Hi! My Name’s . . .

[rolanni]

I was talking with a colleague the other day about author bios, and, tangentially, the purpose that such exercises in sentence structure is supposed to accomplish.

I thought that there was a place, and an audience for, a breezier, flirtatious bio, like this one. My colleague felt that an author should maintain some distance, perhaps some dignity, in order to be taken seriously by potential readers, and was arguing in favor of something along the lines of this:

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller live in the rolling hills of Central Maine with three insistent muses in the form of cats, and a large cast of characters. Best known for their work in the Liaden Universe®, Lee and Miller have seen published seventeen collaborative novels. Baen Books is currently releasing all of the Liaden novels in several omnibus volumes. The next original Liaden novel, Ghost Ship, will be published in August 2011.

For more information about the Liaden Universe®, see http://www.sharonleewriter.com

So, what do you think? Should a writer keep their distance and their mystique in a bio? Does a playful tone make you doubt the author’s craft? Tell all! Inquiring minds want to know!

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

Intention

[(Anonymous)]

Is it the purpose of the authors bio blurb to help sell books or otherwise engange potential readers/buyers ? Are we in the market for dry academic reading or entertaining comfort books ?

I think it often helps an author stand out to have something less dry than the distancing text shown above. I think that an effective bio will tell me something about the degree of insight the author has and the ability to convey. The dry one feels like it was written by a publicity hack, so I mentally discount it - not a good idea given limited number of seconds used to decide whether to pick up a new book/author or not.

To the extent I can bond with the author over the detail provided in the bio, I am more inclined to give the book a read. I like a sense of a person behind the book. Put another way - if the author can come alive in the few lines of a bio, I believe they are more likely to make characters come alive deeper inside the volume.

Bob