Three things to get ready during your final edit

Master’s daughter and I are up to Chapter five in the final edit. In between the twenty other jobs she has at any one time, I am working ahead as the end of the book was less edited, by me, than the first half. And, when I take a break from that I read editor’s and agent’s blogs.

I am focusing on blogs that detail things like:

Writing the perfect Query letter- my favorite is Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: Query Letter Mad Lib. He has several posts on writing a query.


The real chore for me is how to do write a synopsis. Author! Author! » Synopses is a good place to look. It is a blog that meandures a bit, but has a wealth of information for writers.


Putting together two writer's biographies. Author! Author! » Author bio has several blogs on writing your bio. They lay it out in a very simple manner.

A writer’s biography is something I had not thought a lot about. I have always had resumes and artist’s resumes. I had just not thought about needing to have your writer’s bio polished up and ready for submitting immediately. I guess I was thinking, you get an agent, you get a publisher, and somewhere along the way they say, “We need a bio for your flap copy, oh, in a few months.” Not so!!!

You need to have two ready. One for the agent to help sell you and one, shorter one, for your book flap. We are using positive reinforcement here.


I have noticed a change in author’s biographies. I am seeing more and more that represent the author’s writing, rather than just dryly saying, “He graduated from no-name college and lives in Nevada with his wife and three children.”

It is a great trend. It makes the author a real person and gives you insight into what his writing is like. My problem though, is I really think I am much funnier with my biography, than I am in my book. It is good I can see the humor in my life but is it going to give someone a false sense of the humor, which may not be there, in my book? I do not want to disappoint.