The author photo

If you were not hoping to sell the books you write, could pass through this world anonymously, but potential readers make part of their buying decision based on what they know and see of the author. Therefore good author photos are a must-have.

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The photos should be PNG images, each with more than 1 meg of data, so if they are going to be printed they come out looking smooth and detailed.. We can create lower-weight copies for online use later, but it is hard to add data to a low-date picture.

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You may already have some photos of yourself that you like. If so, select six and ask someone whose opinion and honesty you value which three you should have ready to use as your author photos. Save those into a folder so they are ready to grab when you need them.

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If you don't have useful pictures on hand, you do not necessarily need to hire a professional photographer.: If your partner or a pal has a good camera and a sense of humour, enlist them.

 

Try for four shots, with different hair styles (if you do that), wardrobe (only worry about the shirt/sweater/jacket as the author photo is mainly of your face), locations (wherever you normally write, hefting a copy of your book, outside checking the weather, in conversation over coffee), angles (looking into the camera lens, looking at the book in your hand, gazing into space as you ponder, admiring the person who just told the joke you are laughing at). 

 

Have the person with the camera take lots of digital images click click click click until you hardly think about the camera. You can delete 90% or more of them later.

 

Save the ones you want to keep as PNG images, as mentioned above, and store them in a folder on your computer for future use..

 

Oh, and have fun. That's the best way to end up with images that a) convey you to the world in an attractive way and b) you can laugh about.