Interviewing Tips For First Time Authors

Posted on April 21, 2008

The light of day has barely broke and already rainbow colored birds chirp encouraging symphonies on your windowsill. I cannot do this, you confess to them.

Congratulations. You are a first time, published author who has awoken to face the morning, if not the music, of your first media interview.

Stay on topic. Arrive prepared. Take control of the interview.

This is the arsenal of vague anecdotes others have offered you. As someone who once made an actual living of asking questions, I would like to offer you a little insight from the other side with a few basic interviewing tips.

First and foremost, there are three main components to every media interview:

First impressions, final words and the five w’s.

#1 First Impressions

Do not hesitate to introduce yourself gently with an agenda.
For example:

Author: Hello (insert name), I have been looking forward to this interview for weeks. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak about my book, (insert title) and also (list one or two topics of interest here).

The topics of interest should pertain directly to you or your book. This is your agenda. Perhaps you are a hard to find expert in a non-fiction area, donating a percentage of proceeds to charity or maybe, you have created a uniquely flawed character that readers are responding to expectantly.

This is your attempt to engage the interviewer with topics of interest from the start. It will make their job easier. It will also let them know you are prepared to actively participate in the information exchange that is about to take place.

It should be noted, that once you have taken the initiative to introduce yourself gently with an agenda, an interviewer will more often than not make a note of the topics of interest and either incorporate them into their prepared questions or come back to them individually at the end of the interview. These questions will also benefit your interviewer during any awkward places in the session, where they feel it may be necessary to improve the dialog flow or perhaps make you more comfortable with the process.

Either way, gently introducing yourself with an agenda ensures that part of the interview will be spent discussing what you feel is most relevant about yourself and your work.

#2 The five w’s

The who, what, when, where and why of each interview.

Before your first interview transpires, take the time to list all of the potential questions that could be asked during your up-coming interview session, then formulate answers for them. Enlist assistance from your family, friends and publicist for this.

Do not memorize this list, it will make you appear impersonal. However, it is highly recommended that you conduct practice interview sessions with anyone and everyone you trust.

This exercise will give you an idea of what to expect, decrease the chances of being caught off guard and allow you to start comfortably incorporating overall themes into your answers.

Authors with well prepared and thought out responses are easy to interview. My first assignment as a reporter was, surprise, the responsibility of interviewing a local author who had recently published her first young adult novel. I recall asking the author when she first knew that she wanted to be a professional writer. To the authors credit, she had arrived with a well thought out and interesting answer to this simple question:

The author informed me of the following:
As a child she had written all of her life ambitions down on a piece of paper, a piece of paper that had remained secured in a safety deposit box for over fifteen years. Having recently opened the box, the author herself was shocked to see the words ‘write my own book’ near the top of the list.

I opened my first article with this personal account and it landed on the front page of the weekend features section - not a bad start for either the author or myself.

#3 The final words

Be gracious, but leave them wanting more.
For example:

Author: Thank you, (insert name). I appreciate the time you have dedicated to this interview. I look forward to the possibility of speaking with you again when (insert up-coming event here).

The up-coming event you mention must be newsworthy, perhaps when the contracted movie version of your book hits theaters or when you have a solid release date for the next title in your three part series.

Remember, the media is always on the hunt for two things - new story ideas and contacts. By ending the interview this way, you have just provided your interviewer with the potential promise of both. It is important in this stage of your career to build relationships with members of the media.

To that affect, a general etiquette rule and standard practice, is to follow an interview up with a simple and sincere thank you card. Take this as an additional opportunity to provide the interviewer with your current contact information, while reiterating your upcoming and newsworthy events.

In time, as you become more familiar with the interview process, you will find that you have mastered the art of first impressions, final words and the five w’s. There is still more to do, continue to build on your interviewing skills with advanced techniques.

As you prepare for your first or next interview, always remember the hardest part is over. You have already written 300+ pages, found an agent, a publicist and survived the excruciating editing process. Interviewing well is essential, however, it is also one of the easiest and most enjoyable aspects of publishing a book.

Just ask anyone sitting on your windowsill.

Melissa Sandford is the founder of Flutterby Effect, LLC http://www.flutterbyeffectllc.com an elite literary agency dedicated to promoting book and author alike.

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