Curtis Brown Group – Intranet

Biography, Summary Biog and Loglines

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Your client’s biography is your first opportunity to get across the essential details of their background and success to date. It is for this reason that you must get the content on this page perfect – think of it as your shop window.

A client’s profile will continually evolve as their careers progresses and therefore you will need to constantly monitor and change or add to the profile on a regular basis to make sure they are up-to-date.

There are three types of biography on the website SUMMARY BIOGRAPHY, LOGLINE and BIOGRAPHY

SUMMARY BIOGRAPHY

Used by Books, TFTV and Presenters the Summary Biog should be a simple and short statement/description of the client’s job:

  • Written in mixed case
  • No more than 5 or 6 words in length – one to three is best
  • Clear and objective – no descriptive wording or explanation required
  • Don’t re-write the name of client – it’s already on the page
  • Don’t add genre-based descriptors
  • Can be used on the page alongside Full Biog
  • No full stops

  • LOGLINE

    The Logline is used by the Acting department in place of a Summary Biog. It should be a one (very occasionally two) sentence description that succinctly sums up the status of the client, what they are working on, what you can currently see them in, best known for etc. 

    Logline

  • Keep between 40 to 100 words in length
  • One to two sentences
  • If longer than 100 words – it should be a Full Biog
  • Be clear and objective – don’t add descriptive wording, opinion or explanation
  • If you are also publishing a Full Biog make sure the copy does not repeat what is said in the biog word for word
  • Edit regularly – loglines can date quickly
  • Write as a complete and coherent sentence, don’t write a list of credits

    • BIOGRAPHY

    A good biography should be at least 100-150 words, but can be up 300-400 words long for established clients with a rich career history.

    Anything less than 100 words then you shouldn’t be publishing the biog on the page until you have added more content and edited. Or look at using alternatives such as Summary Biog or Fast Fact. Anything longer should ideally be edited down.

    This example is the ideal length:

    Biography

    BIOGRAPHY STRUCTURE

    To write a good biography, start by telling the reader the most important details about the client, followed by the most essential supporting information, and end by giving further background detail about your client.

    Introduction: State the client’s full name. What are they best known for?

    Paragraph 2: A summary of their best-known works, awards/prizes won, key successes, best sellers, ratings hit, critical acclaim, etc.

    Paragraph 3: Provide related background education, how they launched their career, training, study, education, other skills, areas of work/note.

    Conclusion: Other works, works in development, coming soon, projects to look forward to.

    For writer clients there is a preference for using the ‘About the Author’ blurbs from their novels. This format is fine to use as it follows an industry standard, and as long as it is long enough (100-150 words) it is ok to use. However these blogs can be too brief and perfunctory and do not always work on our website. Like this example:

    Biog

    In which case you should add more detail or use alternative modules such as Fast Fact or Summary Biog to publish this information instead.

    In summary:

  • Biogs should be 100-150 words for a new client
  • Up to 300-400 words for established clients with a rich career history
  • Anything less – use alternative. Anything longer – edit it
  • Check and update the profile on a regular basis to make sure they are current
  • Highlight main credits/work – but don’t list all works – that’s what the CV is for
  • There is no need to add text links into the biography copy – access to all works are available via the CV and other content modules – but you can link to other Curtis Brown clients (co-writers, etc) or institutions the client is linked to (Malala Fund, National Theatre etc)
  • Use good grammar and punctuation

    • ALWAYS USE GOOD GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION AND ASK SOMEONE TO PROOF YOUR COPY

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