Create The Perfect EBook Publishing Author Biography

For those who turn their professions into eBook publishing projects, the concept of the author biography section is a subject of no small amount of confusion. The hardest thing that you will ever do is to write a short biography about yourself that includes enough information to express your professional status, without giving identity thieves a way to track down your social security number.

Ask anyone who's successfully defended their dissertation whether they'd like to defend it again, or write an author biography section, and most would choose the dissertation committee in a heartbeat. It's no wonder. After all, how are you supposed to write something about yourself that says what it needs to say, without making yourself sound like a pompous idiot? Here are 3 tips to help you construct the perfect author biography section.

1) What Not To Put - When you decide to write a eBook, your readers are going to want to know something about you. What authors don't understand is that this is not your life's story. No one cares what elementary school you went to, or how old you were when you got in your first fistfight. Avoid these personal details, unless they are relevant to your project.

2) Your Personal Information - Begin your author bio with your name, and then move on, without delay, to any information you can think of that will help explain your credentials. You want to tell your readers that you are a professional in the topic you've chosen to write a eBook on, and the only way you're going to manage that is to produce information relevant to your professional standing in your author biography.

Included in your personal information should your education, as it pertains to your professional standing. You want to include any degrees, certificates, or special awards that you received during your educational pursuits in this section. Follow this up with work experience that you have obtained. Internships are less important in this section, while primary attention should be paid to a reverse chronological listing of relevant work experience. Skip over the ten months you spent flipping burgers, it's not important. Conclude this section with any leadership roles that you have held within your industry, and mention all awards that you've received within the industry as well.

3) Additional Information - This final part of your author biography should be used as a showcase for additional relevant information. In eBook publishing, authors commonly wander off topic here, permitting unnecessary facts to pollute their pool of useful information.

In this section, you should include any awards that you have won for your past eBooks or writing achievements, along with any writing training that you have undergone. This information will further your reputation as an author. If you believe it to be important, you may also include a short statement near the end regarding the reason that prompted you to write a eBook about this topic in the first place.

Publish A EBook: Three Things To Do In The First Three Paragraphs

What can the first three paragraphs tell you about lifestyle eBooks? It turns out that these three paragraphs can tell someone a lot. In fact, the average reader decides in the first three paragraphs whether they will continue reading, or dismiss your attempts to publish a eBook as a waste of their time.

Authors commonly struggle with the beginnings of their books. They know what they want to create on the grand scheme of things, but struggle with actually getting started. If you're wanting to turn a reader into a follower, you need to make those first three paragraphs operate like a fishing lure. To work a tired, but appropriate, metaphor, your first three paragraphs need to introduce the bait, and hook your reader in to topic at hand.

This isn't actually as hard as it seems. Rather than wasting the first three paragraphs with an explanation of who you are or why you are a professional who is qualified to write lifestyle eBooks, use the space wisely. There are different approaches that you can take to putting these first three paragraphs to good use, and we're going to cover 3 of them here for you.

Avoid Cliches - The cliche is anything that is tired, old, and has been done so many times before. In the same way that you can tell a book is going to be bad when the first line begins with "It was a dark and stormy night...", your attempts to draw your reader's attention with one of these tired lines is a wasted effort.

Use Active Words - The difference between an active discussion and a passive one can be night or day. Consider the following two sentences: Allow these lifestyle eBooks to improve your life. Lifestyle eBooks may provide you with the opportunity to improve the skills important to your life. As you can see, the differences between these two sentences are dramatic. If you want to get your reader's attention, you should be using active words that engage a reader, rather than timidly mentioning that something might be possible. Try using an unusual word to start your first sentence. Readers find business eBooks to be more engaging when every paragraph doesn't begin with The, An or A.

Ask Questions - Getting your reader's attention by asking questions in the opening paragraphs can be done, but this approach should be reserved for a good writing staff. When you publish a eBook, readers are already going to know what it's about before they buy it. You don't need to ask them if they would like to learn about the topic of the eBook. The answer is clearly yes, otherwise, they wouldn't be reading it.

The questions that you should ask must instead pertain to specifics that will be included in the business eBooks that you write about. Unless you have a really strong discussion to back up your immediate opening, avoid turning the first sentence into a question.

To Show Or To Tell: Options For Developing Skills Discussions

While writing business eBooks that focus on teaching others the arts required in developing skills for use in their daily lives, there will be times when you find yourself at a loss. You know what you want to tell your readers, but somehow, telling them just doesn't feel right. You've probably heard that old writer's saying of "show, don't tell". It seems like a simple enough concept, but when you're struggling to create the difference in your writing, you know that showing your readers how something is done is far from simple.

There exists a distinct difference between telling your reader something and actually showing it to them. When writing for SkillBites, however, you must do one or the other. With filler being something that we forbid in our eBooks, you must determine how you can get your message across without repeating yourself in circular discussions and multiple examples.

Because of this, you must work to narrow down exactly what you want to show, or to tell, your readers before you begin the writing process. Here are a few tips to help you in writing your business eBooks without needlessly repeating sections on developing skills.

1) If you're going to tell your readers something, make sure you tell it in a logical order. Take some time and map out, step by step, everything that needs to be done, and in the order that it must be done in. Follow this map while you write to make sure you don't leave any steps out.

2) Remember to break up long strings of sentences into multiple paragraphs. While it is technically possible to corral every sentence about a certain step into a single paragraph, these long paragraphs tend to scare readers. Pick a logical point in the discussion and break it into a new paragraph. You may use as many paragraphs as necessary to get your point across.

3) When you choose to show your readers something, it does not necessarily mean including a picture. Including a discussion for developing skills in your business eBook can take the form of a short story in which your characters perform the skills in detail. It may also include comparisons to other common skills that your readers already know how to do. Showing your reader just requires some creative thinking.

4) Break the different sections of your entire description up into different chapters if you need to. Using the chapter break is a time-honored means of cementing the process of shifting gears between steps in an activity. Just make sure that you break the instructions for developing skills like this into natural chunks, such as preparation, detail work, or bringing it all together at the end.

If you can keep these four tips in mind while you're describing a new skill set to your reader, you will be able to convey even the most complicated tasks as sets of simplified and easy to comprehend instructions.