Wednesday, I came up with “tags” that fit most of my  novels and manuscripts–Texas, animals, romance, forgiveness, second chances–and developed a “brand” line from them, which doesn’t really cover everything, but I kind of like it: Courier of New Beginnings.

According to Kristen Lamb, in her super-informative book We Are Not Alone, these tags should be in our bios too. And if we develop a catchy enough bio from the tags, we can become “It!”–the one person readers turn to when they have a hankering for the books we have to offer, because search engines use the tags, the tags are in our bios, and our bios are brought up by the search engines. Get it? Yeah, I think I do, too, but I admit, a lot of this is over my head. I’m not quite a cyberidiot anymore, because I’m learning. Maybe I can call myself a cybertoddler.

Even if you don’t use tags to attract search engines, it’s still a great idea to use them in your long and short bios for the very reason we set out to write them to begin with–they describe your work, or at least elements of it.

I reread my biography here on my blog, and figured it needed some help. Yes, it’s cute and it’s in my voice, but it doesn’t really tell about what I write, only that I do. It does give personal info, which I believe readers enjoy, but very little of it pertains to why I write the things I do. And there really is a reason the tags–the elements found in all my stories–fit me. I should put them in my bio.

So, here’s a short bio, using all my tags. Let’s see if it works:

Texas, animals, romance, forgiveness, second chances

Author Linda W. Yezak’s love for animals is evident in her two cats, who generously donate fur to her keyboard in order to cushion each tap. After a decade of life as a “single-again,” Linda rediscovered God’s love and forgiveness when He allowed her a second chance at marital happiness. She is now living her greatest romance with her husband in a forest in East Texas. After such an amazing blessing, she chooses to trumpet God’s gift of second chances in the books she writes. No matter what the genre, Linda’s books are couriers of new beginnings.

I love the word “couriers” there. A “courier” is both the conveyance used by a courier, in this case, my books, or the courier (messenger) herself–me.

Still, I’m not sure about this bio. I’ve put my love of animals up front, which is great if animals were the primary characters in my books. I wonder what would happen if I took that out.

After a decade of life as a “single-again,” author Linda Yezak rediscovered God’s love and forgiveness when He allowed her a second chance at marital happiness. She is now living her greatest romance with her husband and cats in a forest in East Texas. After such an amazing blessing, she chooses to trumpet God’s gift of second chances in the books she writes. No matter what the genre, Linda’s books are couriers of new beginnings.

What do you think? Better?

Does this give you ideas for your own tags and bio?