If you’ve ever tried to pitch a podcast, a bookstore, a reviewer, or a journalist and gotten silence back, the problem is often not your book — it’s that you never gave them an easy way to say yes. That’s what an author media kit solves.
An author media kit (sometimes called an author press kit) is a single document you can hand to anyone who might want to feature you: a short bio, your book details, a professional photo, contact info, and a few talking points — all in one place, ready to forward. It saves the other person from having to dig through your website or Instagram to figure out who you are and why you’re worth covering.
This post walks through exactly what to put in one, in what order, so you can either build it yourself or adapt a ready-made template.
Why you need one, even as a new author
Every producer, blogger, and bookstore event coordinator is busy. If they have to ask you three follow-up questions before they can even consider featuring you, most won’t bother — they’ll move to the next pitch in their inbox. A media kit removes that friction. It’s the difference between “let me get back to you” and “here’s everything, let’s talk.”
This matters just as much for a debut author as for someone with ten books out. In fact it matters more early on, because you don’t yet have a track record doing the convincing for you — the kit has to do that work.
What goes in an author media kit
A good media kit for self-published authors covers six things, in this order:
- Author bio (two versions). A short bio (2-3 sentences, for quick intros) and a longer bio (one paragraph, for features that want more context). Write both in third person, and lead with what’s genuinely interesting about you — not just “author of X.” If you’d like a head start on the wording, our free Author Bio Generator can draft a short and long version for you in seconds — you can then fine-tune it here.
- Book information. Title, one-line hook, a 100-150 word synopsis, genre, publication date, and where to buy it. If you have more than one book, list your most recent or most relevant title first and mention the others briefly.
- Professional headshot. One clean, high-resolution photo. It doesn’t need to be a studio shoot — but it should be current, well-lit, and match how you look now (not five years and one hairstyle ago).
- Book cover image. High-resolution, print- and web-ready. Journalists and bloggers will often use this directly in their piece.
- Contact and social info. Email address, website, and the one or two social platforms where you’re actually active — not every platform you’ve ever created an account on.
- Talking points or sample interview questions. Three to five topics you could speak on, or questions you’d be comfortable answering. This is the piece people skip most often, and it’s often what gets you booked — it shows the interviewer you’d be easy to work with and gives them something concrete to build a segment around.
How to put it together
You have three realistic options:
- Design it yourself in Canva or Google Slides. Doable, but expect to spend a few hours getting layout, spacing, and image sizing right if you’re not used to design tools.
- Hire a designer. Fast and polished, but it’s an added cost most self-published authors are trying to avoid early on.
- Start from a template built specifically for this — one where the sections above are already laid out, and you’re just swapping in your own bio, photo, and book details.
If you’d rather not start from a blank page, our Author Media Kit Template is built around exactly the six sections above, in an editable Google Slides / PowerPoint file — so the layout work is already done and you just fill in your own information.
Your media kit is just one piece of getting ready for launch day — for the fuller, step-by-step version of everything else to prep beforehand, see our book launch checklist for self-published authors.
A few things to avoid
Don’t pad it with information nobody asked for — a media kit is meant to be scanned in under a minute, not read cover to cover. Don’t use a photo that’s outdated or low-resolution; it’s often the first thing people notice. And don’t skip the talking points section — a media kit with just a bio and a book blurb is only half as useful as one that also makes it easy for someone to actually put you on air or in print.
Next step
Once your media kit exists, keep it somewhere you can share a link to instantly — a PDF on your website, a Google Drive link, or attached to your email signature — so that whenever an opportunity comes up, you’re not scrambling to assemble one from scratch.
Looking for more free tools for authors? Our free tools page has KDP calculators, generators, and more, all free to use.
Ready to skip the blank page? See the full Author Media Kit template and start filling in your own details today.
Planning launch publicity? Pair your media kit with a book launch press release.
Leave a Reply