I have had the pleasure of interviewing many authors - some well known - some not. I have a standard questionnaire that I send out via email to all authors requesting interviews. On the questionnaire, which I try to update from time to time, are about twenty questions. I ask each author to answer no more than eight because I may have follow up questions to ask them. The best thing about email interviews (aka blog posts) are that you can take your time answering them, whereas a live interview might cause an embarrassing brain blip. For example - you forget the name of your book - which I did - on the radio - and it wasn't pre-recorded. Yes, I was having one of those days. But with an email interview you only need to answer the questions and make sure you have done a proper edit. How Do Blog Interviews Work?You have just released your first book, sent out your press releases and now you are getting requests for interviews. If all goes well you will receive interview requests for t.v., radio, newspapers and blog posts. Blog posts? Can they even generate excitement about your book? That all depends on how you treat the questions sent to you. That's All? Not quite. You need to infuse your personality into your interview as well. Let your readers get to know you. Pretend it's a radio interview. How you answer the questions says a lot about you. For example, one worded answers make you sound like an automaton. I have asked the question, "How many books have you written?" and received this answer, "Two." Instead of jumping at the opportunity to promote their other books, the author showed a lack of interest in promoting their work and/or a lack of interest in an email interview. If that is the case - don't agree to do one. If you don't have the time to answer questions in written form, don't agree to an email interview in the first place. How to Make Your Blog Interview Great
4 Comments
10/29/2014 12:48:42 pm
Great post, Laura, and timely for me. My book, Nila's Hope, will be release early next year (no date yet), and I've already been offered a blog interview from a fellow writer. I needed this and will bookmark it. Thank you!
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Laura J. Davis
10/30/2014 02:45:43 pm
Thanks Kathleen. Good luck with your book.
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This was a very helpful article on blog interviewing. It is very timely as my sequel book 'Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit' just came out on Amazon.ca, Barnes & Noble, IBook, and Indigo. I am interested in doing blog interviews about the book.
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Laura J. Davis
10/30/2014 02:46:56 pm
Sounds interesting Ed. If you want to book an interview with me let me know.
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