Magazine Bios

AUthoress

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Two of my pieces just got accepted for publication in a magazine. The editors have asked me to send them a bio of myself. I'm not exactly sure what I should say.

Here is what I have at the moment:

(My name) is a seventeen year old high school senior living near (my home town). She is the winner of several writing competitions and her work has appeared in her school newspaper and literary journal. This is her first magazine publication.

Any suggestions? Do you think this is long enough? Too boring?

Thanks for the help.
 

WeaselFire

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Name the awards and add whatever details qualify you to write the articles. If it's an article on cheer leading, mention you were champion cheerleader. If it's an article on photography, mention your work on the school paper.

Jeff
 

defcon6000

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Here is what I have at the moment:

(My name) is a seventeen year old high school senior living near (my home town). She is the winner of several writing competitions and her work has appeared in her school newspaper and literary journal. This is her first magazine publication.
Sounds fine to me. I don't write much more than where I live, that I graduated from X, and other publications. Though I like to throw in that I'm a zombie hunter, too. :D

Bios don't need to be fancy; it's just a little bit about yourself in case the reader is curious and wants to follow your work.
 

Polenth

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Two or three sentences is usually about right, unless they ask for more.

If the awards are nothing special, I'd suggest dropping them. It's fine to have no credits... you can say you have an imaginary pet goldfish or you're planning world domination if you need an extra line.

If you have a website or blog, give the address.
 

Corinne Duyvis

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Bios can range from straight-forward and professional to completely outrageous. If you're going with some variation of the above, though, I'd be specific about your credits. "writing competitions" can mean competitions at any possible level, so it's not that informative or impressive without specifics.

Also, a tiny grammatical error: "seventeen year old high school senior" should be "seventeen-year-old high school senior".
 

Jamesaritchie

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Mot magazines give me a fifty word limit. Others allow a hundred, but fifty is the most common. On a couple of occasions, I've simply been asked for a bio, and the editor cuts it to fit the allotted space. They don't care what I write, and as often as not I either make up something funny, or mention any new book.

Just like what you write. Your example sounds fine.
 

CaroGirl

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The last bio I provided was for a quarterly magazine and was 84 words long. This was a new market for me. The first bio I provided was only 2 sentences and wasn't long enough.

I don't think you need to say this is your first time publishing in a magazine. But I could be wrong.
 

WeaselFire

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My bio usually says something like (Last one I used):

Jeff is a freelance author from Naples, Florida. He covers Windows Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server and ASP.NET in books and articles. In his spare time, he can be found restoring old pinball machines or herding three cats around the multitude of repair and renovation projects in his 1950's bungalow.

Sometimes I have an email or website address published with it, but that's rare now. I change it for different articles and magazines, as well as genres. This one is 50 words because that was the specs for it.

Hope it helps,

Jeff
 

Jamesaritchie

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The last bio I provided was for a quarterly magazine and was 84 words long. This was a new market for me. The first bio I provided was only 2 sentences and wasn't long enough.

I don't think you need to say this is your first time publishing in a magazine. But I could be wrong.

You don't need to say anything, but if you're proud of the fact that this is your first publication, then say it.
 

CaroGirl

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You don't need to say anything, but if you're proud of the fact that this is your first publication, then say it.

Are we assuming this is fiction being pubbed in a literary mag? If so, by all means say it's your first time and kudos to you!

But if it's a non-fiction article, like a feature story in specialty mag, I think saying it's your first published article undermines your authority.