Every author needs a bio. Your bio acts as a calling card to publishers and your audience, telling them who you are, what you’ve achieved with your career and what they can expect from your work. It’s an essential promotional tool to draw more readers to your work and attract agents and publishers.
Writing an effective author bio requires a specific structure and voice. We’ve curated this list of outstanding author bios to give you an idea of how to write yours.
#1 Vanessa Riley
Vanessa Riley writes Historical Fiction and Historical Romance (Georgian, Regency, & Victorian) featuring hidden histories, dazzling multi-culture communities, and strong sisterhoods. She promises to pull heart strings, offer a few laughs, and share tidbits of tantalizing history.
This Southern, Irish, Trini (West Indies) girl holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and a MS in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University.
She also earned a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University. Yet, her love of history and lattes have overwhelmed her passion for math, leading to the publication of over 20+ titles. She loves writing on her southern porch with proper caffeine.
Why It’s Great
Vanessa starts her bio by giving the reader notes on the time periods she covers in her work. She also includes information on the character arcs and emotions her audience can expect when reading her novels. She shares some personal information with the reader, giving her audience a visual representation of how she creates – sitting on her front porch while sipping some coffee.
#2 Courtney Milan
Courtney Milan writes books about carriages, corsets, and smartwatches. Her books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. She is a New York Times and a USA Today Bestseller.
Courtney pens a weekly newsletter about tea, books, and basically anything and everything else. Sign up for it here: https://bit.ly/CourtneysTea
Before she started writing romance, Courtney got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from UC Berkeley. After that, just to shake things up, she went to law school at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude. Then she did a handful of clerkships.
She was a law professor for a while. She now writes full-time. Courtney is represented by Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency.
Why It’s Great
Courtney starts the bio listing what she writes about before moving onto the accolades she’s achieved with her writing. It’s a great way of establishing her credibility and authority. She provides a link to her newsletter, giving the audience an ide of what content to expect when signing up. We get a backstory of her education and writing career to further cement her authenticity. It’s concise and highly marketable.
#3 Johnathan Maberry
Johnathan Maberry is a New York Times best-seller, five-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, anthology editor, comic book writer, executive producer, magazine feature writer, playwright, and writing teacher/lecturer. He is the editor of Weird Tales Magazine and president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
He is the recipient of the Inkpot Award, three Scribe Awards, and was named one of the Today’s Top Ten Horror Writers. His books have been sold to more than thirty countries. He writes in several genres including thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and mystery; and he writes for adults, middle grade, and young adult.
Why It’s Great
Johnathan opens with his achievements, building an instant sense of credibility. He moves on to inform the reader about what he’s doing at the moment with his career. He discusses his global appeal and the genres he covers. It’s short and to the point, giving the reader the impression of professionalism and flexibility in his writing.
#4 Alyssa Cole
Alyssa Cole is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of romance and thrillers. Her debut thriller When No One Is Watching was the winner of the 2021 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Paperback Original and the Strand Critics Award for Best Debut.
Her Civil War-set espionage romance An Extraordinary Union was the American Library Association’s RUSA Best Romance for 2018, and her contemporary royal romcom A Princess in Theory was one of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2018.
Her books have received critical acclaim from the New York Times, Library Journal, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, Booklist, Jezebel, Shondaland, Vulture, Book Riot, Entertainment Weekly, and various other outlets. When she’s not working, she can usually be found watching anime or wrangling her pets.
Why It’s Great
Alyssa opens with her accolades, showing the reader she experienced immediate success with her debut. She discusses the genres she writes in and the industry achievements of her books. She closes with a personalized statement giving the reader the impression that’s she lives an ordinary life, just like anyone else, removing any element of boastfulness from listing her many achievements.
#5 Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter is the author of more than twenty instant New York Times bestselling novels, including the Edgar–nominated Cop Town and standalone novels Pretty Girls, The Good Daughter, and Pieces of Her.
She is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her is a #1 Netflix original series starring Toni Collette, and WILL TRENT, based on her Will Trent series, will air January 3rd, 2023 on ABC (streaming on Hulu).
False Witness and The Good Daughter are in development for television. Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.
Why It’s Great
Karin starts with mentioning her achievements and the titles of her work so readers can find them. She follows up with mentioning her global appeal and how her work transitioned to a Netflix and Hulu deal to appeal to readers and people that enjoy watching series on TV. She mentions how she gives back to her community and where she lives to create a personal, authentic feel to her bio.
#6 Julia Quinn
#1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn loves to dispel the myth that smart women don’t read (or write) romance, and if you watch reruns of the game show The Weakest Link you might just catch her winning the $79,000 jackpot.
She displayed a decided lack of knowledge about baseball, country music, and plush toys, but she is proud to say that she aced all things British and literary, answered all of her history and geography questions correctly, and knew that there was a Da Vinci long before there was a code.
On December 25, 2020, Netflix premiered Bridgerton, based on her popular series of novels about the Bridgerton family. Season 2 premiered on March 25, 2022.
“From the first time I read Julia Quinn’s delicious Bridgerton series, I knew these were stories that would captivate a viewing audience” -Shonda Rhimes
Please jump to the story of “How JQ Became a Writer,” or scroll for some recent press. If you are a journalist looking for more information, please visit JQ’s Media Kit.
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Why It’s Great
Juila opens by showing the audience her biggest achievement and her writing genre before informing the reader of her success on the Weakest Link to showcase her intelligence and knowledge. She continues with her educational background and interests, adding authenticity to her bio.
Julia mentions how her work transitioned to the screen with her Netflix series and a recommendation from Shonda Rhimes. She closes by mentioning how her readers and gents can get in touch with her.
#7 Angie Fox
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Angie Fox writes sweet, fun, action-packed mysteries. Her characters are clever and fearless, but in real life, Angie is afraid of basements, bees, and going up stairs when it is dark behind her. Let’s face it. Angie wouldn’t last five minutes in one of her books.
Her books have been called “fabulously fun” by the Chicago Tribune and have won multiple Daphne awards for mystery and PRISM awards for fantasy.
Angie is best known for her SOUTHERN SPIRITS™ mysteries and for her ACCIDENTAL DEMON SLAYER series. She has also just released the new MONSTER MASH trilogy, which is gaining a lot of attention.
Angie is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
Why It’s Great
Angie starts with mentioning her achievements and the genres she writes in before personalizing it with her fears to add authenticity to the opening. She mentions her previous work, her educational background and where she resides. It’s short, effective and packed with useful information.