About pages are almost always included in a good website. Companies and brands use them to tell their story, introduce their team and inform visitors of their mission and culture. Author About Me pages do the same thing, really, but for your book and your brand. Read below to learn about this important author website addition and how to make your About Me page really stand out.
Author About Me Pages VS Other Pages
Besides your book, the main thing you’re selling on your author website is yourself. Your author About Me page showcases not only your author bio but your credentials, your other work and holds all the information new fans want to know about you. This makes it different from your Book page, Landing page, or your Press page—though these are also essential. It’s also more than just a bio like you’d find in the back of your book or on your other online platforms.
The Best About Me Pages Include More than Just a Bio
An author About Me page should also be the place where the press, bloggers and clients can find out about you and all you do to see if you’re a good fit for an interview, profile or to speak at their events.
You want your author About Me page to showcase all of what makes you, YOU. This is where you can show off, let your personality shine and tell the world why you matter. This is the foundation of building your brand and increasing your book sales.
Why an Author’s About Me Page is Important
An author’s About Me page is not only where current and future fans find out ALL about what YOU’RE about but it’s also where they can form a lasting sense of loyalty and connection to you. This means building your brand and selling more books.
This page is also where anyone who is curious about collaborating with you, interviewing you, or sizing up whether you’re a good fit for a speaking engagement they need to fill goes to get important information, as we mentioned above. It’s also the first place an agent or editor will go to find out if you’re a good fit for them.
Your About Me page is a one stop sort of scenario. You don’t want anyone to have to search out information. But you also want an About Me page that will keep website visitors engaged and reading more. So it can be a delicate balance.
Elements to Always Include in Your Author About Me Page
As mentioned above, your About Me page needs to contain all the important information about you in a nutshell. All the important things visitors need to know and want to know are contained in your About Me page. They of course can be tailored to your personal goals and experience. A really good About Me page will include:
- Your third-person professional bio
- A longer, casual, personalized, first-person version of your bio
- Info on the work you do, your organization, or business
- A link to your One Sheet
- Some important or interesting key points and facts
- Your mission statement, motto, etc.
- A link to your book page/Your book/s
- Your upcoming events can go here if you don’t have enough to justify an Events page
- Your past speaking/teaching engagements, and experience, etc. if you don’t have a dedicated Speaker page
- Your point of contact/your contact information
- Author headshot
- A Call to Action
- Something fun like: Five Things You Don’t Know About Me
- A gallery of images from your book, or more that are not included in your book
- A timeline of your life and accomplishments
You don’t have to include ALL of these things, pick and choose what best works for you and will be enticing to your audience. Remember, your About Me page is really all about your audience. It might sound like a lot, but really all of this should be very concise. Your web designer will come up with clever ways to design an organized and uncluttered page. Also, you should dedicate the most words and space on your long bio and include a lot of the above within that bio.
Making it Stand Out
An author About Me page isn’t really meant to be a traditional resume either. You don’t want it to just be full of facts and information. This means adding your personal flair!
Make sure your brand and personality shine through. Use language that lines up with you and your brand voice—how you actually communicate. It should be readable and intriguing, as well as informative. You can add sections that include fun facts, your favorite things or other details that showcase your winning personality. After all, your About Me page is About YOU. So make it yours. Have fun. People will respond well to this authenticity.
For an example, check out Jeniffer’s ABout Me page.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you have any author About Me pages that you really love? Want to share your own? Leave the link in the comments below.
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