AUthor Bios...
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 2:40 pmGreetings! My name is Danny. Most of you don't know me, but starting with Issue 5, I began doing the copy-editing and layout for Shroud Magazine. At some point, I'll try and slip in a post on my guidelines for copy-editing (and how I try not to torture your words, while still standardizing the look and feel, and catching all those quirks that slip through spell-checkers).
This post, however, concerns your Author Bios!
It's nice to promote yourself, and feels good to see your name and a blurb below your story. We're trying to fit as much of this in as we can, actually. Space for these, however, is limited. Based on my experience, and the needs of Shroud, I'd like to give a few pointers.
1.) Keep it short! Your Bio should not be as long as your story! In fact, if your story takes up three pages, your bio shouldn't be a half-page. If what you send is way too long, it's up to me to trim it down to something usable. And you may not like the result. There's usually enough space for a couple inches for a bio beneath each story, so two or so paragraphs. The page dictates what will fit, and we do our best to fit what we can in there, but there's often not a lot of space.
2.) The solution to length? Write like a journalist. Add the important stuff in the first paragraph. Then the stuff that's next in importance to you in another paragraph, and so on. This way, when space limits, it's easy to chop out a paragraph, and not lose the good stuff.
3.) Focus on what's really important and interesting first. What makes you unique, or what are you most proud of? Do you have a degree in something bizarre, such as underwater taxidermy of extinct shellfish? Do you live in some amazing out of the way place that will make people go "ooooohhh" and be insanely jealous? Are you proud that you have children or a spouse that hasn't murdered anyone yet, despite the fact that you write bizarre fiction and refuse to shower while you're in your "writing mode"? People wanna know! Well, maybe not about the refusal to shower, but....
4.) When listing your printed credits, please keep to those that are, again, most important to you. We really don't have space to list every award, every nomination, every project you've ever worked on. If we have to end up cutting the list down, we may not choose the things you would have. Recent projects are nice to know. Do you have something recently published, or being released soon?
5.) For my own sanity, and because I don't know everything, please try to stick to a standard title format. Book and film titles in Italics, articles and stories in Quotes, etc. This is how they end up, but no matter what you do, please be consistent! Even if I have to change to fit, if they're all the same, it's a lot more accurate in the end.
6.) Please include a website you would like to have listed, preferably at the end if your bio. If you don't, I end up doing a google search, trying to find one that seems appropriate. If you don't send much of a bio, I end up going to this website, and cobbling one together from the info. there. Again, you may not like the website listed, or may not remember the embarrassing mole you mentioned on some long-lost site in days past. I'm likely to find that, and if it makes me giggle, I may forget my sense of professionalism and run with it! So, include the url of the place you want people to visit!
7.) Be timely with your Bio! When Tim sends you that acceptance notice, and as soon as you come down off your happiness high and stop running around the room giggling like a child hopped up on Nitrous and Cocoa Crispies (and after you've sent me video of you doing this for my own amusement), try and put together a current bio to send off. This way, in the midst of layout and trying to get the magazine to press, we're not having to contact you for a blurb, and you don't forget something in the last-minute rush.
Basically, the gist of all this is that a Bio is a very short space in which to showcase yourself outside the story. If someone likes your story or article, they'll read the Bio, and perhaps try to find more from you. If we have to make up your life from scant material, or have to cut down your novel length biopic, it may not end up being what you want the erstwhile fan reading.
And no, it should be nowhere near as long as this post... No one should be as wordy as me.
This post, however, concerns your Author Bios!
It's nice to promote yourself, and feels good to see your name and a blurb below your story. We're trying to fit as much of this in as we can, actually. Space for these, however, is limited. Based on my experience, and the needs of Shroud, I'd like to give a few pointers.
1.) Keep it short! Your Bio should not be as long as your story! In fact, if your story takes up three pages, your bio shouldn't be a half-page. If what you send is way too long, it's up to me to trim it down to something usable. And you may not like the result. There's usually enough space for a couple inches for a bio beneath each story, so two or so paragraphs. The page dictates what will fit, and we do our best to fit what we can in there, but there's often not a lot of space.
2.) The solution to length? Write like a journalist. Add the important stuff in the first paragraph. Then the stuff that's next in importance to you in another paragraph, and so on. This way, when space limits, it's easy to chop out a paragraph, and not lose the good stuff.
3.) Focus on what's really important and interesting first. What makes you unique, or what are you most proud of? Do you have a degree in something bizarre, such as underwater taxidermy of extinct shellfish? Do you live in some amazing out of the way place that will make people go "ooooohhh" and be insanely jealous? Are you proud that you have children or a spouse that hasn't murdered anyone yet, despite the fact that you write bizarre fiction and refuse to shower while you're in your "writing mode"? People wanna know! Well, maybe not about the refusal to shower, but....
4.) When listing your printed credits, please keep to those that are, again, most important to you. We really don't have space to list every award, every nomination, every project you've ever worked on. If we have to end up cutting the list down, we may not choose the things you would have. Recent projects are nice to know. Do you have something recently published, or being released soon?
5.) For my own sanity, and because I don't know everything, please try to stick to a standard title format. Book and film titles in Italics, articles and stories in Quotes, etc. This is how they end up, but no matter what you do, please be consistent! Even if I have to change to fit, if they're all the same, it's a lot more accurate in the end.
6.) Please include a website you would like to have listed, preferably at the end if your bio. If you don't, I end up doing a google search, trying to find one that seems appropriate. If you don't send much of a bio, I end up going to this website, and cobbling one together from the info. there. Again, you may not like the website listed, or may not remember the embarrassing mole you mentioned on some long-lost site in days past. I'm likely to find that, and if it makes me giggle, I may forget my sense of professionalism and run with it! So, include the url of the place you want people to visit!
7.) Be timely with your Bio! When Tim sends you that acceptance notice, and as soon as you come down off your happiness high and stop running around the room giggling like a child hopped up on Nitrous and Cocoa Crispies (and after you've sent me video of you doing this for my own amusement), try and put together a current bio to send off. This way, in the midst of layout and trying to get the magazine to press, we're not having to contact you for a blurb, and you don't forget something in the last-minute rush.
Basically, the gist of all this is that a Bio is a very short space in which to showcase yourself outside the story. If someone likes your story or article, they'll read the Bio, and perhaps try to find more from you. If we have to make up your life from scant material, or have to cut down your novel length biopic, it may not end up being what you want the erstwhile fan reading.
And no, it should be nowhere near as long as this post... No one should be as wordy as me.
