Biography title and author in paper

In a query letter, your author bio is the last full paragraph before you sign off.

Stick to your professional credentials as a writer, to facts about yourself that apply to the book, and to any prepublication acclaim this book has received.

• If you have no publication credits to your name, simply state, “This is my first book.”

• If you have done something truly impressive that relates to your book, mention it briefly here.

  For instance, if your novel is about mountain climbers and you personally have climbed the Himalayas with a sherpa, mention it. This is a marketable fact the agent can use when speaking to prospective editors, and it’s certainly going on the editor’s “tip sheet,” which will inform the book’s eventual sales and marketing campaigns.

• Prepublication acclaim means that you’ve workshopped this novel with a well-known novelist or at a well-known conference, not that your great-aunt Tilly thinks