Craft a written bio by following this formula
It's common for highly skilled individuals to have unimpressive written bios. This includes individuals with PhDs who fail to mention their credentials, or experts who have presented at top corporations or appeared in national media without highlighting these achievements in their bios. For instance, a client once admitted to omitting a major project they collaborated on with a prominent Hollywood producer because it was unpaid. In my opinion, this detail is irrelevant as no one is aware of it or gives it any importance.
Authors have different bios for different needs. For example, you may have a speaker bio slightly different from your author bio on the back of your book. Regardless, any bio should have the same basic structure.
Your bio should read like a short introduction to your life's work and your most recent/relevant work—all in a few sentences. Include only the most significant, most important information, like your current profession, business, the title of your current book, degrees if they're from a well-known institution, prominent media if you've been featured in something national, places where you've spoken that are worth mentioning (like Apple, Amazon, Omega, TedX, etc.), and of course, your website. You should have a few versions of your bio: very short (50 words), short (150 words), and long (up to 500 words) – all available on the press page of your website. For anything longer, post a link on your website's bio page and make a PDF download of your CV. I also find it's nice to end with something personal and, of course, how to find more information about you and contact you.
Here's a good example of a medium-length bio:
Dr. Ken Druck is one of the world's leading experts on grief and resilience. Since losing his own daughter in a tragic accident and working with families after 9/11, Sandy Hook, and Columbine, he has dedicated his life to providing roadmaps for getting through life's most daunting and difficult times and navigating its daily ups and downs. Dr. Ken is a bestselling author of several books, including his most recent, How We Go On: Self-Compassion, Courage, and Gratitude on the Path Forward. He is a recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Contribution to Psychology award and a noted speaker for conferences, special gatherings, and global organizations. Dr. Ken lives in San Diego with his family and beloved Boxer, Jack. Find him at www.kendruck.com.
A bio aims to frame the you precisely as you want to be seen and provide a consistent message across all channels. By making your bio available quickly and easily, you're making the media's job easier, which puts you a step ahead of 90% of others and makes you more likely to get featured and asked back!
(image by: Dharma Comics)
Today's newsletter began with a funny story about the late great Dr. Wayne Dyer and how he learned to tame his author ego (so he could focus on the life-changing work he was on a mission to accomplish). It went something like this: After becoming a "big" author, Wayne was quickly humbled by his wife when he was on tour for the release of one of his new books and kept calling her each morning to see if "he'd hit the New York Times Best Sellers List." He'd call her each morning and ask, "Am I on this list?!" One morning, he called with utter shock and disappointment and said, "I'm still not on the list!??" She responded, "No, YOU are not on the list. Your book, however, is." Read the full story here.
(image by: Dharma Comics)
Persistence + time = results
Someone recently asked if there are any obstacles to securing media coverage for their book. When discussing the question with a fellow publicist, she casually responded, “yeah, everything is an obstacle.” No truer words were ever spoken.
In book publicity (could be any publicity), we face obstacles literally every step of the way: constant media staff turnover, never-ending “breaking news,” overworked and underpaid journalists receiving thousands of new pitches every single day, a celebrity-driven media culture (great for celebrity publicists, which I am intentionally not), demands for click-worthy articles that help drive advertising revenue, an editorial shift from story-driven to product-driven content with affiliate links that drive revenue, 500k -1 million books published annually (4 million if you count self-published), and the list goes on and on and on.
However, the bigger picture is this: LIFE is an obstacle every day. I don’t mean to sound grim, but it’s true. If I look at my own life, for example, in just the last six months, I’ve dealt with COVID (myself, my family, and clients), the threat of a frivolous lawsuit over a used car, my son’s broken arm and therefore hijacked active teenage life, a potentially dangerous individual threatening my home, a sick and dying dog, daily teenage daughter drama, new driver fender benders, college recruiting prep, aging in-laws who often have a health crises and also accidentally stop your mail service -- etc., etc., etc. In that same time, I’ve had a colleague whose 20-year old daughter died suddenly in a freak accident, another whose young adult son went missing (again) due to drug addiction and mental health struggles — both a parents’ worst nightmare. We’ve also experienced the end of several valuable media outlets, a worldwide paper shortage that resulted in book delays, and again, the list goes on and on and on. Of course, these issues make mine feel ridiculously insignificant.
Taking an even bigger step back and looking at things from basically space, most of what we face in a day still pales in comparison to the obstacles of so many others. I recently read The Master Plan: My Journey from a Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose, by Chris Wilson, and it opened my eyes to the overwhelming trauma people live with every day, putting my own issues into perspective and making me grateful for what I have. Of course you can also just look to life in Ukraine or any other war-torn country to shift your mindset from overwhelm to gratitude.
As we walk this planet and navigate our way through daily life, we never know what burden someone carries with them in each moment. Treading a little lighter, showing compassion, forgiving ourselves, and aspiring to be kind can go a long way in building resilience to life’s obstacles.
Authors have to think like the CEO of a new start-up for each book, and they have to look at the long game; yes the months around your book’s release are important, but so are the years around each book.
Publicity is like fighting a new mini battle every day; you get better at cutting through the noise and the competition, but your best weapon is time! Persistence and time are the two most critical factors in achieving results. What most people don’t understand is the amount of follow up that goes into publicity. It’s not uncommon to follow up 3-5 times over several months with a journalist before securing coverage, and it’s not because they’re being rude or intentionally ignoring your pitch, it’s often just because they are inundated with emails, deadlines, and the never-ending demands on their time.
Some days, things seem to come easy: you land three big hits in a week, you finally hear back about a pitch you sent 6 months ago, or you find a clip online that you never knew published! Other days are like fingernails on a chalkboard with painful silence, frustration, and far more No’s than Yes’s. But we keep going and celebrate wins along the way. You never know when something big will hit.
Big or small, life gives us obstacles every day. It’s up to us how we respond. Sometimes, we keep going. Sometimes, we need a pause or even a hard stop to deal with whatever’s in front of us. There’s no one path to success but rather a million different paths and choices each day.
Persistence + time = results.
TRUST. LET GO. KEEP GOING.
(image by Dharma Comics)
