Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
4 Platform Myths
July 20th, 2010 by Andrew MackaySimply put, platform = audience.
Your platform is the number of people that you can directly influence in favor of your book. It’s not the number of people you can force to buy your book. It is the number of people you have developed relationships with who look to you as a valuable source of ideas.
Rachelle Gardner, a literary agent and blogger, explained it this way:
It’s really important to understand the purpose of a “platform” in publishing terms. It’s to begin building an audience for your book. It’s to have a large group of people who already know your name and are interested in your topic and may be predisposed to buy your book.
Here are some of the common errors authors fall into when it comes to platform:
1. It’s best to build a platform after your book comes out.
The English language is great – we have really great, analogous uses of language. Take the term platform, here. What is a platform, anyway? Oh, it’s a thing you stand on, either to get a better look at something or to raise your visibility so that you can make your message clearer. Have you ever seen a street preacher standing on a soap box? That’s someone using a real platform in a practical way.
When do you need a platform most? When you have something big to say! Launching your book definitely qualifies as something big. Waiting until your book launches to start building your platform is definitely waiting too long.
2. Your publisher won’t help you with marketing / platform.
It’s possibly accurate to say that your publisher won’t help you as much as you’d like with marketing and platform. It’s definitely accurate to say that your publisher will expect you to bring your a-game when it comes to marketing and platform. But,
But, it’s not accurate to think that your publisher doesn’t care about marketing your book. Publishers are interested in both the ministry and business aspects of launching a book. It’s in their best interests to market your book. It’s in their best interests, if they’re publishing your book, for you to do well. If it’s a good day for you, it’s a good day for them. If it’s a bad day for you, it’s a bad day for them.
3. All you need is twitter and facebook to build your platform.
I’m right in the demographic that you’d expect to hear crazy promotion of social networks from. I think Twitter and Facebook can be a good part of your platform building efforts, but they should be the exclusive or even the primary way that you’re building your platform.
Rob Eagar is a marketing guru. He recently guest posted on Chip Macgregor’s blog, talking about the costs of social media.
At Book Expo 2009, John Sargent, the CEO of Macmillan Publishing stated, “Viral marketing doesn’t sell a ton of books.” He mentioned a video based on a Macmillan book that spent time in the # 1 spot on YouTube in the U.K. Yet it wound up only selling a whopping 200 extra copies
One of my author clients has a blog with over 50,000 monthly readers. He spends a lot of time maintaining his huge social network. However, none of his new books have surpassed the sales of his older titles. Instead his book sales attributed to social networking activities represent a trickle, rather than a torrent of revenue. Ironically, this author is continually surprised by how many books he sells via more traditional activities, such as public speaking, sending newsletters, or national radio and TV interview. I remind him to stay balanced and keep the lion’s share of resources dedicated on tactics that truly work.
4. It’s all who you know.
It may feel that way sometimes. It’s crossed my mind in moments of frustration. But, the reality is, it’s all who you connect with. There is nothing (except for fear) stopping you from connecting with all the right people. You might have the occasional bad experience as you try to do so, but overwhelmingly, if your experience is like mine, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the response you get. Reach out. Get to know people. Make connections.
There are great resources available to help you develop your platform. Check out Rob Eagar’s Speaking and Selling Books course and Sheila Wray Gregoire’s “Launching Your Speaking Ministry” course.
Blogging to build your platform
May 21st, 2010 by J A HeinleinThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Click the link in the sidebar to submit it!
You asked:
“I’ve recently started a blog in hopes of building my personal brand. I’m already starting to worry about getting off-track. Can you suggest some questions I should ask myself before I click the publish button?”
Jay Heinlein, publishing marketing expert, replied:
Great question! Technology now allows anyone the ability to be an “instant publisher” via blogging and other online social media vehicles. That can certainly be both a “blessing and a curse.” It is a terrific idea and very productive exercise to have a “checklist” to help keep your blog posts focused before “publishing your thoughts to the world”. Your idea reminds me of the image of a pilot going through the pre-flight checklist before heading for the runaway. It is certainly a critical exercise for the pilot.
As the author of a book, you are blogging as part of your overall “platform building” process. This is the most important part of the your role in the marketing process.
Blogging is a wonderful way for you…
to help to build awareness,
extend your brand,
allow your readers to experience you,
and to “build your tribe” …
“If you are an author, your tribe members are your readers—or, at least, that’s potentially true. The only question is whether or not you will become the tribe’s leader and equip them to communicate with you and with one another.” – 7 Ways to Build Your Author Brand Online, Michael Hyatt.
So here are some suggested questions to start the ball rolling:
Does this post…
- speak to my identified audience- the audience that I want to reach?
- properly and accurately represent me as “a brand” – does it leave the impression that I wish to communicate with my audience?
- share compelling, helpful and useful information, relevant information, and topics/subjects?
- help me to develop real, meaningful relationships with my audience? Am I genuinely interested in them? Is this a “give-give” post?
- encourage networking -provide an opportunity for my readers-intended audience to interact and connect with me, each other, and with other like-minded individuals?
- give the readers a valuable “take away” as they have experienced my writing.
- What is it that they will take away?
Now, after contemplating those questions…
I would suggest “making them yours” -that is tailor the heart of the questions to your own voice, and add 2-3 more questions of your own…
…some helpful posts for further research and consideration:
13 Things I’ve Learned about Successful Blogging (Problogger)
8 Blog Tips from Tim Ferriss (via MichaelHyatt.com)
Thanks again for your excellent question. Please drop back by and tell us how it’s going!
5 Keys to Great Fiction Book Covers
May 18th, 2010 by Terry DuganThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Click the link in the sidebar to submit it!
You asked,
What is the key to a fiction cover that customers will pick up?
As publishers and designers, we’re always trying to figure this one out and are never quite sure we do! But noting what has worked in the past, looking around in bookstores, reviewing best-seller lists, talking to fiction readers and being fiction readers ourselves, we can identify a few keys, some obvious, some perhaps not.
Romance
Romance defined broadly is a sense of adventure, of being carried away into another life and another world. By means of imagery, typography and design, the cover must elicit a taste for the beauty or intrigue or terror or warmth or tension of the author’s imaginary world. We want the reader with an affinity for a particular kind of fiction to pick up the book, feel his pulse quicken, and say, “Yes! I want to go there.”
Simplicity
It follows that whatever atmosphere is being depicted by cover art must be clear and simple, quickly apprehended. Usually it’s less about getting all the characters, settings and props crammed onto a cover than focusing on one element of the story that captures the feeling of it: The murder weapon and a torn piece of paper. A rose with a fallen petal. A glowing window in a cabin, a face turned away…tired motifs, but you get the idea! Uncluttered layout and design help here too. Our lives are busy and messy and we’re attracted to visuals that are airy, light, orderly and clean. That’s part of shelf appeal.
Genre Accuracy
The cover must match the genre. If it’s a romance, don’t make it look like a thriller. Of course, audience is important here too. There are books, for example, that men will never pick up regardless of the universality of the content. So the cover must fit with the content and the audience.
An Air of Mystery
Being clear about genre and accurately conveying the “romantic” atmosphere of a story doesn’t mean you give it all away. Some element on the cover that raises a question or seems slightly out of place can work to generate interest. Why is that Amish grandmother wearing headphones? Well, probably not.
New, New, New
Try to be unique. Avoid same old overused fonts (I’m talking about you, Papyrus) and tired motifs (see above). Be approachable but fresh!
Why Your Platform Matters
May 13th, 2010 by Andrew MackayPlatform is one of those terms that many authors hate. Every time it comes up, there’s a visceral reaction that hits faces immediately. It’s usually tempered pretty quickly, because most of us have come to realize that platform (or audience) is one of the keys to this whole publishing thing. While we long for the day that we can “just write,” we’ve realized that hard marketing work is a fact of life.
Sometimes, though, it’s helpful to see some of the benefits of platform at work. The other day, Tim Challies posted the results of a survey he put up last week about where and why his audience buys books. If you don’t know Tim, he’s a Christian who’s been blogging daily since 2002. He’s consistent (he’s blogged for 2,386 days consecutively as of this writing), he writes well, and he’s developed quite an audience. His first book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, came out a couple of years ago. He’s writing his second book, The Next Story, and posts occasionally about the process.
Tim posted his survey and got over 2,000 responses. (The people at Gallup and Barna Research were jealous.) Now, it probably wasn’t as statistically “dispersed” as the official pollsters try to force their data to be — but from a research perspective, the study would be defined as “Where does Tim Challies’ Audience buy books?” so the population sample is perfect. Tim Challies’ audience answered the survey! He found out which publishers his audience likes (and dislikes), where they’re most likely to buy books (and why).
The platform lesson from his survey is this: when you’ve developed your platform, market research becomes a natural bi-product of what you’re doing. I don’t think Tim was doing this for market research purposes (the way he assesses the data indicates that), but there is a whole lot of great market research data there.
This is just one of the benefits of having built trust and rapport with your audience. I didn’t hesitate to give Tim answers to his questions. I trust him to handle data with integrity, to be open and honest, and I like him. Your audience—when you develop it, when the people who make it up trust you—can and will give you everything you need to know about how best to get your message into their hands.
Just another reason that platform is so important.
The Prayer and Paradox Marketing Strategy
April 13th, 2010 by Mary DeMuth I included this picture as perspective, to remind myself about this crazy beautiful world we live in, to ground myself in people, not products.
A while back, I asked via Twitter and Facebook this question:
How do you balance blessing the Kingdom of God with marketing your wares? Is there such a thing?
Here are the responses:
- A constant and careful balancing act.
- The question implies you can’t do both at the same time; I’d check that
assumption. It’s more of a healthy tension than opposite objectives. - That’s one thing I get nervous about. Whew.
- I keep asking and asking myself (and praying)…am I promoting the Lord
or me?…am I seeking glory or giving it to Him? …Am I marketing
myself or temporal stuff or seeking to draw all men to Him. If He’s not
in it…I don’t want it.
It’s a tension/balancing act authors face. I don’t know if I’ve balanced well (maybe I’ve camped more in the tension camp. My shoulders would say so.)
Marketing reminds me of a painful analogy my husband and I heard when we were raising support to be church planters in France. It went something like this: “Picture a long gravel driveway and you at the beginning of it. To raise support, your job is to simply (ha!) turn over every piece of gravel as you make your way to the house. There will be five rocks with a red X on the back. Find those, and you’ve found your support.”
But here’s the ironic thing. We started with that sort of “turn over every rock” strategy. What did it get us? Lots of fatigue, frustration, and frayed nerves. What did work? Prayer and paradox. Prayer because we’d get to the end of our support raising ro
pes and give up, asking God again for direction. He’d give it. We’d follow it. And often more support would come through His counterintuitive plan. Paradox because it was NEVER how we would think it would go. We’d ask wealthy folks to join us financially, and they wouldn’t. We’d ask poor seminary students who gladly sacrificed what little they had to help us gt to France.
How does this relate to marketing?
Perhaps our strategy should be Prayer and Paradox. And in that, we’ll kill two birds (marketing our books, advancing the kingdom of God) with one stone (trusting and obeying).
Prayer:
- Truly commit your marketing adventures to prayer. Ask God to direct your steps. To guide your blogging. To smile upon your facebook status.
- Pray for others in the industry. It’s been a rough year.
- Pray God would bless your competition.
- Pray that the Lord would specifically show you which social media (if any) is right for you. Some folks shouldn’t twitter. Some shouldn’t blog. Don’t give into the temptation to do everything. Seek Him first.
- Seek the Lord’s heart for your books in the first place. Ask about ways you can bless folks with your words.
- Before embarking on a new initiative, ask God to check your motives, to sift your heart.
- Seek God and HIs kingdomas you think about marketing. How can you combine promoting your book with highlighting the plight of the world? How can your book selling somehow positively impact someone in need? (Giving away books to prisoners may help word of mouth, but also help folks who need Jesus-y words, for example.)
Paradox:
- Understand that your great plans might come to naught–by God’s design. Not to frustrate you per se, but to redirect you. I once sent hundreds of newsletters highlighting my speaking ministry. It cost a lot of time and money. I received this many requests to speak: ZERO. What did I learn? For me (and it’s unique to eachperson), I was to rely on the Lord to bring the engagements. And how did He do that? Exclusively through relationship and word of mouth.
- Perhaps the scope of your book or speaking topic is smaller but deeper than you expected. I spoke on national radio on a well-known program about Building the Christian Family You Never Had. The book has had moderate sales. But when I shared my story of abuse, I received an email from a mom who had adopted a sibling group. All the girls had been sexually abused. They listened to my story. The youngest said to her eldest sister, “Why did that lady (me) have to go through all that terrible stuff?” The eldest answered, “I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it’s so she could get through it and then help girls like us.” Those comments changed my life. If I wrote that book for those girls, it was worth it.
- I remember sending my novels to celebrities. What came out of it? A big, fat nothing. Like a celebrity even has time to read my book! But the best things have happened marketing wise when I’ve sent my books to folks without a big name. I’ve met some pretty cool champions of my work who’ve sold way more copies than Angelina Jolie.
I doubt I have it all figured out. Do any of us? (And if you do, feel free to leave a comment and let us know! 
) But I do know I am much more relaxed and peaceful when I pray and I welcome/invite paradox into my marketing efforts.
Find me here:
http://www.marydemuth.com
http://www.twitter.com/mdemuth
http://www.thewritingspa.com
http://blog.myfamilysecrets.org
How to get local media coverage
April 8th, 2010 by Susan BrillThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Click the link in the sidebar to submit it!
You asked:
“I really feel like my book could benefit from some local media coverage — what can I do to get on my local paper’s editor’s good side?”
Susan Brill, writing and marketing expert, replied:
Great question! Editors are always in a crunch, on a deadline, and looking for something fresh. They’re often also short on funds to pay freelancers to cover local news. Instead of asking for their help – offer yours! Avail yourself as a resource, and be easy to work with. This will put your name and the name of your book in the public eye, and establish relationship and credibility with the editors. Here are a few ways to avail yourself:
- Offer to write an article. Let the editor know the topic of your book and your area of expertise. Be sure to include the title of your book in your byline or in a short biographical sentence at the end of the article.
- Offer to run an excerpt from your book in the paper – for free. (Don’t worry about giving your book away. If people have a taste and like what they read, they’ll want to buy the book for themselves!) Send the editor a copy of your book with an inscription from you on the inside front page, thanking the editor by name for his or her contribution to the community or for his or her work at the paper. Flag a few areas of the book you would offer as an excerpt for the paper.
- Send in a press release that highlights you as a local author. A book launch press release focuses on the content and relevance of your book. But in your own community – you’re bigger news than the book is! Again, the size of your community makes a difference, but, even in a big city, if you can find an angle that makes your authoring a book newsworthy, many papers would be happy to print it for the local color and human interest value. It’s easier for someone else to write this kind of release for you rather than trying to paint yourself as a local celebrity. (Believer’s Press can help you with that.)
Other ideas to use your local paper for publicity: Send in community event notices when you have speaking engagements in the area; set up a book discussion at the local library and issue a short press release in advance; or write an editorial for the Op/Ed section of the paper on a current issue in the news that ties in to the topic of your book.
Finally, be easy to work with by sending in clean, proofread copy. Be easy to reach by including your name and contact information on every correspondence or submission, and be quick to pick up your phone or respond to messages from the editor. (An hour can make or break whether your story runs!) Be informed – read the paper! Make sure you know the tone, news style, and content of the paper so your offers or requests to the editor are in proper context.
Two plots, one book?
April 6th, 2010 by J A HeinleinThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Click the link in the sidebar to submit it!
Gail asked:
I have written a contemporary novel with two plots that merge. Though I prefer the book under one cover, I could separate it under two titles, Springtime in Savannah with 82,500 words and Sunsets Over St. Augustine with 63,000 words. What is your opinion?
Jay Heinlein, Publishing & Book Marketing Professional, answered:
First of all CONGRATS on finishing your novel(s)! You have reached a milestone that many are still just hoping to achieve… now a new work begins.
As far as Marketability goes: I definitely support the idea of separating your work into two volumes.
- if only one volume, you would have to massively edit and prune away what is likely to be some “very good stuff” – important components of your work that your readers would be denied.
- most agents agree/would advise that 100k words is the upper limit for a debut novel,
- the optimum debut novel is likely in the 80k and under range. You are right on the mark — in the right word count range with each of the two volumes.
- The average page count should be somewhere between 250-400 pages.
Leave the long “omni-bus” treatises to the well-established or the exceptions such as Michener and Tolstoy!
- The two volumes create more opportunity to gain traction in the marketplace and show that you are not a “one-hit wonder.”
- If a royalty publisher is your ultimate aim, they will like this as well.
- Novelists are successful because they gain followings and your hard-earned readers/followers will want more…
In the past, multiple volumes were released strategically in stages… the second release timing was scheduled to be available “just as the readers were getting hungry again.”
- Also, in the trade distribution models i.e. bookstores – traditional bookselling channels, there are always limited marketing resources and a highly competitive environment for seasonal promotions and shelf-placement opportunities.
- One at a time was better in that model.
However, in the new “direct access” model, one can become quite successful in directly reaching a “tribe of followers/readers”…
- And, you can do so having never been on a book-shelf and without the high risk perils of the current rapidly changing retail environment.
- In the new model, you are not encumbered by the “seasonal windows” of the “old” traditional bookselling/promotional model and two can be better than one.
Keys to a Stand-Out Nonfiction Proposal
April 1st, 2010 by Barb LillandThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Send it to info@believerspress.com and we’ll get you an answer!
You asked:
“I’ve written a nonfiction proposal. What can I do to stand out from the crowd?”
A unique benefit of writing nonfiction is that in most cases you need not write the entire manuscript before submitting a proposal to agents and publishers. However, keep in mind that writing the proposal may be just as difficult! A quality nonfiction proposal focuses on selling yourself and your idea. Like a successful advertisement, the nonfiction proposal should highlight your “product” in such as way as to leave a lasting impression on the reader.
There are numerous guidelines available that will walk you through the physical proposal (cover letter, summary, table of contents, etc.). If you need help with that step, here are a few links to help you get started: http://pages.prodigy.net/jimcypher/proposal.htm; http://www.ehow.com/how_2085531_write-non-fiction-book-proposal.html. (Editor’s note: Mary DeMuth has a great Nonfiction Book Proposal Tutorial eBook available for $25.)
What you may not find on the web are the specific elements an editor and agent are hoping to see when they open up your proposal. In my years as an acquisitions editor, I saw my share of the good, the bad, and the don’t-even-open. Here are some insider tips on how to keep yours in the good—if not excellent—category. First step? Take off your writer’s hat and put on your marketing hat. Second step? Concentrate on including these three keys in your proposal:
1) Subject: You may have a great idea, but if it is not timely and unique, you may not have a book.
a) Your idea needs to be timely. Have there been frequent news articles written on this topic? Have you written a magazine or newspaper article on the subject? Is it a cultural shift, a hot social issue, a current felt-need among a specific age group, or a topic the church is just beginning to address? If so, include one or two news pieces (particularly any you have written) as examples of the timeliness of your topic.
b) Your book needs to be unique. Are there a number of bestselling books on this topic, but yours takes a distinctive approach that will allow it to stand out from the market? Does your personal experience or career give you special insight into this subject? If you were writing the back cover copy of your book, how would you sell this idea as a unique approach with specific take-away value for the reader?
2) Platform: Your qualifications and current audience are often what makes or breaks a book deal.
a) What are your qualifications for tackling this topic? I’m not referring to a degree from an elite college—nice, but it won’t get you a book deal. More crucial is what you are doing now to advance your ideas. Have you written a number of articles on this topic? Do you teach extensively on this (or a similar) subject in your workplace, church, or community? Do you have a website, a popular blog? In today’s market, publishers want an author who comes with a history of successful self-promotion—trust me, those are the writers who get a book deal.
b) What audience have you already gathered? If you maintain a website, how many hits has it received? Do you regularly blog on this topic? How many followers do you have? If you have written articles on the topic, what kind of response did the magazine receive following its publication? How many people typically attend your teaching seminars? Include specific numbers. Remember, if your book proposal entices the acquisitions editor, he or she then has to “sell” it to the editorial board. Make the editor’s job easy by including details about the platform you have already established.
3) Market: Your book’s category and competition are critical to its success.
a) Into what category will your book be shelved? You may feel your book is unique and better than other books in the marketplace, but the fact is your book will sit on the shelf alongside similar books. Know the specific category, do your homework, and don’t be afraid to address it in your proposal.
b) What competition will your book face? I’ve known authors who hoped that by not mentioning the competition, they could trick the editor into thinking the market was wide open on their topic. Not going to happen. Know the competition, and detail how your book is better. You may want to list the top three books in the category along with their sales numbers or bestseller standing. Remember, the editor may have acquired one of those successful titles: tell him or her why yours is exceptional, why it is a good follow-up in the wake of that other book, and/or why your book will appeal to a broader audience.
Beyond just selling a good idea, your book proposal needs to address the timeliness and uniqueness of the subject, your established platform, and the current temperature of the market. Touch on those three keys in your cover letter, and follow with more specific details on the ensuing pages. The result? A top-notch proposal guaranteed to stand out from the crowd.
Timing your book release
March 30th, 2010 by Andrew MackayThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Send it to info@believerspress.com and we’ll get you an answer!
You asked:
My book is scheduled to arrive from the printer next week… when should I schedule my release date?
Getting ready to launch your independently published book is exciting. You’ll want to rush. But, there’s no more important time to your marketing plan than the lead up to the official launch. There are reasons that big publishers start their marketing push long before the book is scheduled to become available to retailers and customers.
Jonathan Acuff, writer of the popular blog Stuff Christians Like, just launched his book, published by Zondervan. You should read his launch day post. More than that, though, you should read backward through his archive and see the various things he did to generate pre-orders for his book. Jon wrote guest posts for any blog that would have him. He ran giveaways (including eReaders, the new Apple iPad, several mp3 players, and a MacBook pro). As a result, he’s trended well on Amazon, listed first in several categories, and created a lot of buzz for his book.
How does that help him? Well, as a result of the buzz and the preorders, bookstores will be more likely to a) stock it, and b) stock it in larger numbers. More importantly, the readership was primed for the release — they’d been waiting for it. When they finally received their pre-order (or went to a store to buy it), they probably rushed to read it. They likely told their friends about it.
The model can (and should, I think) scale down. Maybe you only have 100 readers waiting for your book. What a great opportunity to get them talking! You could send out “early release” copies to them. People like an exclusive. You could ask those of them who have any sort of platform (blog, reading group, church library) to write / distribute a review. You can get positive feedback for your own website. You can build your Amazon preorders, so that Amazon will stock your book in greater numbers.
Make a marketing plan. Make it for 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks. Talk about your book. Build the anticipation you can where you can. Then launch your book!
Most authors have been waiting for years to launch their book to the public. Another month or two of waiting now won’t hurt — especially if you use it well!
3 Things to Leave Out of Your Author Bio
March 23rd, 2010 by Kimberly BrockThe BelieversPress blog features Q & A sessions with the experts we work with, answering questions that you’ve asked. Have a question? Send it to info@believerspress.com and we’ll get you an answer!
You asked:
What three things shouldn’t I include in my cover bio?
- Incorporate “Anointed by God to teach/write/speak…” In 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, the Word says, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God.” If you are in Christ, you are anointed along with every other believer in the world. While some authors may feel it significant to state, I believe it is more important to choose your words carefully in establishing yourself as the expert of your own work. If you want to mention your faith, do so in a way that sets you apart: “David has helped to lead Bible studies for 12 years…” You only have 3-5 seconds to grab your buyer’s attention. Select your words wisely.
- Announce this is your first book. As an author, you have to remember that you are your product. In order to put your best foot forward, you want to lead your bio with a strong statement about yourself including some of your qualifications to write your book. In other words, it would be better to lead with, “Sally is a part-time editor and freelance writer” rather than “Sally is a housewife who between hauling her kids to activities finds time to write.” Both statements could be true, but the first example better places you as a professional.
- Include too much information. Although your bio is a the place to list your many accomplishments, I encourage authors to carefully edit and select information that helps support the sale of the book. A good bio does not have to be complicated. I just read an article on bios. In this article it said that on a bookcover, readers want you to answer:
1) who you are…
2) your expertise and how it addresses…
3) their problem or goal, and how they can…
4) contact you
I agree with this theory and suggest that you may add a little more about your personal life (married, with children, etc.). But for the most part if you have those components satisfied, the reader will be happy. Also, do be sure to include a website that is current and active as well as a professional email address for which your readers can contact you.
For more information, please read an article I wrote titled Crafting Your Bio.
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