Monday, November 1, 2010

Back-to-Business Monday: BIOGRAPHY

Does writing about yourself
make you feel like this?
Ha ha ha -- you thought this was going to be an enlightening post about nonfiction, didn't you? Nope!

Last week, my editor asked me to send along an author bio for the book jacket. So, what did I do (after panicking)? I ran around my house reading every jacket bio I could lay my hands on. Then I panicked some more, wrote something mediocre, sent it to my husband, disagreed with his feedback ("honey, shouldn't you be more 'braggy'?"), rewrote said bio and sent it to my agent .

Along the way, I have discovered a personal preference for bios that are crisp, concise, and not too academic. I like knowing where an author is from and if they've got a family (nosy me!). Also cool is information on whether they have any sort of personal connection to the subject matter of their book. Funny is good. Witty is better. Then again, if you've been on the NYT best-seller list, you can kind of just write: I've written lots of other popular stuff--hope you like this one :)

Have you ever read a particularly great bit of biographical flap copy?  Share, share, share.  Please!

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