How to use this Page

The very last portion of a book proposal is your biography.  This is the chance to brag a little bit about yourself and to tell the editor/agent pertinent information about yourself.  For example, say you've written a middle grade novel where the kids are running around trying to outwit an ancient Mayan prophecy and you also happen to be the world's current leading expert on all things Mayan, that would be something to include in your biography.  Or perhaps, you run a blog with 1500 followers that offers advice to parents adopting children from China, and you wrote a picture book about a little boy going with his parents to pick up his new baby sister from China.  Again, that would be something to mention.

Also, this is the time to remind the agent/editor (you've already mentioned it in the cover letter) if you are a published author.  You can also enclose a one page list after your bio of your top publishing credits.  However, again, use your discretion.  If you've published 45 magazine articles, 12 short stories, 16 novels and edit an online journal, you don't want to list every single credit.  Hit the highlights.

To practice your bios, go to the Forum and post it.  No one will criticize what you've done, we'll just give you feedback so you can show yourself in the best light.

And that my friends, concludes Book Proposal March.  You have now read (and in some cases practiced) all of the elements of a good book proposal.  But don't stop practicing.  Remember, in a couple of weeks I will be holding a Book Proposal contest.  The top 5 book proposals will receive a free critique of their proposal (including the sample chapters/manuscript in the proposal), and ALL entries in the contest will be considered for publication by CBAY Books.  You can submit any genre, any age, anything -- even stuff you might not think is appropriate for the CBAY lists.  After all, you could still win a critique, and I'm also considering an ebook original imprint that will publish more than SF/fantasy.  I'm thinking of broadening my scope, so to speak, but I have to see what's out there before I decide. 

Rules, information, and deadlines for the contest will go up tomorrow.  So, keep posting on the Forum (in any of the parts of a book proposal, not just author bios) to get your book proposal in the best shape possible.

© Copyright 2006-2011 Madeline Smoot. All rights reserved. May be excerpted and duplicated for educational purposes.

It’s hard to believe that TEN LUCKY THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO ME SINCE I NEARLY GOT HIT BY LIGHTENING will be out in just three months, but it will. And it’s a great example of how the pre-publication time flies by and why it’s so important to stay organized and on top of your Promotional To Do List.

The bulk of promotional and marketing tasks to be accomplished this month have to do with press and promotional materials.

Now is a good time to begin putting together a full spectrum wardrobe of author bios. As we’ve talked about before, they can be devilishly hard to write, and you’ll need a variety of sizes. A very clever example of these varying-in-detail type bios can be found on Shannon Hale’s website. As we’ve said before here at SVP, it’s nice to have a 50 word, 100 word, and 300 word bio on hand for the various requirements of those who will ask you for them. But start playing with them now and trying a number of approaches and angles. If you start now, you may just have one you like in three months. Maybe.

This is also a good time to think about getting an author photo. You’d be surprised how often you’ll be asked for one, and if you give yourself enough lead time, you can wait for a good hair week to set up the photo shoot.

Another thing to begin thinking about at this three month mark is a press kit and whether or not you’ll want to put one together. A press kit, for those of you who don’t know, is a nice folder that contains information about you and your book, usually with the intention of being sent to the press so they can have all the information at their fingertips should they care to write about you or your book. A press kit might contain a short and long author bio, an author photo, a color postcard of the book cover, maybe a short interview with you answering some basic author FAQs about how you came to write the book, your path to publication, etc.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have yet to send out a press kit on myself. (Bad Violet!!) I did, however, send out many, many of them when I worked for a non-fiction publisher.

And lastly, I recommend getting some high quality, color postcards of your book cover. I know that Mary’s been researching the pricing on these, but I’m not sure if she’s ordered them yet. Usually, it’s a pretty simple and straightforward process and there isn’t much graphic designing involved, so it lends itself well to a do-it-yourself (read budget!) type production. But because it does involve graphic production and print time, it pays to get started early. Plus, you'll want to have them back in time to mail out before your launch date!

This must be some kind of a tipping point. Users won’t know this as “RSS,” but the mainstream march continues.

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