You have a resume for your day job, right? What would you do
to go about building a resume for yourself as an author/writer, if you suddenly
found yourself in need of one?

When I operated a product design and user interface design
consultancy, I updated my resume after I completed every project to reflect any
new software, hardware, people, and industry experience I'd gained as well as
latest trends for the presentation of information on a resume. In 2006, I
became a published mystery author. To my pleasant surprise, I found that
published books, a bio, and word of mouth mattered far more than a resume in
securing most speaking engagements, such as those of workshop presenter at a
writing conference or a panelist.

But Academia still wants a paper resume, regardless of how many
books you've published. Recently I applied to teach a workshop at Meredith
College, as part of the Spring 2010 community program. I had to include a
resume with my proposal. The content (audience, objectives, skills,
credentials) and organization of this resume would, of necessity, be quite
different from the resume produced by a product design consultant. Alice
Osborn, who teaches at Meredith College and is also the Raleigh-area
regional representative for the North Carolina Writers Network, emailed
me her resume. I used it as a springboard to build my own author/writer resume.

Here are sections to include when building your resume:

Name and contact information. Center this information
at the top of page one. Include your name, pen name, street address, phone
number, email address, and web site address.

Professional objectives. Describe why you're reaching
out to people with your expertise and how you expect to help them. Bullet each
objective separately. Begin each sentence with a power verb, like
"educate." These objectives will guide what you include in other
sections of the resume. Be clear with them. Also, make them high-level. Your
proposal is the place to include lower-level, specific goals that you expect
attendees to accomplish during your class or workshop.

Education. List college degrees. If you've taken
workshops or seminars that enhance your expertise with the professional
objectives above, list them, too. Start your list with the most recent
education.

Writing Experience. Here's where you show your many
years' work experience as a writer, positions that helped you qualify for
delivering those professional objectives. Again, arrange your list so that
what's most recent is at the top. (If you're published, put "published
author" at the very top.) Make each position a separate bullet point.
Example of a listing: Technical writer,
americansoftware.com ● Atlanta, GA (1991-1993).

Literary awards and distinctions. List your award
receipts, nominations, honorable mentions, finalist positions, semi-finalist
positions, etc. You can also list opportunities your expertise has given you,
such as judging writing contests. Start your list with what's most recent.
Strut your stuff. Example of a listing: Winner,
2007 Patrick D. Smith Literature Award ● Florida Historical Society.

Professional associations. List those organizations
in which membership helps you grow professionally and achieve those objectives
above.

Workshops, presentations, and other speaking engagements.
Start your list with what's most recent. Don't include an event that doesn't
contribute to the professional objectives. Example of a listing: Where Do You Get Your Ideas? (panel) ●
Raleigh, NC ● Authors' Showcase, North Carolina Writers Network, Oct 2009.

Reviews received. If you're published, list review
information for your most recent release first. Don't feel you have to cite
every review you've received. Select a representative few. Example of a
listing: Camp Follower ●
Midwest Book Review, Christy Tillery French ● 1 Dec 2008.

Guest essays. Again, list the most recent first. And
cite representative essays, those that reflect the range of your expertise,
relating to those professional objectives. Example of a listing: Do
Historical Mysteries Have Something to Say About Our Time? ● Poisoned Pen Press's Webcon text panel ● Oct 2009.

I included the titles of my books in the Writing Experience
section. If you have a large number of books published, split that information
out as a separate section. Depending on what else you have published, it might
make more sense to list your published books, short stories, and
magazine/newspaper articles in a separate section. List your public readings if
they relate to the professional objectives.

Keep the whole resume to three pages or fewer. You won't be
able to include everything. Make strategic choices that showcase the range of
your expertise.

Don't be surprised if the creation of this resume reveals
facets of your writing career that you'd overlooked. For example, when I
completed the Workshops, Presentations, and Other Speaking Engagements section,
I was amazed by how much traveling I'd done in the past three years. That
certainly helps explain why I'm so tired. (Having two teenagers under my roof
is another factor in the equation.)

The resume and proposal I sent to Meredith College helped me
clinch the workshop slot. I'll be teaching my workshop, "Creating
Archetypal Characters and Suspenseful Plots with the Hero's Journey," the
evening of 27 April 2010 at Meredith College. Register for my workshop if
you're in the Raleigh-Durham area during that time, and you want to work toward
the following goals with your manuscript:

• Build relatable, deep, and meaningful characters.
• 
  Structure a plot that sustains suspense.
  
• Repair breaches in a plot.

And please leave me feedback in the comments section
below. Tell me how this post helped you.

Next up: PPWebcon.