The question of whether to use a pen name comes up frequently among writers. People wonder what kinds of circumstances might dictate using a pen name, and how to choose one.

There are several legitimate reasons to use a pseudonym. You simply may not like your real name, or it doesn’t fit the genre in which you’re writing. Your employer may not want you known as an author, or your profession may demand your anonymity. (People who work in the mental health field are a good example of this.) Your real name might be the same as a celebrity’s or someone whose name has a negative connotation. Or you might write in more than one genre and use different names for each. (If you’re an unpubbed writer, you don’t need to be worrying about this one yet. First things first. Get pubbed in one genre.) Also, Kristin Nelson recently pointed out on her blog that if there’s a chance you could be job hunting, you may want to write under a pseudonym because potential employers might be scared off if they Google you and find your books. (They’ll think you’re not going to be committed to the job if your writing career takes off.)

If you’re choosing a pseudonym, you may want to choose something close to your real name, such as your first and middle initials along with a variation of your last name, but you’re not limited to that. Keep in mind real-world issues like where your books will appear on a shelf and what famous authors your book might be next to. Even more importantly, choose a name for which an Internet domain is available, and make every effort to ensure your name is not already being used by a celebrity, another author, or a porn star. Search the name in various spellings, using several search engines, to verify.

Finally, if you’re just starting out trying to get an agent and/or publisher and you’ve settled on a pen name, you can, if you like, start right from the beginning doing all your correspondence with that name. Get your email address in that name and identify yourself that way. You don’t need to tell an agent it’s not your real name until they offer representation; and the only time you’ll ever need to use your real name is on contracts. (Other agents disagree with this; I think it’s your choice. See Nathan Bransford’s great post on contradictory advice.)

What about platform? If you’re blogging, obviously the blog will only function as part of a platform if it’s written under the same name that will appear on your books. Now, most of what I’ve said about pseudonyms applies best to fiction. With non-fiction, it may be quite different since non-fiction is much more platform driven. Your platform is most likely already established under your real name so a pseudonym may not be an option. If you’re hoping to write memoir under a pen name to avoid hurting people in your life who appear in your book, be aware that simply using a pseudonym won’t avoid all potential legal, ethical and/or relational issues that could arise.”

[found on http://www.rachellegardner.com/2010/09/should-i-use-a-nom-de-plume]

Time Wibbly-Wobbly Management

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[found on entrepreneur.com]

Practice the following techniques to become the master of your own time:

    1. “Carry a schedule and record all your thoughts, conversations and activities for a week. This will help you understand how much you can get done during the course of a day and where your precious moments are going. You’ll see how much time is actually spent producing results and how much time is wasted on unproductive thoughts, conversations and actions.
    2. Any activity or conversation that’s important to your success should have a time assigned to it. To-do lists get longer and longer to the point where they’re unworkable. Appointment books work. Schedule appointments with yourself and create time blocks for high-priority thoughts, conversations, and actions. Schedule when they will begin and end. Have the discipline to keep these appointments.
    3. Plan to spend at least 50 percent of your time engaged in the thoughts, activities and conversations that produce most of your results.
    4. Schedule time for interruptions. Plan time to be pulled away from what you’re doing. Take, for instance, the concept of having “office hours.” Isn’t “office hours” another way of saying “planned interruptions?”
    5. Take the first 30 minutes of every day to plan your day. Don’t start your day until you complete your time plan. The most important time of your day is the time you schedule to schedule time.
    6. Take five minutes before every call and task to decide what result you want to attain. This will help you know what success looks like before you start. And it will also slow time down. Take five minutes after each call and activity to determine whether your desired result was achieved. If not, what was missing? How do you put what’s missing in your next call or activity?
    7. Put up a “Do not disturb” sign when you absolutely have to get work done.
    8. Practice not answering the phone just because it’s ringing and e-mails just because they show up. Disconnect instant messaging. Don’t instantly give people your attention unless it’s absolutely crucial in your business to offer an immediate human response. Instead, schedule a time to answer email and return phone calls.
    9. Block out other distractions like Facebook and other forms of social media unless you use these tools to generate business.
    10. Remember that it’s impossible to get everything done. Also remember that odds are good that 20 percent of your thoughts, conversations and activities produce 80 percent of your results.”

[found on http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553]