The standard advice regarding bios that I've seen is if you don't have anything relevant, skip this paragraph in your query letter.
If the agent, however, specifically asks for a bio in their submission guidelines, wouldn't that be bad to ignore that? Or is that not considered breaking the submissions guidelines if you don't have anything?
I don't have anything great for a bio paragraph (no fiction pub credits or awards), so I'm wondering if any of the things below is worth a line in the query to satisfy the bio requirement, or if it's still best to skip it all together:
- I'm a frequent contributor to [magazine you've never heard of], readership approx. 50,000
- I'm a freelance writer and editor
- I've made a living for the past 10 years as a copywriter
- I've written over 1,000 radio commercials that aired nationally
Ugh. I might as well just say, "Other people have paid me more money than I'll probably make on a book to write stuff that you don't care about." Ha ha.
Advice?
If the agent, however, specifically asks for a bio in their submission guidelines, wouldn't that be bad to ignore that? Or is that not considered breaking the submissions guidelines if you don't have anything?
I don't have anything great for a bio paragraph (no fiction pub credits or awards), so I'm wondering if any of the things below is worth a line in the query to satisfy the bio requirement, or if it's still best to skip it all together:
- I'm a frequent contributor to [magazine you've never heard of], readership approx. 50,000
- I'm a freelance writer and editor
- I've made a living for the past 10 years as a copywriter
- I've written over 1,000 radio commercials that aired nationally
Ugh. I might as well just say, "Other people have paid me more money than I'll probably make on a book to write stuff that you don't care about." Ha ha.
Advice?