Biographical note- Do you have one?

[Kyriakos]

Do you have one? I found that it helps a lot to have a set one, if you are aiming to be published. Mine has remained the same since the beginning (3 years ago).
It mentions briefly, in third person, when i was born, my academic achievements (specifically naming them), my (without naming them) types of publications, and then where i live.

A biographical note is a very personal touch to one's literary/writing career. Other people choose to name where they have been published, but i reasoned that this might sound too much like bragging, let alone that it may be not at all to the liking of competitor publicists.

All in all my note is only four sentences long. A paragraph.

What about yours? Have you ever used one? Does it contain specific information or more general? If you never had one, what kind of biographical note would you have wanted to have?

 

[Angst]

Can you exemplify what you're talking about exactly, because English is not my first language.

 

[Kyriakos]

Mine neither, so i am not sure i follow :/

But anyway here is an example:

So and so was born in ... at ... where he completed his primary studies. Then he went to the university of ... and has a degree in ... Works of his have been published in ... etc etc This is a biographical note, or at least it is called that here

 

[downtown]

I do, but I don't expect anybody who isn't in the writing industry to have one.

 

[uppi]

I have a publication list, but where I aim to publish in, biographical notes are not used at all.

 

[Synobun]

Yeah, I'd never do this. If I ever became a published writer I would likely be more comparable to John Twelve Hawks than, say, Stephen King.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, interesting. There have been writers who remained anonymous, but you might as well just make up a biographical note and not communicate in person with your publisher

Then leave a note in your dieing days, revealing what you penned. Or not, i guess it is up to you

Curiously i was asked when first published if my name was a pseudonym. I now mostly go by KX in my communication with publicists that i know (first letters of my name and surname). Those two letters are interesting in their geometrical relations,, K being like an X only cut in half, with the cutting line visible. There are other associations as well, for example my monogram is:

which can be read also as K and F (as in Franz Kafka)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Does it count if you edited something, as opposed to writing it?

 

[downtown]

Does it count if you edited something, as opposed to writing it?

Why would a reader be interested in the biographical information of the editor?

 

[Kyriakos]

Only if you later on become famous for your own work, such as Lovecraft, who edited a lot of prose by others

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Why would a reader be interested in the biographical information of the editor?

For the same reason people are interested in the biographical information of people who work behind the scenes in many fields, such as the film industry, or even politics...

I gather you don't have a high opinion of editors?

 

[downtown]

For the same reason people are interested in the biographical information of people who work behind the scenes in many fields, such as the film industry, or even politics...

I gather you don't have a high opinion of editors?

It isn't that I don't have a high opinion of editors. I love my editor. It's just a matter of what is professionally relevant. I wouldn't attach my bio after I recruit somebody. It's really only used for people who actually publish the creative media....unless you are already very famous.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Working behind the scenes is also a creative endeavor. I know this personally from my years in the theatre and as an editor. While I don't expect that everybody wants to know the details of my life, it's nice when somebody is curious and asks. To me, you appear to be saying that people who work behind the scenes are not worth knowing about unless people already know about them. And considering that some people are better editors than they are writers (ie. John Campbell, whose editorial skills launched the careers of many a now-famous science fiction author), that would seem to be a catch-22.

 

[Kyriakos]

I think it is the same as in other professions, in that you rarely hear of the people who (possibly do very real positive work) occupy themselves with assisting a movie director, or a script writer etc. I think this is partly because most people want to focus on a single name, and partly due to the job of auxiliary (not sure if this is a correct term here) creators being less significant, or characteristic, than that of the main creator.

In writing it is hard enough becomming known as the writer himself/herself, let alone being an editor, although i am sure many editors did crucial work in establishing writers.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Well, I like to think I did positive work in my backstage and editing endeavors. I know other people thought I did. And it's how I acquired a reputation as a bit of an eccentric back in the '80s, given some of the weird and wonderful things I had to make and acquire for the theatre (I worked on the properties crew) and the creative solutions I found for some thorny problems for the writers I worked with.

I won't ever be world-famous. But I do have a reputation among my own niche. And that's worthy of a short few sentences if/when asked.

But you shouldn't ever minimize the worth of editors, since they can make or break a writer. It's amazing how poorly-edited some of the books are that you see in the stores. And yes, I think I'm justified in assigning blame to the author in that, too - after all, the author has the galley proofs to check over, and there are obviously some who just don't bother, or assign the job to some secretary or assistant who doesn't care.

 

[Kyriakos]

I am one of those writers who does not want any editing done to his work, but even i accept the great worth of editors in most cases. Even in my own work i am sure they can at least try to improve something, it is just that i am particular about phrasing and sentences.

 

[Hygro]

I do, but I don't expect anybody who isn't in the writing industry to have one.

Everyone in music has one too. Mine is a bit facetious.

 

[Kyriakos]

Great user title btw

 

[downtown]

Everyone in music has one too. Mine is a bit facetious.

Ha, that's right, musicians would have one too, and I imagine so would artists.

It isn't a value judgment by me as to who is important, it's just a professional norm. If you want to make your own little bio, that's your business, but I don't think many folks are going to ask for it. I only made one because my editors ask for one. The one I use for my sports journalism basically looks like this

Downtown is from Granville, OH, and is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University. His work has been published in multiple newspapers, including Columbus Monthly, The Ohio State Lantern and Education Weekly. He currently lives in Chicago, where he probably watching his Cleveland Indians lose another game on TV.

It isnt supposed to be particularly long or elaborate.

 

[Kyriakos]

Some people do have long and elaborate such "notes". Personally i think it is usually counter-productive to follow such a path; if you are known enough you don't need it anyway, and if you are not you are likely to raise a few eyebrows with such a show.