The Me You DO See

A mile-long 'to do' list comes with publishing your first book. If you think writing and editing the manuscript is the worst of your worries, think again. Accounts have to be opened, a website has to be built, a bio has to be written, and your book blurb must be polished to perfection—it's overwhelming.

I thought I'd list a few resources that have helped me along the way.
Maybe some of you will find these useful, too.

Author Bio

This is the little paragraph people paste next to your head shot when posting an interview with you or some other kind of promotion, such as a cover reveal or book release announcement. It's also seen on retailer author pages and sometimes in or on books.

I learned there are many angles one can take when writing a bio. You should consider your personality, your product (genre), your brand, and your audience, then write something that fits. This blog post is a great source of ideas.

Press Page
You should seriously consider creating a 'press' or 'media' page on your website or blog, so people can find information easily when helping you promote.
(A disembodied voice whispers, "Make it easy, and they will help...")

Here are some examples:  
Crystal Collier's 
Carrie Butler's 
Mine

A press page doesn't have to be fancy, just organized.

I should probably pause to note: When writing this post, I had to peruse quite a few of your blogs & websites to find examples. Most authors barely had a usable bio & head shot (meaning their 'about me' pages were fine for visitors, but inappropriate and / or too long for promos), and their links, cover images, and book blurbs were often listed on separate pages, spread all over the place. I even found one press page that was password protected. Not sure why.

How many clicks would it take for a promoter to gather all your info?

:)
The folks over 40 will get that.

Here's an article on press packs to help you organize your stuff and decide what to include.

Book Blurbs
The back cover blurb (a.k.a. story description) is arguably the most important piece of text we'll ever write, with the exception of the actual book. (As if we need any more pressure - gah!) In fact, some say it's more important. If the cover and story description don't grab the reader's attention, they won't bother venturing any further.

These two articles helped me write my blurb:
Gotcha Blurbs: Easy and Fun to Write
How to Write Back Blurb for Your Book

Another thing that helped was pulling a couple of paperbacks off my shelf—ones that had good blurbs. I didn't copy them, of course, but I read them and paid attention to how they were written and arranged. I took those concepts and applied them to my story, then came up with something unique to me.

This has been a mile-long post about (a portion of) my mile-long list, but I hope you found something useful. Thanks for visiting. :)

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