BIO SKETCH OR AUTHOR BIO

A paragraph or two summarizing your background and experience qualifying you to write your book. Although you will want to maintain a full resume that includes your education, jobs held with the kind of work you did, volunteer positions, writing credits, etc.—including the dates—you will also need to work up a bio sketch. If a brief bio is needed to accompany an article, then you will need to pare it down to what will be important to the readers of that publication—such as your related experience or how you came to write the piece. Depending on the diversity of your writing, you may have to develop more than one full resume or bio sketch—each focusing on a different aspect of your experience or background. Write your bio in third person. Be honest. Emphasize the best you have done. Keep it succinct. Include your Web presence. Include awards won if they are pertinent to the book. For a sample template for a full bio sketch, go to: http://www.uiowa.edu/~dcn/documents/WritingYourBio-Sketch_000.pdf.