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As an author who is seriously promoting a book, you will be asked fairly often for your “bio.” What, exactly, is a bio? What do people want when they ask for your bio? How is it used?

I use my bio at the end of the articles I submit for publication. I use these bios to introduce myself as an expert in the topic of the article and to promote my most appropriate book. For an article on how to find article ideas, I might write that I have been writing articles for publication for over 35 years and am the author of “A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles.” If the piece features how to write a book proposal, for example, I might say in my bio that I’ve written dozens of book proposals for my own books and those of my clients and that I am the author of “How to Write a Successful Book Proposal in 8 Days or Less.” I might also include the fact that I am the Executive Director of SPAWN, an International networking organization for authors.

But authors use bios in many other ways, as well: for promo ahead of a speaking engagement, book signing or participation in a book festival, for example. You use your bio on the cover of (or in the back matter) of your book and on your brochures and other promotional material. It might follow an interview, be included in a review of your book or be published at the end of a book you review. When your book is included in a catalog or at Amazon.com, there may be space for the author’s bio. You’ll want to use a brief bio when you post comments at other blogs and at forums. Many of us use “signatures” at the end of our emails, which is another sort of bio.

Once you begin the interesting and challenging process of book promotion, you will find yourself in the public eye (at least, to some extent), and you will need to come up with bios for different occasions and purposes. So what does the bio accomplish?

• Your bio is your introduction. Your audience wants to know a little about the person behind the book, presentation, article…

• Your bio should demonstrate your expertise in the subject matter at hand.

• Your bio is your avenue through which to promote your books and/or services.

As you can see, while your bio is for your audience—it serves to position you as an expert in your field—it is also your opportunity to introduce your book and to, perhaps, make some sales.

Before writing a bio to be published in a conference program or to accompany your book at a showcase website, for example, find out the projected word count. You’ll write something quite different if the limit is 300 words as you will if you’re restricted to 25 words.

I’m in the process of developing a new website. And I have to tell you that writing the About Us section for the new website and refining it for the Matilija Press website has been an enormous undertaking. As many times as I have written bios of all sizes for all manner of intent, I am finding this task to be an enormous undertaking. So I have been focusing on these tips:

• Outline the info that must be included at each site (heavy on Patricia Fry as an author for the Matilija Press site and more about Patricia Fry the editorial and publishing consultant for the Patricia Fry site).

• Consider what site visitors—many of them potential customers/clients—want to know about my offerings and me.

• Give enough without overwhelming visitors. Now that’s a hard one.

• Use bullets, as I have here, to break up the text and clarify information.

• Always provide a link or contact button so the visitor can easily reach you with any questions.

Your bio can be as powerful as a New York billboard when it contains the right information and is seen by the right audience. The next time you’re required to write a bio, consider what you want it to accomplish and then add the elements that will make it work on your behalf.

Patricia Fry is the author of 31 books including The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html. She works with other authors on their projects, whether they need editing services or help creating a bio, book proposal, query letter or book promotion plan. Contact Patricia Fry for a free estimate: PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Now that’s an example of a brief, but informative bio.

Have you noticed that we are all so busy promoting that hardly anyone is actually buying?

You send your promo email to potential customers for your book and receive back several promo emails in return. You attend a meeting or event, hand someone your business card and they hand you their promo material. You pay for booth space in order to sell your book at a book festival and other authors, who do not have booths, come up to you with pitches about their books. (I HATE when that happens.) I’ve even seen authors sneak in, set up tables at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, where everyone else has paid nearly $1,000 for a booth, and begin hawking their books. I’ve seen them get busted, too!

I’ve also observed people, presumably from other booths, stand across the walkway from the SPAWN booths engaging the attention of passersby with their spiels and their promo material—distracting them from our booths. And when I see that, I will report them. Hawking like this is discouraged at many book festivals even from outside your own booth—let alone in front of other authors’ and organizations’ booths.

It can become difficult to promote your book when your promotional efforts are not even received, but are countered by, “Here’s my new book/service/product.” How do you handle that? Do you just move on or do you politely express an interest in the other person’s book, service or other product?

I’ve discovered that if you acknowledge the other author’s book by expressing an interest, asking a few questions, looking it over (if in person), visiting the website and then commenting on the book, they will show more interest in yours. Maybe you know someone who could use their book, you do book reviews on this topic for an organization newsletter, you know of a book club that might want to choose this book to read, you have a promotional idea that would fit their particular book. Try either massaging the other author’s ego (“Wow, I love your book cover.”—“What a great idea for a book…”) or provide a solid recommendation for promoting the book and see what you might get back.

Let me know if this is something you already do and how it’s working to your benefit.

If you are just sick and tired of every shred of your promotional efforts being countered by a bombardment of promotion, give this a try. It may actually help your sales and overall exposure. It’s certainly a better approach than allowing yourself to be beat down by the opposition time and time again.

