How to Turn an Editor's Head

Think back to third grade. What was the first assignment your teacher gave you when you returned to school in the fall? You wrote about your summer vacation. 

Why did your teacher give you this predictable assignment? Was she doing a thesis on waterparks of the greater metro area? Did she want to torture you with images that were now long gone? No, she knew you would be more likely to write if you wrote about something you loved - like yourself.

Now that we are grown authors, we are told, "Write what you know." What do we know better than ourselves? 

So why does writing your bio in a book proposal seem like such a chore? 

It's not like we have to do a lot of research. 

It can't be because we are shy. Aren't authors, by definition, narcissists?

The challenge is that this can't be just any old bio. This needs to be a description of yourself that positions you as the best person under the sun to write about this particular topic. Or as the kids on the playground would ask, "Who died and make you king?" You have to crown yourself.

Start by doing some brainstorming. List every connection you have to the topic. Call your mother or your MasterMind team if you need help seeing the resource in the mirror. This is no time for modesty. 

List your education, life experience, other writing on this topic, talks that you have given. If it is a new age book go ahead and include a past life or two if that helps. This should be easy. You have been talking about yourself since third grade.

Now weave that into a narrative that convinces the editor you uniquely understand the subject and the audience and your phone will start ringing. 

Good luck.

Yours in writing,

Promptmasters

Jennifer Sander

JT Long