5. KEEP IT SHORT AND INTERESTING (WITHOUT LEAVING ANYTHING IMPORTANT OUT) While your readers are interested in finding out more about you, they don’t want to get bored, or listen to arrogant braggadocio about how great you are. If your bio is too long, or too full of over- stated accomplishments and awards, it will turn your readers off and actually make you look less credible. Typically, if you keep your bio under 200 words, you’re going to be OK. Anything longer than that means you’ve gone on too long about your accomplishments, your personal life, or both. Also, it will make your back cover look cluttered and amateurish. Cut it down to the most important things. TEMPLATE FOR AUTHOR BIO INFO This is a template you can use to write your author bio. I’m not saying it’s the very best way to write an author bio; in fact, many of the best ones above do NOT fit this template. But many people asked for an easy-to-follow template, and this is the template we use with our authors. 1. First sentence: “[Author] is [statement to establish credibility on this subject and/or authorship of previous books.]” 2. Second sentence(s): Statement(s) further establishing credi- bility or qualifications of author to write the book. 3. Third sentence (optional): Historical “before that” informa- tion that is at least tangentially relevant to the book, or very compelling in another way. 4. Fourth sentence: Endorsement of author’s credibility by others, awards, or some other social proof, if available. 5. Fifth sentence: Tidbit of personal information. 6. Sixth sentence: Link to website or other resource (if relevant). Here is how that looks in practice: hOW TO WriTE yOUr AUThOr BiO (AND Why iT MATTErS) · 257