NEWSFLASH
Today is the last day you can order Catscapades, True Cat Tales at the prepublication discount. So hurry over to http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html

Article-Writing Course in Progress
I know that many of you are interested in making a little extra money writing articles for magazines. Some of you want to promote your books through articles. Let me show you the way toward success in the article-writing field. I am in the process of teaching the course as we speak. It is not too late to sign up. Learn more about this course here: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm

I’m not all that into the social media scene, although I network all the time. I have visited Facebook (SPAWN has a Facebook presence) and I am on Twitter. I Tweet when I remember to. I read and hear about problems in social media world—people being rude, sarcastic, mean-spirited and even crude.

I don’t even know if there are still chat rooms. But I remember visiting a few of those some years ago. I happened into some with what appeared to be some pretty stupid people with a lot of time on their hands. Somehow, they even appeared in chat rooms for gardening, pets and grandparenting, for example. So many of the messages were nothing but swear words, non-words with lots of exclamation points and comments that didn’t relate to anything reasonable. I guess some of this is going on at the social media sites, too.

It’s as if people think they have an air of anonymity—or there is no tomorrow. They can say and do what they want no matter who they hurt and it will never affect them. They adopt a similar attitude as some people do behind the wheel of a car—“I’m invisible.”

I know that many of you who are seeking freelance writing work and who are promoting books use Facebook and other such sites. How is it working for you? How are you using it? Maybe you’re overusing it—being too pushy with your sales pitch.

Yesterday I came across Alice Wisler’s article in Dan Case’s Writing for Dollars newsletter on how to more successfully (and politely) use social media and she gave me permission to post her suggestions here.

1: Be polite and treat others kindly. Remember words are powerful, and you can’t retrieve them once they are out there for all to read.

2: Ask yourself why you are joining the site. What do you expect to get out of it? New friends or only a way to sell books?

3: “Change your status often,” says the staff at Writers Digest in their recent article on social networking. This shows you are a constant presence, serious about being “present” as well as an active participant.

4: “Think about being a respected expert,” is advice given by those who feel that Facebook will get you more visits to your personal website if you have something noteworthy to say. I write for a website on grief, and hope that by sharing that link, fellow Facebook friends will read the articles and learn how to reach those with broken hearts.

5: “Getting others to gain an interest in your work takes time,” the team at my publishing house tells its authors.

6: You are part of a community. Always be willing to lend a helping hand.

7: Show that you are more than what you’ve had published. True, you might have joined to push your books, but if that’s all you do, others will soon tire of you. They might even “unfriend” you.

8: Have fun! Others will see that you are an exciting and caring person and then might be interested in heading out to purchase your novels or read your articles. Think of your presence on Facebook as you would if you were at a party or family reunion. Bring some life and laughter, compassion and encouragement and show others who read your words that you are someone worth getting to know.

Published in Writing for Dollars March 2, 2010.

Alice J. Wisler, author of the Southern novels, Rain Song, How Sweet It Is, and Hatteras Girl, lives and writes in Durham, NC. She teaches online grief-writing courses and designs remembrance cards. Visit her website to learn more and read her blog: http://www.alicewisler.com

Leave your stories of social media abuse or successes here.

Be sure to fill out the survey posted February 17, 2010 here at this blog site. Be one of the first five and get a free copy of my book, Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book. Have the best responses and win a copy of my hallmark book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.

I’m in “wait” mode today. I am certainly not without work. But I am somewhat distracted by the fact that I’m waiting for the PCIP to arrive so we can slip it into the copyright page and send the Catscapades book off to the printer. You keep hearing that things are changing rapidly in publishing. And this is true at all levels. The PCIP people are taking longer than usual and they accept only PayPal as an online payment option now. There are different processes for obtaining your copyright and getting into Books in Print. Changes, changes. And the waiting is painful.

Oh this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced my lack of patience when it comes to my writing/publishing career. Those of you who submit articles or stories for publication or a manuscript to a publisher know (as I do) the frustration of waiting for acceptance or rejection. And how many times is waiting for naught because the editor doesn’t respond at all? Frustrating!

Some of you have probably waited for customers to find your book and start purchasing it. Now there’s something that should not happen. Book promotion is all about action. We must be proactive in order to reach our readers. They will not come to us. We (authors) must go to them!

Unfortunately, most of us have only certain things we pursue in the name of book promotion. And if that’s working, I say keep doing it. But if you want to attract even more sales—sell even more books—it is vital that you add promotional activities to your repertoire periodically. Once you get your main 3 (or so) promotional activities going well, start adding more. Step outside your area of comfort and try new ways of attracting new customers.

Here’s something that might work—eaves drop on other authors with books similar to yours. Discover how they are promoting their books. Find out what is working for them and what isn’t? How? Visit their websites. Study their “media” and “appearances/activities” pages as well as their blog sites. Subscribe to their newsletters. Dialogue with other authors. Ask which of their promotional activities is working best for them. Where appropriate, ask about piggyback marketing.

