"...just does some stuff. And then sometimes stops doing it. Yep."

[mrissa]

Sometimes when I'm called upon to write a bio blurb, I write, "Marissa Lingen," and then I get frozen there. I just look at it and think, "Well, that's sure true. Yep. Hard to improve on that."

Publishers, however, seem to want more. For some reason.

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

I remember once going to a writing class, and the first assignment was to write a story about oneself -- absolutely guaranteed to cause writer's block, at least for me.

I think there are two formulas you can use:
1. start with a fun anecdote (vaguely) relevant to the book/story (i.e. childhood love of SF, or how you met a writer, or an experience in RL similar to something in the book) and then give the absolute minimum bio i.e."She lives in Minnesota with her family."

2. Just give a very brief precis of your publishing history + min bio like "ML has published short stories in X, Y and Z. She has a novel coming out from AA in NN. She lives in Minnesota with her family."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This, #2, is in fact part of the problem: when what you have coming out is half a dozen short stories instead of one novel, the standard precis comes out either very listy or too short.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

In that case, I guess I'd pick the most prestigious magazine/websites and/or a representative few -- say 3 of 6.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am familiar with this strategy. It still, in many cases, leaves me with a two-sentence biography when the other contributors have five to seven.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Perhaps instead of the "coming soon" names list, one could describe some of the stories' interesting bits and then point to your website stories page (or whatever it is you have) for people to read more?