Do You Give Much Weight to Author Bios in Romances?

I think I know why R.T. writes romance!  Because that's all the romance they get!!!!!!

I do not always read the bio.  If I've heard of the author I read it.  If I see something that catches my eye in the bio I read it.  If I read that book and it is AMAZING I read the bio and look the author up on the internet (Go Debbie Macomber)!

I am not a published author, but I hope to be one eventually.  However, I don't know that I want to be publicized.  I AM a happily married woman of 11 years with 2 wonderful children and my volunteer/church work could fill up pages, but I'm not sure I want that pasted on everything I write.  I'm not even sure I want to use my real name.

With that being said, maybe R.T. made it all up in an attempt to remain annonymous!

but I I dont think it influences weather it I book or not.  or influences if i enjoy the book or not.

but if I've really liked a book, then I want to know about the author. I say that but I'm not sure I care in the non-romance reads. Of course, I've read so few of those lately that I can't remember LOL. I think with the romance reading, though, that the author is tapping into emotions of love and I want to know about the person who's in my heart for a couple of hours.

What I ALSO really like are any letters from the authors that might give us more insight into the book. Again, I don't usually read those til I sit down to read the book. But that's been one of my "please make sure that the ebooks have it" requests -- b/c often the ebooks don't have the bio or letter from author when the print did.

Bottom line is that I don't think I read such things before I buy for it to affect my buying decision but I like to read them when I sit down to read the book -- it's part of my reading experience.

Penn

PS -- as for vague bios, I usually give the benefit of the doubt thinking that the author might be protecting their safety or their family's safety (esp. if they might have young children).  What has started to irk me a bit are the "false" bios -- the authors who are men writing as women who write their bios like they are a woman.  Now, if someone's been doing that since before men were accepted as romance authors, that I understand.  It's the ones that are recent additions to the romance world.  Ditto the couples who write under a woman's name.  I love "Gill" (really Roger) Sanderson's bio (Harl Medical Rom) and I love Tori Carrington (sp?).  Everyone talks about them LOL and how sexy the dh in that couple is.  How could he NOT write what they write?

As I rarely read an author's bio before I purchase a book, I would have to say no I don't hold much weight on their bios ....... both here at the eHarl store and in the brick and mortar stores, I look first to the Dear Reader letter, then the back cover blurb, then to the excerpt  ....

maybe after I've finished a book, particularly if it is an author that is new to me, I might read their bio  ...

I read soft covers ..... I've always preferred to read soft covers ... many publishers in their soft covers give a bare bones author bio that is barely worth reading   .... for the few hard covers that have been given to me or I may have purchased, I have read the bios written on the book flaps  ... so I would suppose a person who began their reading addiction with hard cover books that had more visible author bios, reading the bios would have become habit before reading the book and perhaps have an influence

untrue bio, because of the trust thing, I don't honestly care where
an author lives, don't consider her personal life any of my business
unless she'd like to share the details, don't think being happily
married is a requirement for a romance writer and don't consider being active in her church is any more necessary for an inspirational author.

We are who we are and our voice will out. If I like the way a person
expresses him/herself I'll want more contact, be it via published
books, blogs or whatever.

So no the bio doesn't influence me more or less than the blurb. I might feel more comfortable recommending a Cindy Dees, Cathy Mann or Merline Lovelace book because I know their technical details will be accurate, but their books speak for themselves. Similarly an "Italian" romance written by someone who's
never set foot in Italy will speak for itself, either because the
author will have done excellent research and we won't be able to tell the difference between his/her books and Lucy Gordon's, or because s/he hasn't.

So I don't care whether there's a page worth of information, a paragraph's worth or no info at all

When I look up a website it's to find the backlist, the rest just isn't important

If the author becomes a personal friend and ends up visiting me, well I'm sure I'll find out all I need to know then, if not, well I don't lose sleep over it

Hugs

Sadhbh

Vince~

In response, I would like to add this blog as a question!  Expecially for those of us aspiring author's!  Hope you don't mind!

http://community.eharlequin.com/content/what-would-or-should-your-bio-say

Teach

I find the bios  interesting and entertaining. They give me sometimes an "eye" into the author's personal life (which is cool), but if the book blurb appears interesting, I'll read the book, regardless of who wrote it.

...on whether or not I'll enjoy the story.  And it's certainly not the first, or even the second or third, thing that I look at when considering buying a book whose author is new to me.
  For me it's the story... first, last and always.  As to how I choose, or used to choose before I joined the challenge last year and became addicted to the blogs & reviews, a book by a new-to-me author, that's a story unto itself. 
     The first thing that catches my eye is the title and /or the cover.  If both work, then I read the blurb on the back of the book.  If all systems are still go, I will read a page partway through the book and if everything still clicks I will read the end of the book.  As long as all these elements come together nicely then I'll buy it; not once does the author's bio come into play.  That's something that will come afterwards, once I've enjoyed the book and am looking for more ~ then I want to know more about the author.  But it really won't affect whether or not I'll be into collecting the author's books, it's just iciing on the cake!

you have to differentiate between an author bio and what additional info you learn about an author for this question.  None of what you are suggesting is likely to end up in an author bio.  However, authors are humans too so there are wacky things that some of them will do and those sort of things end up in the blogs, etc.  What is in an author bio has no influence or my decision to read a book; truthfully, I rarely notice if it's there or not.  Now as to what you read in a blog....that may make some difference but I know authors who have done some things I do NOT like and I still read them.  And that mythical "evil genius", well, I could always check his book out at the library and still read it without giving him a dime if I felt that strongly about what he was doing.

I DO read the Author bios.  For me, it's a part of the book buying/reading experience.  "Booking", as I call it, is a very pleasurable experience.  Reading the Author's bio is as much part of the book experience as reading the back "blurb" or an excerpt.  "Books are me Friends!"

 I haven't boycotted a writer due to their support of another organization, but I have found myself avoiding writers for other reasons - anyone I know who has plagurized another author, one author whose blog comments just made me question whether I wanted to support her - very nasty.  I have stopped using businesses that support causes that I don't like, so it is possible.  However, truthfully all of the cases above weren't authors or businesses I loved - don't know what I would do if my ethics and a favorite author came into conflict.  Maybe that is why I don't spend a lot of time on their bios.  As long as they write good books, I am there.

Cady