What Does Your Bio Say About You?
Writers and authors are regularly asked to write and submit a ‘bio’ to accompany their work. Although written in the third person, these blurbs frequently reveal what the individuals think of themselves. You see, when you read a bio, mentally replace ‘his’ or ‘her’ and ‘their’ with the appropriate form of ‘I’, ‘my’, or ‘our’ because it’s almost always the writer talking about himself/herself.
For example, a sentence from the About the Author page in my book should read as follows for a full understanding:
“His My claim to fame is that he has I have chatted in English and French with Queen Elizabeth II of England.”
A bio can be fact-based, whimsical, thought-provoking, self-promoting and decidedly off-beat. Authors often combine several of these, making for an interesting pre-read.
Most .NET-related bios contain undisputable and verifiable statements such as that someone is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) or graduated from a given university. However, other information verges on bragging (see above!) The author of a computer book says “he has developed the art of explaining even the most complicated topics in a manner that everybody can easily understand.” Well, let the reader be the judge of that!
In the ‘If I Do Say So Myself” category, there’s a popular blogger who labels himself as a ‘noted web developer’. Another is “an accomplished software developer, author, teacher, and speaker”. Modesty, please.
I like the guys who refuse to take the bio thing seriously. Here’s an author who says he was ”Raised in the wild by various 8-bit home computers”. Another confesses a “fondness for serial commas and the like…”. In an effort to convince us that they don’t spend every waking moment at the computer, authors insert outside activities into their bios. That’s how we learn that when one “is not working, he is either engrossed in music or finding out reasons to avoid this week’s laundry”.
You may have seen the deep-thought approach where an author says he writes and studies “in an effort to find some form of enlightenment that has so far eluded him”. Oh dear. I hope life improves!
Perhaps the best bio is a one-liner. When everyone in the business knows who you are you can get away with “lives in Seattle and builds a few products for Microsoft”.
Oh, and don’t get me started on a related topic – the guys with PHDs who refer to themselves in their bios as Dr. Unless you’re an MD, bucko, drop the pretentious BS. You’re not fooling anyone… you’re just a geek like the rest of us except that you went to school longer.