Beyond the Book: Author Interviews

 “When you’re the subject of an interview, do you prepare intensely… or just wing it?”

Okay, here’s an author confession. I really don’t like to do interviews. They’re helpful tools for any author to use when they’re trying to get the word out about their book, but they do make my heart beat a little faster when I do them. My stress level is much lower if the interview is done on a blog or other author site.

I’ve done multiple interviews on blogs. If anyone offered an opportunity I’d immediately volunteer. It’s not too hard to do a good job on such interviews. You get the questions ahead of time so you have plenty of time to fine tune your response. Sometimes I even got to pick from a list of questions, which was great as I only had to answer the ones I wanted to. I haven’t done a blog interview in a long time now. I guess people still do them, but I also don’t think blogs are as important as they once were so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Of course in person interviews are a whole different ballgame. I did a radio interview once. I had to take time off work to do it, but I thought it was a good way to reach many people who may not know about me and my work. I honestly had no idea how to prepare for this interview. I thought of good answers for questions that I anticipated might be asked and trusted the rest to fate. The interview went off well, but I was nervous all day.

I was once interviewed by a local magazine. They sent a reporter to interview me. She took pictures of me and my room at school and asked me questions about my writing. The interview ended up being a nice, full color spread in the magazine. I didn’t prepare much for this interview because I doubted they would ask me much that I hadn’t answered some place before, and I was right. 

I’ve also been interviewed several times by our local newspaper. They didn’t ask too many questions at all. It was more of an overview of my writing. They were interested in the fact that a fellow writer Jennifer Gravely was also a teacher at the high school. I gave them a few quotes, one of which they used in the article. No stress with this interview and not much preparation needed. 

What about you? How much preparation do you make before an interview?