How to Format an About the Author Page (2026)

The about the author page is the most quietly powerful page in your book. Readers who finish the final chapter flip straight to it — yet it is one of the most carelessly formatted pages in self-publishing. A cramped bio, a blurry photo, a website URL nobody can click: these small failures cost you subscribers and future sales. This guide shows you how to format an about the author page like a professional publisher for print and eBook — and where it sits within your book’s front and back matter structure.

By the end, you will know where the page belongs, how long the bio should be, how to write it in third person, the photo specs for print and eBook, which links to include, how series authors and pen names handle multiple bios, and what never to put on the page.

Where the About the Author Page Goes

In a traditionally structured book, the about the author page sits in the back matter — the section that follows the main text. The standard placement is immediately after the final page of your story, usually after the acknowledgments. The order most publishers follow is: story ends, then “Also by this author” (optional), then acknowledgments, then about the author. Placing the bio before the acknowledgments is also acceptable, but it should never interrupt the story itself.

For print books, the about the author page traditionally starts on a right-hand page, matching the convention for chapter openings. It looks noticeably more professional — your formatter can make it work with a blank left-hand page when needed. In a short book where every page counts, starting on the next available page is acceptable.

In eBooks, page sides do not exist, so the bio simply follows the acknowledgments as its own section with a page break before it. One important consideration: many readers never reach the back matter because they stop at “The End.” Also place a shorter version of your bio on your retail description page and your Amazon Author Central profile, so it works even for readers who never flip to the back.

Nonfiction books sometimes break the back-matter rule. In business and self-help books, a short bio occasionally appears in the front matter, right after the title page, to establish credibility. Keep it to 40–60 words and still include the full bio at the back. Memoirs almost always keep the bio at the back alongside the acknowledgments — our memoir formatting guide shows how these end sections work together in life-story books.

How Long Your Author Bio Should Be

The sweet spot for an interior about the author page is 50 to 150 words. Shorter than 50 words and the page looks empty, like you ran out of things to say about yourself. Longer than 150 words and readers stop reading — the bio starts to feel like a résumé.

Fiction bios live at the short end of that range: 50–100 words covering who you are, what you write, one or two previous titles, and a personal detail. Nonfiction bios run 100–150 words, because credentials matter — readers of a finance or health book want to know why they should trust you.

Do not confuse the interior bio with the back-cover bio. The blurb on your back cover is marketing copy, usually 30–60 words, written to sell the book. The interior page is informational — it tells the reader who wrote the thing they just finished. Write them separately.

Never pad a thin bio with vague claims. “She is passionate about storytelling” says nothing. “Her debut novel won the 2024 Kindle Book Award for mystery” says everything.

Writing the Bio in Third Person

Write your author bio in the third person — “she,” “he,” or “they” — even though you are writing about yourself. First-person bios (“I grew up in Ohio…”) read as amateurish inside a published book. Third person gives the bio the quiet authority of a publisher’s description.

Open with the strongest sentence you have: name, what they write, and the most impressive credential. “Jane Carter writes psychological thrillers set in small coastal towns. Her debut novel spent six weeks on the Amazon bestseller list.”

Follow with supporting detail in descending order of importance: previous books (titles in italics), awards or sales milestones, relevant professional background, and finally one humanizing personal detail — where you live, a hobby, a pet. That personal line is the sentence readers remember.

Keep the tense consistent — present tense throughout is the norm — and match the name on the bio to the cover exactly. If your cover says “J. R. Carter,” the bio should not suddenly say “Jane.” For pen names, the bio describes the persona, never the person behind it.

Your Author Photo: The Technical Specs

A professional headshot transforms an about the author page — readers connect a face to the name. A missing photo is acceptable; a bad photo — blurry, poorly lit, cropped from a group shot — is worse than none at all.

For print books with black-and-white interiors, your photo must work in grayscale. This is the most common author-photo failure: an author supplies a color headshot, the printer converts it automatically, and skin tones turn muddy. Supply a dedicated grayscale version, converted properly in an editor where you can control the contrast, rather than leaving it to the printer’s default conversion.

Resolution matters enormously in print. Your photo needs to be 300 DPI at its final printed size. A typical author photo prints at about 2 by 2.5 inches, so the file should be at least 600 by 750 pixels — and larger is safer. A 200-pixel thumbnail pulled from a social media profile will look visibly pixelated on the printed page.

For eBooks, color photos are fine, saved in sRGB at around 800 to 1000 pixels on the longest side — crisp on high-resolution displays without bloating the file. Center the photo above the bio text rather than wrapping text around it, since text wrapping behaves unpredictably in reflowable eBooks, and leave generous white space around it. Cramming the photo against the text is one of the classic formatting mistakes that makes an otherwise good page look homemade.

Links That Belong on Your Author Page

The about the author page is the hardest-working marketing page in your book, because it reaches readers right after finishing your story. The essentials are your author website, your newsletter signup, and one or two social profiles where you are actually active.

