How to Write a Kick-A** Amazon Bio to Sell More Books
By Penny Sansevieri (@bookgal)
Editor’s note: It’s rare in these articles that I have a guest blogger. I’m including this post from marketing expert Penny Sansevieri because of her detailed insight to one of the largest booksellers, Amazon. I highly recommend her book, The Amazon Author Formula. I use it here with her permission. Penny’s topic is an important one. This week I saw a new book on Amazon from a publishing friend which didn’t include any bio much less one like you are encouraged to write in this article. I encourage you to do more than read this article. Apply the information to your own Amazon books.
Authors often don’t spend enough time crafting their bios. Most of them write up a quick “about me” to satisfy the basic requirements and never give it a second thought. I often see authors treat their bio like a resume. Approaching it this way means you’re likely to bore readers, and worse, risk making yourself look not only less interesting, but less interested in your own work and how you’re coming across to readers.
Have I hit a nerve? Good!
Unless you tell me that you know with certainty your bio is helping turn more browsers into buyers, I know for a fact I can help you make it better!
Start with an Outline and All Book Tie-ins
Before you begin, create a list or an outline of everything you’ve done related to the book. This can include life experiences, personal motivations, passion projects, research, past work in a related industry, accreditations, lectures and classes you’ve conducted, other books you’ve written, and awards you’ve won. You may want to include some of these elements, but not all of them. The rest of these bullets will help you determine which to include.
But It’s Not Really About You
Remember that while we start out by focusing on you and your achievements, this bio actually isn’t about you. It’s about your readers and knowing what your prospective audience is looking for, what interests them, what catches their attention, and most importantly, what speaks to their needs.
Let’s take a close look at a bio on Amazon by Mark Shaefer. His bio is keenly focused on his expertise as it relates to the book. Having read Mark’s other books and having seen him speak, I can tell you he probably has a lot more he could have added to this, but he kept it short and relevant to the book.
Write in Third Person
When it comes to writing a bio, never use words like “I” and “me,” because a bio written in the first person can make for an awkward read, especially when you’re listing all your accomplishments. There are other options for getting personal, don’t worry!
Show the Reader Your Expertise Without the Ego
When it comes to the credible portion of the bio you are creating or reworking, this may seem tricky. But remember, this is where the importance of your initial work comes in. How long have you been writing? Did you utilize any special techniques or resources in this book?
Check out Pete Ryan’s bio. He’s a first-time author, but he leads this bio with his background as a journalist, which tells the reader he is an experienced writer. Pete is also a marketing guy and has a successful business in SoCal. You’ll notice he doesn’t even mention it, because it won’t matter to his fiction readers, and Pete knows this.
Add Keyword Strings Particular to Amazon
As we’ve explained earlier, keyword strings matter greatly on Amazon. If you’ve already done your keyword string research, work some into your Amazon bio if you can keep it natural.
Don’t cram your bio full of keywords just for the sake of having them there.
Why does this matter? I’ve talked about how Amazon is a search engine. Like a search engine, Amazon will “spider” or “crawl” your book page for keyword strings, so make sure at least one or two of the ones you’ve found are in your bio, but don’t overdo it because you’ll get dinged by readers for being inauthentic.
Get Personal (If Appropriate)
There’s a time and a place to include personal information in your bio. Obviously, it’s essential to a Memoir of course. For self help, your connection to the topic is crucial. But novelists can also get personal in a creative way because your personality says a lot about your brand.
The key is finding the right balance. For example, if you write paranormal fantasy, the fact that you coach your daughter’s softball team may sound endearing, but it doesn’t fit your genre. On the other hand, if you’ve always had a fascination with mythology and history, and it fuels your stories, that’s great insight into who you are.
Be Funny (If Appropriate)
Be like what you wrote about. That means if your book is funny, then be funny. Check out this bio from Karen Alpert. Her book is I Heart My Little A-Holes: A bunch of holy-crap moments no one ever told you about parenting.
Short Is the New Long
The days of bios that rival the length of your book are gone. Keep it short because, while people do care who wrote the book, they don’t care enough to read paragraphs upon paragraphs about you. Save the long bio for your website, the foundation of your infrastructure, and where readers will go when they want to learn even more about you!
Include a Call to Action & How Readers Can Find You
Do you want your readers to take any action besides buying your book? Are you giving something away on your website? Do you want readers to join your exclusive reader group or your newsletter? Then mention these offers in your bio. Don’t forget to add your website address so they can find you.
Customize It & Change It Up
Your life isn’t static, and your bio shouldn’t be either! Is there something going on in the world that ties into your book? Mention it! You should also modify your bio when you win awards, get more mentions, or get some fab new reviews. For example, “The New York Times calls this book ‘groundbreaking…’” is a review quote you could easily add at the end of your bio for a strong finish. An upcoming release or mention of your other work is also another reason to tweak it a bit.
Find reasons to change up your bio! You can do it as often as you want, and don’t forget the algorithms notice and respond when a book page is updated.
If you’re reading this and you’re with a traditional publisher, you may be thinking, “The publisher won’t let me change my bio!” Trust me, you don’t need your publisher to make changes. Just do it on your Amazon Author Central dashboard and—voilà—done and done.
Your bio should be a fluid extension of your author brand, so update it as part of your monthly book marketing plan. This may seem tedious, but it serves another purpose: it gets your eyes on your entire book page, and once you’re there, hopefully, you will be inspired to cast a critical eye on other parts of the page to make updates that could help drive more sales.
Penny Sansevieri is Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, Inc., best-selling author and internationally recognized #bookmarketing and #indieauthor media relations expert. Go to Penny’s website to get more marketing insights at:amarketingexpert.com After studying this article what actions are you going to take with your Amazon bio? Let me know in the comments below.
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Labels: Amazon, bio, Book Marketing, change, How to Write a Kick-A** Amazon Bio to Sell More Books, Penny Sansevieri, Terry Whalin, The Amazon Formula, The Writing Life
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