What is piggyback marketing? If your book is similar to theirs, but not in direct competition—maybe even complimentary, approach the author about handing out and sending your promo material along with their book shipments to individuals and you offer the same service for them.

So what am I doing while waiting to finalize my book so I can send it to the printer? I’m collecting promotional ideas and resources. My file is getting awfully thick and that’s a good thing. Don’t you know I’ll be busy once the shipment of books arrives?

You can order your copy of Catscapades, True Cat Tales, pay no shipping (to one address only) AND receive a free gift for each book you purchase if you place a prepublication order. See details at http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

Valentine’s Day is just one of hundreds of reasons to promote your book. How many of you used a Valentine’s Day theme in order to pick up a few extra or many additional book sales this year? If my new print version of Catscapades, True Cat Tales was published, I would have been promoting it as a sweet Valentine’s Day gift.

But I haven’t really missed the boat on this great promotional opportunity. First of all, it will be ready in plenty of time for Easter! Also, I know that there will be many, many other seasonal prompts I can use to promote this book throughout the year. Here are a few: Happy Mew Year for cats, Responsible Pet Owner’s Month, Hug Your Cat Day, Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, World Animal Month, Adopt a Senior Pet Month, National Be Kind to Animals Week, Pet Appreciation Week, Take a Pet to Work Week, Sylvester the Cat’s Birthday and even Scoop the Poop Week.

I discovered these and many other fun and serious reasons to celebrate (and to promote) at three different seasonal/holiday sites. (I just found a new one this morning.) Here are some of the other great prompts you can use in promoting your book: National Hugging Day, Thank Your Customer Week, National Ghostwriters Week, Celebrate Your Name Week, National Words Matter Week, If Pets Had Thumbs Day, Read an E-Book Day, Family Reunion Month, Make a Difference to Children Month, National Tooth Fairy Day and Read in the Bathtub Day.

Can you already envision ways that you can use some of these prompts to promote your book? Find more at these sites:
http://www.brownielocks.com
http://www.holidayinsights.com
http://www.gone-ta-pott.com

Have fun!!

Special Offer for Cat Fans and Fanatics
If you love cats (or know someone who does) and if you love a bargain, you may want to take advantage of this. I’m offering a discount on Catscapades, True Cat Tales during the next few weeks—shipping date around March 15. Here’s what you get, the newly revised and designed print version of Catscapades (130-pages, 46 cat photos, over 40 stories and vignettes featuring cats in a wide variety of circumstances and lifestyles) for $12.95 plus tax of $1.06 per book (California residents only). I pay the shipping (to one address only) and you get a gift for each book ordered. Learn more at my Catscapades blog:
http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

Questions: Contact me here: PLFry620@yahoo.com

Authors and writers want to know—they ask, they inquire, they request information and then, many times, they close their ears and walk away. What do they do next? They go ask someone else the same question. If the response is not to the author’s liking—it seems to require something more of him than he is willing to give—he ignores that one, too.

How do I know this about authors? Because I keep responding to the same questions through my blog, through my writings at the SPAWN website and beyond, through my books, in SPAWNDiscuss, through personal emails, during workshops and presentations. And I hear other professionals doing the same thing. They answer authors’ questions in a variety of ways and still the question comes back time and time again.

I guess some authors are seeking a specific question—one that they feel more comfortable with. Many of them don’t want to take time to study the publishing industry when they have a book written and ready to go. They resist sitting down and writing a book proposal. Many authors especially dislike the idea of having to promote their books. That’s the last thing they want to hear while they’re focused on writing or publishing their books. Consequently, the next question they have for publishing experts, once they hold their, sometimes, inferior book in their hands after signing with the first publisher that woos them is, “Now what do I do?”

If they had studied the publishing industry, written a book proposal, taken time to become familiar with their options and their responsibilities as a published author, they would be prepared for what’s on the other side of publishing.

What’s on the other side of publishing? Promotion! A book doesn’t sell all by itself. And it won’t be embraced by very many people outside of your target audience. Promotion isn’t a science, but it does require some thought, preparation, planning and implementation. In today’s highly competitive publishing field, promotion, for some, has become even more difficult and complex. It only makes sense to know BEFORE publishing a book, what the process of promotion will require of you. And this is not something you can learn by listening to one speaker, reading one article, joining an organization and never participating, sitting in on a writers’ group meeting, having a discussion with another author.

Book promotion is a process that requires an appropriate mindset, creative ideas and a fairly high energy level.

For those of you who didn’t listen or who didn’t have anyone to listen to while going through the publishing process, do I have a book for you. If you are struggling and floundering within the publishing industry, consider reading my brief ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit. It will help you to heal some of your publishing mistakes and start anew with your wonderful, but possibly misdirected, book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

If you’re just starting out–you are thinking about writing a book, you are just about finished writing a book, you have finished your book, your book is with a publisher or you are in promotion mode and things aren’t going well, you NEED my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I can’t begin to tell you how many publishing projects this book has saved.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Ask, Listen and Learn!