Julie Broad, founder of Book Launchers, breaks down the three things an author bio must do: prove you know what you're talking about, show what makes you different, and make readers like you enough to trust your book. Keep it short, read it aloud, and iterate with an editor.
If you're writing a nonfiction book, the about the author section is super important. And it's also the hardest thing for most authors to write. Even people who are comfortable bragging about themselves. Come on, you know someone who loves to tell you how amazing they are, right? Even those charming folks often struggle writing this section because they miss the points that are important to their reader. So if you're struggling with your author bio or you've written in about the author and you wonder if it could be better, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad. I'm an Amazon Overall Number 1 Best Selling Author and the founder of a fabulous company called Book Launchers. Our superpower is caring more about you and your book than anybody else as we help you write, publish and sell a nonfiction book that will boost your brand and make you money. And one of the things we do for our clients is write the about the author section that will appear in their book and on the various book websites. Let me tell you, it is not easy to distill the most important pieces of an entire person's life and career into a few sentences. Even working with professional copywriters, our author bios go through many iterations. Clients edit it, we edit. Takes a lot of work, but it's worth it. The about the author info is essential. Your reader is trying to decide whether to spend a few bucks and more importantly, spend several hours of their time with you. This bio is needs to tell them that you're credible. You know what you're saying isn't just BS you've made up and that you have real expertise or experience or powerful story that will move them emotionally or give them something interesting they haven't heard before. And finally, you also have to be somebody they want to spend time with. Think about it. They're going to be listening to you talk in audiobook or reading your words in print. Are you going to be somebody they would actually want to have a conversation with? If the answer is no, why, what would they read your book? The about the author piece needs to establish credibility and likability. I'm not saying you have to tell them about how many kids you have, where you grew up, and what your favorite ice cream is. Mine's mint chocolate chip though, if you're wondering. But you do need to give them something so they feel a connection and they feel like you'd be cool to hang out with. Let's make a bit of a checklist, shall we? In just a few sentences, your author bio needs to check Highlight what qualifies you to write about the subject matter, whether it be years of experience, exposure to the subject matter, unique situation, education, awards, credentials, something. Check. Point out something that makes you unique to others in your industry, your area of expertise. Maybe it's the age when you started your unique approach that you're a man in a female industry, you're dyslexic, or who your mother or father was, or maybe the country you grew up in. And check select something that will help the reader connect with you. A quick sound bite of something that's interesting about you. I have a friend I grew up with who's super successful today. He co founded a major company, he sits on the boards of some other major companies, and at one point he was part owner of an NHL team that's the National Hockey League. My husband said I need to say that because he doesn't think everyone knows about the NHL besides all those cool facts. His bio would absolutely have to mention that that he started his career as the garbage man of a town of a thousand in rural Alberta, Canada. It's really great way to include a little self deprecating humor or something that would really surprise people, yet connect you to people that maybe don't own a major company and don't sit on the boards of other things or own a major hockey team. So what can you say about yourself in a few words that will make someone curious about you, that they'd want to lean in and learn a little more? And when you do get your bio written, read it out loud and then have others read it out loud to you. Because media, podcasters, newspapers, bloggers, book reviewers, they're all going to use that bio, probably verbatim. So make sure it's something that sounds good, feels good, and makes people like and trust you so they want to get to know you and hear or read what you have to share. Like this tip. Smash that thumbs up button. Go ahead, try it. It feels so good. And make sure you subscribe to the channel and turn those notifications on so we can hang out every Tuesday and Friday when the videos come out and be to say hello in the comments and share your favorite author bio tips. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launcher swag and you just might become one of my beloved YouTube besties. Now let's keep hanging out, shall we? What should we chat about next? Well, book descriptions right here are so important. They're just as important as your bio. So this video is definitely one you should see. But maybe you want the latest and greatest video I've put out. Well, that's right here. Oh, my goodness. I'm so excited to share all these tips with you. Go ahead and click on the next video and I'll see you over over there.
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