Is Your Bio "Voicey"?

Diana Urban did this piece for the BookBub Partners blog, Writing Your Author Bio? Here Are 20 Great Examples. (Plus a Checklist!)

The examples are fun to check out, and on their checklist they have the suggestion to:

Make it Voicey!
Once the info’s there, add a unique flair to your bio to convey your personality. Make it uniquely yours!

And I think it's not just about conveying YOUR personality, but also the tone of your book(s). 

It's probably a useful exercise to look at 10-20 recently published books in your category that you loved, and see what they did for the author bio (or illustrator or translator bio - this applies to all of us!)

I've seen illustrators and authors customize their author/illustrator photo for specific books, which is always fun - so the idea of making the voice of the bio match a specific book seems like an opportunity more of us could take.

One tip a book marketing pro taught me for my debut YA is if you don't have a lot of accolades (yet), you can use snippets from reader reviews in your bio. Here's what we came up with for that sentence: 

QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL is Lee's debut novel, and readers describe it as "a love letter for history geeks" that "perfectly captures teen angst," "had my heart racing," and helped them feel "less alone."

Maybe the most important point is to recognize is that your bio can (and probably should) change over time. You'll have more books, more accolades, more experience, and if we see our bio as something that's iterative, it also takes some of the pressure off needing to get it "perfect."

Consider: What's your favorite author/illustrator/translator bio? And how can that inspire you to improve yours?

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

BookBub Gathers 20 Great Examples of Author Bios - See If You Can Improve Yours!

Diana Urban shares strong examples of author bios on the BookBub Partners blog in this piece, Writing Your Author Bio? Here Are 20 Great Examples. (Plus a Checklist!)

Review and consider- what makes you unique and credible? Have you made it easy for readers to find you online and in social media? Does it express your personal style? Is there an author mission coming through? Does it match the tone of your work? And with all that, is it concise?

It's well-worth checking out.

Illustrate and Write On,

Lee

BookBub Curates "35 Authors Using Pinterest for Book Marketing & Inspiration"

Diana Urban has done another roundup of how authors are using social media - this time, how 35 Authors use Pinterest, with lots of YA authors included. Some standouts:

Dhonielle Clayton shares inspiration for the hairstyles of her characters in The Belles

Sarah J. Maas mixes inspiration and fan art on the boards for her books.

Marissa Meyer pins links to blog posts she's written as a guest at different outlets, making this board a media page.

Tomi Adeyemi has boards with writing prompts and advice

The inspiring roundup is well-worth checking out.

Are you on Pinterest? Feel free to leave a comment with how you use Pinterest and include a link!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Working On Your Author Profile? 35 Strong Examples from BookBub

Diana Urban has rounded up 35 author profile examples, and while they are mainly authors of works for adults, the reasons "Why We Love It" after the screen shots (and live links to each featured author profile) make this worthwhile for all authors looking at the raw clay of your bio and considering how to best shape it for online consumers.

Should you lead with review blurbs?

Where to put accolades like bestseller status or awards?

Inspirations?

Where you live?

What if you only have one book so far? What if you have multiple series?

Partners? Kids? Pets?

How do you get voice in there?

The variety of approaches is well-worth exploring.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

The Ten Top Book Advertising (and Marketing) Tips from RWA's Annual Conference, complied by Diana Urban at BookBub Partners

This highlights article is loaded with ideas, including some excellent step-by-step advice, gleaned from the recent Romance Writers of America annual conference.

There was so much good stuff shared, here's just the first one of ten:

1. Create reader sales funnels

A sales funnel is the journey a reader takes in order to eventually do business with an author or publisher. Dana Kaye, founder of Kaye Publicity, explained how to implement sales funnels to increase book sales. The funnel breaks down into four main stages:

Awareness: the reader first hears your name or book title and starts to become familiar with your work.

Interaction: the reader engages with you through social media, your website, or at an in-person event.

Interest: the reader signs up for your newsletter or downloads a free ebook.

Sale: the reader purchases one or more of your books.

You can drive readers down your sales funnel across various marketing channels. Take email marketing, for example; when someone signs up for your mailing list, you can set up an automated email series driving potential readers who just became aware of you (by finding your website) and interacted with you (by subscribing) to become more interested in a specific title and ultimately land a sale. Dana recommended setting up an email sequence like this:

Welcome email: a brief introduction to you and your work, with a free piece of content.

Backstory email: a deeper dive into your writing and your backstory.

Social proof email: reviews of your book, awards and notoriety, read-alike suggestions.

Tripwire offer: a discounted ebook or other low-cost content (hook readers with this first sale).

Free gift offer: another free piece of content, access to a Facebook group, or other free offer.

You can also apply this sales funnel methodology across other channels, like Facebook ads (to target readers who’ve visited your website) or quizzes (to email content to readers who selected specific quiz or survey responses). 

Click here to read the full piece on the BookBub Partners website.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Author Website Criteria - How Does Your Site Measure Up?

This excellent article by Diana Urban over at the BookBub Partners blog, 45+ Author Websites with Stellar Designs, includes the list of ten criteria that were used in choosing the author websites they would feature:

• Include a list of published books


• Prominently display new or impending releases


• Provide an obvious way to subscribe for updates


• Provide a way to contact the author


• Include links to the author’s social media profiles


• Display a list of upcoming events


• Include a blog to showcase the author’s personality and/or writing process


• Be easy to navigate


• Have a clean, unique design


• Be mobile friendly

It's great to see what the more than forty authors featured did, and, just as important, we get to take an inventory of our own author websites.

What changes might make our own website even better?

Read the full article and see all the examples of excellent author websites here.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee