About the Author Pages by S.M. Blooding

Who Am I?

Hey! I’m the interview coordinator for PYN. Today, I’d like to discuss your About the Author page!

As someone whose job it is to find interesting morsels of information about you so I can ask questions that are relevant, I can say that I’ve seen my fair share of About the Author pages. I’ve seen some really fantastic ones, and I’ve seen more than a few that weren’t so great.

The first thing to remember is that people actually want to find out more about you! So, having an About the Author page is important.

The second thing to know is that there are a few key things to have on your page:

Brief Bio

Author Photo

That’s your bare minimum. This is what should be on every author site. If you’re an author, if you have books, then you need to have a page that has this information.

This, however, is pretty basic. What can you do to set your page apart from the pack? Let’s take a look at a few quick examples of good author pages.
 

• Roxy Boroughs: http://www.roxyboroughs.com/bio/ She did a great job of jabbing a bit of fun with a Whoopee cushion. It was short, quick, to the point, but it showed she has a sense of humor.

• Eisley Jacobs: http://eisleyjacobs.com/ Her author page is the welcome page, which is fine, but she used whit throughout her brief bio to show the reader the sense of humor you’ll find in her books. She also showed how her characters (even if they’re dragons) relate to her.

• Beth Dolgner: http://www.bethdolgner.com/about/ This is a fantastic example of having FUN!!! I bought her book after reading her BIO! I glanced through her blurb, sure, but I was SOLD on her blurb! I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed, and I wasn’t! She’s a hoot! Her books are a hoot! GREAT job!!

• Boone Brux: http://www.boonebrux.com/about-boone.html This is another good example of having fun with a bio. I could tell just by this one paragraph that I was going to like Boone, and I was right!

•  SM Blooding: http://www.smblooding.com/about-the-author/ This seems a bit like self promotion, I know, but I took all the things I learned from everyone else’s pages and lumped what I could onto mine. Another thing I LOVE about my Author Page is that readers, like you, can leave me a message right there. I love that!

Now, if you’re not witty, that’s okay. Some authors do great when writing the Great American Novel, but choke on the one paragraph thing. So what can you do if you “suck at the wit”?

1. Mention a hobby! Throw up a picture or two! At the very least, it’s a conversation starter! You wouldn’t believe how many people love to talk about crocheting or cupcake baking! OMW!! Trust me when I say that others probably share your hobby and they LOVE finding kindred spirits to discuss them with.

2. Mention your favorite place you traveled to and…share a picture! People love to travel. They dream of it, fantasize about having enough money to do so! So share that little tidbit with the world and let them talk to you about it!

3. List your interviews! OMW, people! This helps and it’s a great place for people to find out all kinds of crazy things about you. It’s easy to open up when someone’s asking you questions! Right? So why bury these morsels of information on a Google page?! Display them proudly on your About You page. Plus, it makes you seem popular AND interviewers will, hopefully, not ask you questions you’ve already answered a dozen times before.

4. What are your favorite, zany cuss words? I’m not talking about the lame ones, F__Bomb, S__Bomb, etc. I want to hear your favorites! “Oh, holy banana farts!” The ones that get the mad out and make people laugh their pants off at the same time. *nods*

5. Dig deep! What is the one thing that makes you zany? We’re all a little nuts, but that’s what makes us writers! So…use it to your advantage!

I hope this helped!! I look forward to interviewing you!!!

We’re working to set up interviews for Winter 2012! If you’re interested, please fill out this form and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!! http://parayournormal.blogspot.com/p/loading.html

 

To find out more about SM Blooding, visit her page at http://www.smblooding.com/, and add her books to your Goodreads TBR pile at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5234671.S_M_Blooding