The Same Tired Clichés – The Same Silly Mistakes

Are you guilty of using tired clichés in your author bio?

You see so many unimaginative clichés in bios.

For example, inspirational author, debut author, author of (book title), published author, I am an author, author of books, a budding author, and an award-winning author.

The worst of them all, which is usually a little stretch of the truth, is USA Today and international bestselling author.

Author bios can be difficult to write

Being an author or writer should mean that by profession, it endows one with imagination.

A writer uses creativity, inventiveness, and above all, grammatical and orthographical accuracy.

This may be true of the stories that are written and then well-edited before publication.

But sadly, it’s not always true of author bios on the Internet and social media.

It may be because some authors feel uncomfortable promoting themselves.

They may feel like they are bragging or being too self-centered.

For others, it can be challenging to find the right tone for an author bio.

It needs to be informative but also engaging and interesting.

In other words, writing your author’s bio is not an easy task.

But it’s the use of very tired clichés and phrases that can weaken the impact of a bio.

Creating a poor impression

Author, writer, novelist, poet, editor, proofreader, graphic designer, and publisher.

Quite a list of skills for one person.

At least there are no tired cliches.

But simply a self-published author would probably be much more accurate and informative.

One rule I follow to the letter on the Internet and social media is that I never follow an account or blog written by a writter, an authour, a novilist, or an aspired author.

Nor will I follow an author of two book, or one books, a playrite, or those who think that free lance writer is three words and not two.

Surprisingly, these little errors keep me from following far too many, who lose all credibility immediately.

A writer should always use a spell-checker or dictionary before embarrassing themselves in public.

These silly typos often occur because the bio was written in haste, directly into an online text box. Never, never, never do this.

Always write your bio in a word processor.

Then check it meticulously, save it, and copy and paste it online once you are absolutely sure it is perfect.

Common author bio clichés

You have probably seen the following examples many times.

But it’s worth listing a few here to highlight how much they are overused.

Writing is not just a job for me, it’s a way of life.

My writing style is unique and captures the reader’s imagination.

I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer.

My writing has been compared to [insert famous author or book title].

I believe in the power of storytelling.

I’m a coffee addict and can’t write without it.

I’ve been writing since I was a child.

My writing is fueled by coffee.

This list could be much longer, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Short and sweet

A short bio is something that causes many writers great difficulty.

But it is much easier to write if you think about the primary reason for writing it first.

You want to catch people’s attention very quickly.

Then convince them, in those few short words, that you are interesting enough to investigate further.

One example of a great little bio is Neil Gaiman on Twitter.

..will eventually grow up and get a real job. Until then, will keep making things up and writing them down.

Another one that I like is Mark Coker—especially the squirrel part.

Founder of Smashwords, an ebook distributor. Also angel investor, gardener, hiker, battler of squirrels, dreamer, doer, co-author of Boob Tube.

Lastly, a clever bio by Peter Welmerink caught my attention and had me following immediately.

Battling crimes against Quality by day, writer by night. Family man. Lunatic with a non-stop imagination.

All three of these bios have one common quality.

They attract attention and interest in just the couple of seconds it takes to read them.

At the same time, they are informative and make it quite clear what they do.

But without the need to use tired clichés or a list of bragging rights.

One other similarity is that none of them use the verb to be in a bio.

Now, there’s a bio writing tip, perhaps.

Summary

Make people curious by writing just a few words that you construct with the sole intent of attracting their interest.

They will be following you and discovering your books soon enough.

Is it time to revisit your author bio and use your imagination, creativity, and inventiveness this time around?

Related Reading: How To Write Author Bios And Book Descriptions With AI