Nathan Bransford - The Forums

This was included in an agency's submission guidelines,

Remember to include a short bio and a ten page sample with your letter.

Does "short bio" here refer to a short paragraph within the query letter, or are they asking for a more substantial, seperate, bio?

It means a bio paragraph in the query. The reason some places specify that is that other places actually don't care or don't even want to know anything about you, or at least not if it's not directly related to writing. If they are asking for a short bio you can assume they want to know either writing credits or other potentially pertinent info about you (education, work, interesting hobbies)---I ran across one submission guideline that specified "we want to know interesting tidbits that make you different from everyone else." There are so many similarities/parallels between querying and dating it's frightening.

cheekychook wrote:It means a bio paragraph in the query. The reason some places specify that is that other places actually don't care or don't even want to know anything about you, or at least not if it's not directly related to writing. If they are asking for a short bio you can assume they want to know either writing credits or other potentially pertinent info about you (education, work, interesting hobbies)---I ran across one submission guideline that specified "we want to know interesting tidbits that make you different from everyone else." There are so many similarities/parallels between querying and dating it's frightening.

Phew - Thanks. I was hoping you'd say that. I already have a bio paragraph (of the "interesting tidbits" variety).

There are so many similarities/parallels between querying and dating it's frightening.

Especially when you consider how badly the ratio is skewed.