It’s one thing to write about another world or a certain topic, but it’s another thing to write about yourself. Although tons of writers excel at their craft, when it comes time to sit down and talk about their experience or what they do, they get stuck.
A quality About Me summarizes who you are and conveys the essential information about your career. It can be hard to take years of experience and summarize it in a few tidy paragraphs. However, as you start to grow as a writer, you’ll soon find out just how important it is. Whether someone is interviewing you or you need an About Me page on your website, you’ll need to have that information already put together.
Having a well-written bio can help you stand out amongst the tons of other writers out there. The question is: how do you create a solid bio that tells your story and highlights your experience?
We’ll go over some tips on how to write an About Me and show you how to tailor it for specific purposes.
How to Write an About Me
When you start writing your About Me, you’re going to want to pull all of the information together in one place. You’ll see why in a minute.
If you do the hard work of putting together a general bio of yourself, you will be able to tweak it and use it across different platforms and for different purposes.
For example, if you have one ready to go, you’ll be able to tailor it for your website, your LinkedIn, your Twitter account, or any place else you may need to describe who you are and what you do.
Ideally, you’ll write one in both first person and in third person so you can use it across different platforms, depending on the context.
Some basics you could include in your About Me:
- What types of writing you do
- Your background and experience
- Projects you are currently working on
- Fun facts about yourself or what you are passionate about
- Any accomplishments you have achieved
- Links to your work
If you’re having trouble putting together your own About Me, one way to make it easier is to ask people close to you to describe you and your work. This can help you brainstorm things to include and also give you a unique perspective.
So often, people overlook their own experiences and their own accomplishments, so the people around you might have a better idea of what to say than you do. If you have an audience or readers online, you might consider asking the same thing from them.
How to Write an About Me for My Book
When it’s time to sit down and write your author bio, there are a few things you’ll need to keep in mind.
The first thing to keep in mind is that your bio will help you sell your book. Often, when someone is deciding whether to buy a book or not, they will look at who the author is to help them make a decision.
With that in mind, you want to keep your potential readers at the forefront of your mind while you craft your bio. How you describe yourself and your work will also help position your book as something they will want to read.
For example, if you have a book on traveling, including all of the countries you’ve been to or some unique angle you’re taking with your writing can help intrigue readers. You will want to answer the question of, “Why would someone want to read this book from me?”
While testimonials are in a different part of a book, if you have a relevant person to mention that can give you a boost, you will want to mention it here. An example could include if you were mentioned in a celebrity’s book club. A foreword or endorsement from an influencer can also be used in your About Me.
How to Write an About Me for A Website
Similar to an author bio, reading the About Me page of a website can intrigue or turn away potential readers.
You will want to tell people why you are the person they should be reading and learning from.
Compared to some other platforms, you’ll also want to think about what keywords are commonly used in your industry. Things like SEO and keywords matter when it comes to building traffic to your website. You will want to make a list of topics that people might be researching that you write about and think about ways to include that in your bio.
Of course, you don’t want to go overboard and make it sound like it was written by a computer, but there are ways to subtly drop in keywords to your About Me and have it flow naturally.
- Related: Build an Author Website
- Related: Moving From Author Blog to Author Website
For websites, people often have longer About Me pages than you would see in other places, such as on social media. This is where you can put your full story and a lot more details about your work experience and who you are as a writer.
The benefit of having a website with an About Me page is to have somewhere to send people who love your work. Even if you have to keep your bio short on Instagram, people can visit your website to get your whole story.
How to Write an About Me on LinkedIn
Depending on the topics you write about, having a LinkedIn account may or may not make sense.
Most people on LinkedIn are looking for a job, but there’s a lot to be said about using it purely for networking.
If you do decide to join, there are a few things you need to know about writing a bio on LinkedIn compared to other platforms.
As of writing this, you have about 2,000 characters in your LinkedIn profile summary space to write your “about” section. That’s a few paragraphs or so to describe who you are and what you write.
One thing Linkedin bios have in common with website bios is that they both use keywords to help people find you. If you’re writing about travel, you need to include keywords related to travel so people can find you.
For more training on how to build a LinkedIn profile to get inbound writing opportunities, check out this training from the Freelance Writers Den.
How to Write an About Me on Twitter or Instagram
One huge factor when it comes to setting up your profiles on Twitter or Instagram is the fact that the bio section is much shorter than other places online.
However, the same rules of needing to answer, “Why should someone care what you have to say?” apply here as well. Crafting a good bio can help convince people to follow you and keep up with your journey as a writer.
You will only have at maximum a sentence or two to describe who you are and why people should follow you. Talk about a challenge!
Most people don’t use full sentences on these platforms and instead use keywords or emojis to describe their work.
That’s a Wrap
Overall, while it might be hard to write about yourself, you’ll be grateful you have it done when you need it. Your About Me will most likely continue to grow and evolve as your career does, but having one always on standby is incredibly helpful to your career as a professional writer. Whether you’re a freelance writer, blogger, or author, you’ll want to have an About Me that grabs people’s attention and opens doors of opportunity.
If you need more help crafting your Linkedin profile to attract the right types of writing clients, check out this training from Freelance Writers Den.
