Decide who you want to write about. You may decide to choose a family member or ancestor or you may look further afield to celebrities or personal idols.
Conduct thorough research about your chosen person. Find out the basic facts about the person such as date of birth and date of death if the person is deceased. Use a variety of sources such as newspapers, journals, letters, pictures, friends and family members to discover interesting facts. Record any conversations carried out with family members for later reference when you are writing the biography.
Find your angle. Decide what part or element of this person's life you would like to focus on. You might want to try to show the family side of someone who is in the public eye, or you may want to focus on the business career of a successful business man or woman. After you decide on your angle, select information from your research that will support this.
Organize the stories you have collected into a theme or lessons. What type of biography do you want to write? Are you going to adopt a humorous or purely factual view? Look over the stories to see what lessons they can teach other people. By examining possible life lessons you will be able to engage with your audience more as the text becomes relevant to them.
Write a cover letter. This should be designed so it can be easily changed and reworded depending on where you are applying. The cover letter can be sent to agents and publishing companies and should include some basic information about yourself and your intention to get published. You should attach a sample of your biography so that the publishing company or agent can see your talent for writing.
Format your biography to the current industry standard. This will portray a professional image and demonstrate that you are ready to be published.
Find someone to edit your biography after you edit it yourself. If you send your manuscript to an agent they may send it back and request that certain areas are tweaked or re-written. It is important that you take this advice and use the agent's experience to your advantage by improving your biography.
Proofread your work and have other people do so as well. Check for simple spelling and grammar mistakes. Try reading parts out loud so you can see if what you have written sounds right. Take your time with this process as silly mistakes, if left unnoticed, could deter agents and lead them to question your professionalism.
Don’t let rejection get you down. As a writer you will come under criticism and inevitably you will have to face rejection. However, do not give up. Keep applying to different agents and publishing companies until you find one that can see your ability.