Writing An Author Bio For Your Children's Book

Writing an author bio can be quite a nailbiter, especially if it is your very first attempt. So over the years, I’ve tried to make this process easier for my clients and students by breaking it down into four main objectives to adhere to whenever we’re drafting a new author bio.

The main objectives we’ll want to accomplish with our bio are these right here:

Be Interesting & Relevant
Be Informative
Help us Connect with the Reader
Be Concise

Anything else besides these objectives is additional information that may or may not be necessary or needed, and could instead be used on our ABOUT page in places such as our website.

ABOUT pages can be much longer, more detailed, and more extensive than a simple author bio. If you’d like to take a look at an example, feel free to check out my ABOUT page right here.

But for this particular article, I’d like to focus on how to write an author bio for a children’s book. So let’s go through these 4 aforementioned main objectives, one by one.

Main Objectives when Writing an Author Bio:

1. INTERESTING & RELEVANT

What exactly makes an author bio interesting and relevant? A bio becomes interesting and relevant, if it is pertinent to the reader. That is, if it is somehow connected to your book’s topic (because after all, it is your book that made people find you in the first place).

So if your children’s book is about bullying, you could share more about yourself by starting one of your paragraphs like this:

“Having been bullied for most of her childhood, …”
“As a teacher, [NAME] saw the impact bullying can have …”

Please note that these examples are written in 3rd person, simply because it’s common practice to write an author bio in 3rd person, even though it’s usually ourselves who write our bio.

2. INFORMATIVE

Here are some of the questions I always ask myself to see if the information I’m about to share is informative:

Is the information I’m sharing helping the reader make a decision as to whether or not to purchase my book?
Will this prompt the reader to learn more about me? And if so, how, where and why?

Adding credibility markers can be very helpful to readers, as it shows that you are an expert in whatever topic you’re writing about. And being an “expert” doesn’t mean that you have to have a degree in something in order to be able to talk or write about it.

Credibility markers can be anything that underlines your knowledge, experience, and/or expertise. This doesn’t have to be fancy. Here are some examples of excellent credibility markers:

Having worked with children in the past (or present)
Being a parent of a child with special needs, if you’re writing a children’s book that talks about this topic
Having rescued and fostered dogs, if your children’s book is about rescuing dogs
Having personally experienced what your children’s book is addressing
Having been featured in media outlets
Having won an award

These are all excellent ways of giving whatever you have to say and share more credibility.

3. CONNECT WITH THE READER

Depending on the topic of your children’s book, connecting with the reader of your bio may have already been achieved under the INTERESTING & RELEVANT section I shared with you above.

Other ways to connect with readers is to ‘show’ them that you’re just like them. That you’re facing the same troubles and problems. Here, we could share things such as:

“As a mother of 3 little dragons, …”

“As a stay-at-home dad, …”

“Having always wanted to find her own unicorn, …”

Here, we’re presented with the wonderful opportunity to let our character shine through a bit. With the example above, I could have just written “As a mother of 3, …,” but by adding “of 3 little dragons,” I let readers know that I don’t take life too seriously. So definitely have fun and be creative with this!

4. CONCISE

I’m hesitant to give an exact range of word lengths when writing an author bio, simply because this will greatly depend on your children’s book and its topic. Just know that the more concise, relevant, and to-the-point, the better.

Broken up into short paragraphs is also very important, as short paragraphs are always visually more appealing than big chunks of text.

If you’ve stuck to and addressed the aforementioned objectives I shared with you above, you are on your way to an excellent author bio for your children’s book.

3 Examples of Writing an Author Bio

To illustrate these 4 objectives, let’s go over three author bios. The first one is from Diane Alber, a successful, self-published author of a number of children’s books.

EXAMPLE 1

Diane did such a wonderful job weaving in her credibility markers, while being relatable and showing how her book is relevant to the reader. It’s a great example, as it illustrates that everything that needs to be said can be done in a concise way.

The only other information I would add is a website or some other way to connect and for her readers to ‘find’ her.

EXAMPLE 2

Oftentimes, it’s also a wonderful idea to break up the text, especially if it’s a longer paragraph or chunk of text. So I wanted to share how I’ve broken up one of my own author bios.

This particular version of my author bio is from one of my newest children’s books I co-authored with a well-known Wallstreet Journal-bestselling author and coach within the entrepreneurial space.

As you can see, it is fairly short, but packed with lots of relevant information. Knowing that a lot of the readers are not just parents but also entrepreneurs, I made sure to include credibility markers that are well known within these circles, such as my appearance in Forbes and Huffington Post.

I’m also sharing that I have written a number of other successful books, and that I founded my own business (Children’s Book University).

Additionally, I invite readers to learn more about me (or my series), by sharing my websites. This is so very important and often overlooked or simply forgotten. So, if you have a website, be sure to share it with readers.

EXAMPLE 3

Another beautiful example is by one of my readers, Andi Cann. Like Diane, she’s already written and published a number of children’s books.

Again, this bio is very short, but lets readers know all the relevant information. I love Andi’s use of colorful adjectives. After reading this short bio, we already know so much about her. More importantly, this bio makes me feel like Andi truly cares about her readers.

Now, in my own bio above, notice how I wrote “ONE of my own bios” above. And that’s because I have more than one. So read on to learn why.

Let’s Make Writing An Author Bio For Your Children’s Book Fun!

Something to consider (and that will make this task of writing your very own author bio so much easier and more fun) are these two thoughts right here:

1. An author bio is NOT permanent!

Your author bio is NOT permanent. Instead, view it as a living, breathing work-in-progress, that will evolve WITH you. As you as a children’s book author will grow, so will your bio.

Here are some examples that will trigger changes and updates to your author bios:

If one of your books won an award (“As an award-winning author, …”)
If your single book turned into a series (“Being part of the series …”)
Receiving important media coverage (“Having been featured in …”)
If your book is a best-seller (“[NAME] is the best-selling author …”)
If you have written multiple books (“As the author of more than a dozen books,…”)

Do some of these sound familiar? If they do, here’s why: I use many of these within my own author bios.

PRO TIP:
My number one tip here is to weave these important nuggets of information into your existing author bio, instead of adding an entire, new sentence or paragraph. This will ensure that your author bio stays short and concise.

2. We don’t have to stick to just one single author bio!

Realizing that I don’t have to stick to just one version of my author bio made me feel so much better. I often change and tweak my bio, depending on what outlet I’m using it for. For example, my author bio for some of my children’s books on Amazon is very different from my bio I share in my article on Kindlepreneur, or my short bio at the end of my article in SCBWI.

So really, there is no need to agonize over our author bio. Because we can always, ALWAYS change it! It doesn’t have to be perfect. Rather, we can tweak, adjust, and change it over time.

When drafting your different versions, simply remember to ask yourself:

Whom is this particular version for?
And what am I trying to convey with this particular version?

Some of My Favorite Author Bios

Now, today’s article wouldn’t be complete without me sharing my own, all-time favorite author bios of children’s writers.

Please note that these don’t necessarily stick to the objectives I outlined above. And that’s simply because these are bios of already well-established and well-known authors. So I don’t recommend this as a style you’ll want to start out with.

So please do keep that in mind!

Here is to your very own, beautiful author bio for your children’s book!

~ Eevi

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