The art of the author photo – how to take a portrait that sells your book

Like them or loathe them, author photos are a vital part of the publishing industry.
A woman with black hair and a yellow top has a camera covering her face. She is standing in front of a forest. Author photography headshot.

Some may regard them as a necessary evil: the author headshot that’s affixed to most book back covers and press releases that are distributed to the media. As one writer tells ArtsHub, ‘I wish there were no author pics. I’d rather immerse myself in the book, whatever its merits. The experience is spoiled by marketing pap and other reminders of reality.’

Another, Annie McSweeney, agrees, saying, ‘I think the author should be invisible and let the work speak for itself. If a pic is necessary, keep it natural. There’s nothing more off-putting than an arrogant, cold-looking expression of smirk, which to me, looks like an attempt to be cool, important, intelligent and just makes me think twice about reading the book. It’s like listening to people on radio; once you see what the look like, you don’t enjoy listening to them as much.’

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Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the books editor of The Big issue for 8 years. Her debut, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was released by University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP). Her second collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Her third book, Essence, will be published in 2025. Twitter: @thuy_on Instagram: poemsbythuy