Give the newsletter link priority over everything else — email subscribers are the audience you own. Link directly to the signup page, not your homepage. If you have a reader magnet or free prequel, mention it beside the link; a free offer converts far better than a bare URL.

In eBooks, every link must be a real, clickable hyperlink. A surprising number of self-published eBooks ship with plain-text URLs the reader cannot tap. Test every link on an actual device before publishing, and never use link shorteners that might rot — a dead link in a published book is a permanent embarrassment.

In print, links cannot be clicked, so keep every printed URL short, lowercase, and memorable. A QR code next to your newsletter link is increasingly common and genuinely useful in print; generate it at high resolution and test-scan it before it goes to press.

Also consider an “also by this author” list on or near the author page. For series authors especially, listing the series in reading order turns the author page into a sales tool. Keep titles in italics and resist the urge to list every anthology appearance.

Print vs eBook Treatment

The same author page needs different handling in print and digital. The biggest print consideration is the photo: black-and-white interiors demand a proper grayscale image at 300 DPI, while color interiors expect color photos but raise print costs.

Page geometry matters in print and is irrelevant in eBooks. In print, the author page should start on its own page — ideally a right-hand page — with balanced margins and no widowed heading. In eBooks, a simple page break before the section is enough.

Use the same body font as the rest of your book for the bio — switching to a decorative font breaks visual consistency. The heading can match your chapter-heading style. In eBooks, readers can change fonts, so avoid layouts that depend on exact line breaks. The table below summarizes the key differences side by side.

For KDP in 2026, two practical notes: the print previewer renders grayscale photos accurately, so use it to check your author photo before approving your proof. For Kindle eBooks, keep the author photo reasonably small — Kindle compresses images, and oversized files add unnecessary weight.

Pen Names, Series Authors, and Multiple Bios

If you write under a pen name, the about the author page belongs to the persona. The bio describes the pen name’s writing career and lists the pen name’s books — with the pen name’s photo, or no photo at all, which is completely acceptable. Never mix identities: a bio that starts as “J. R. Black” and ends with your legal name destroys the separation the pen name exists to create.

Series authors should treat the author page as part of the series branding. Keep the core bio identical across every book — same photo, same wording — and update only the “also by” list as new installments release. When book four comes out, update the author page in the earlier books too; KDP and most distributors let you upload revised interiors without changing the edition.

Co-authored books need a bio for each author, usually side by side or stacked, with equal visual weight — shrinking one author’s photo signals a hierarchy readers will notice. For foreword contributors or illustrators, a one- or two-line credit is usually enough.

Authors who write in multiple genres under one name can use a single broad bio, but genre-specific bios convert better. Many maintain two versions and swap them per book, keeping the photo and contact links constant.

What NOT to Put on Your Author Page

The fastest way to cheapen an about the author page is to clutter it. Do not include a sales pitch — the “also by” list handles promotion quietly. Do not print reviews or blurbs; they belong on the cover and the retail page. Do not include your full CV — 150 words maximum, and every word must earn its place.

Never print a personal email address in an eBook. Scrapers harvest emails from eBook files routinely. Link to a contact page on your website instead. In print, an email is less risky but still unnecessary — the website link covers it.

Avoid anything time-sensitive. “Her next book comes out this fall!” is already wrong by the second printing. Write the bio to be evergreen, and skip follower counts — they date instantly, and a small number undermines you.

Do not apologize for being new. “This is her first book” is fine as a fact; “She hopes you liked it, she’s just starting out, please be kind” is not a bio. And keep politics, religion, and controversy off the page unless they are the subject of your book — the same etiquette applies to acknowledgments pages.

About the Author Page Pre-Publish Checklist

Run through this list before you finalize your interior file. Every item takes seconds to check, and any miss is visible to every reader who reaches the back of your book.

• Bio is 50–150 words, written in third person, present tense throughout.
• Author name matches the cover exactly, including pen name spelling and initials.
• Photo is professional quality — no selfies, no cropped group shots, no heavy filters.
• Print: photo supplied as grayscale at 300 DPI at print size for B&W interiors.
• eBook: photo in sRGB, 800–1000px on the longest side, file size reasonable.
• Page starts on its own page in print (right-hand page preferred); page break before it in eBook.
• Website, newsletter, and social links included — newsletter signup linked directly.
• eBook: every link is a real clickable hyperlink, tested on an actual device.
• Print: URLs are short, lowercase, memorable; QR code (if used) test-scanned at print size.
• “Also by” list is current, titles in italics, series in reading order.
• No personal email address printed in the eBook version.
• No time-sensitive claims, follower counts, or sales pitches on the page.
• Bio is evergreen — nothing that expires before the next printing.

Conclusion: Close Every Book Professionally

Your about the author page is small, but it does outsized work: it introduces the human behind the book, captures readers at their most enthusiastic, and quietly funnels them toward your newsletter, your website, and your next book. Give it the same care you gave your chapters — the right placement in the back matter, a tight third-person bio of 50 to 150 words, a professional photo with correct print and eBook specs, working links in both formats, and nothing on the page that does not earn its place.