“Now I’m wondering why it’s always the thoughtful people (who don’t do whatever it is I rant about) who believe it’s about them. Whereas the ones the rant is aimed at don’t bat an eye?”

I can relate to this in the educational field where we provided service after service to help all students be successful and in the end it is usually the parents and students that don’t need the services that take advantage of the opportunities.

I don’t at all mind general questions in context. And the questions from your students were adorable. All round a very enjoyable experience.

Now I’m wondering why it’s always the thoughtful people (who don’t do whatever it is I rant about) who believe it’s about them. Whereas the ones the rant is aimed at don’t bat an eye?

Oh well . . .

As a seasoned interviewer, I agree that the best answers come from specific questions AFTER you read the book. I try to give my authors a week to a month to answer in case they have MS deadlines or book tours. Then I follow up with a reminder. A few good questions are better than many. Authors should also try to keep replies concise as readers have limited time since they read many blogs.

I totally agree when you advise to limit the questions to five in an email interview, and it is the direction I had planned on taking when I started my blog. One of my resolutions for 2010 is to limit my questions to five and not more. That said and to be honest, it is sometimes difficult not get carried over. :$

When I interviewed Stacy Whitman (Tu Publishing), I was aware of the length of my questions; but I also thought that what she had to share was so crucial, especially for aspiring authors, that it was worth doing it… That was an exception, though.

But what I would point out is that interviews (as bizarre as they are) are for neither the interviewer or her subject, but the public who views/listens/reads the interview. any other construction is more solipsistic than I can imagine. Therefore, the obvious questions have a little more freight than you think.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve interviewd someone and only later realized I don’t know the answer or the question I’m looking for.

I try to avoid e-mail interviews, but sometimes interview subjects insist on it. In that case, I send two or three questions, wait for a response, then ask follow-ups.

I’ve also been on the other side of the interview, so to speak–I’ve been interviewed by other journalists and bloggers. In those cases, I find e-mail interviews appalling, like a foodie reacting to American teabags. I just don’t answer questionnaires. That’s just the interviewer asking me to do the work. In that case, I’d just as soon get paid and get the byline myself.

Up to a point, Kat. Let me put it another way: You get half an hour this evening with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and you’re not even aware of the earthquake in Haiti, let alone that she’s cut short a series of overseas visits to return home and co-ordinate the US response, that’s not just crappy and unprofessional. That’s downright incompetent.

But time after time, I’ve heard or read interviews with authors where it is painfully obvious they’ve done no prep at all.

Well, I’d respectfully suggest that interviewing authors isn’t just part of a sales strategy. It’s also part of keeping a vibrant arts and literary culture, and that’s every bit as worthy of being done well as any other kind of journalism.

I’ve been a reporter for 14 years and I agree — reporters and interviewers need to do their homework and tailor questions to the subject to get the best answers. As an author now too, it’s interesting to see the kinds of questions interviewers like to ask.

Daisy

And yes, Justine is right: as an author, I’ve had those questions where your brain goes sploink too, and am always paranoid that the writers I interview will be groaning with their face in their hands when they read mine. So I try to make them the kinds of questions that might stimulate a bit of thought and be interesting to think about. The key is research. And more research. But after that, you have to think a bit further about what you’ve read might mean for the author you’re interviewing. My personal fascination is how writers think about their work, how they approach it, what underlies their practice, so I will always ask questions that invite elucidation about their particular thought processes, and which, hopefully, will illuminate in some more general way the art they’re pursuing.

From an interviewer’s POV, interesting questions produce more interesting answers and therefore a better piece. So it’s worth taking the time.

I never even considered my bland questions being taken by the author as condescending. I never would have thought that because I ask authors, in general, similar questions that they would assumeI don’t care what they have to say. In fact, I ask those type of questions because those are the ones I WANT to know. I’d rather know what an authors favorite food is over their inspirations for writing. But I’m weird like that.

I also have a hard time asking specific questions about their titles. What if the reader hasn’t read the book? Will that question even mean anything to them? And often times, I haven’t had a chance to read the book.

I run into obstacles with new authors, often times they have no online presence? Where do I get my research then?

I appreciate your tips and hopefully they will help me out in the future. It’s always nice to get the insight of an author.

That said, as an editor of a (non-book-specific entertainment) website, I know that interviews with authors (and book reviews) rank at the absolute bottom in terms of traffic. I write for several other prominent websites as well, and they all say the same thing. Basically, book coverage is a very, very “niche” interest.

And yet “researching” an author is by FAR the most time-consuming sort of interview-research you can do. In the time it takes to watch five movies, you can read…well, one of an author’s books.

Basically, I and all the editors I know do book coverage not because it pays the bills — on the contrary, we would be making much better use of our resources by covering ANYTHING other than books. In fact, by posting a author interview or book review, our traffic will almost certainly take a hit that day. In other words, we’re literally penalized for covering books — our traffic would be better if we published ANYTHING else.(But we cover books anyway, because (a) a small number of people are interested in them, and (b) we think books are important!).

In the “old media,” editors never know how little interest there truly is in book coverage, because newspapers couldn’t measure clicks on specific articles. Now we can, and sadly, it ain’t pretty. I think that’s why they devoted more resources (in terms of both space and time) to books than new media does. It’s a bottom line issue.

I’m NOT saying, “You should shut up and be thankful for any coverage you get!” I’m just saying that I struggle a lot with the whole notion of covering books. I read voraciously, but even I can’t possibly be familiar with all the authors we interview (or would LIKE to interview). So I often rely on (cheap, inexperienced) stringers to interview authors. Or I do the interview myself and try to do as much research as I can in the time I give myself, which is never what I would like.

I suspect things are quite different with people’s personal blogs. They can interview all their favorite authors, and that’s great. Then again, they’re not trying to make a living with their content, and their readership is much lower than the sites I work for.

Anyway, not a criticism of this post. Just some additional, albeit depressing information.

Based on some of the inane questions I do see being published in interviews, I often wonder for whom the article is intended.

Have you ever refused an interview due to a bad experience in the past?

The accompanying story: I managed to obtain an interview with one of my favorite SF writers (and a very big fish at that). Then I sent him a message outlining a very long and involved email interview and he never responded. Further attempts to contact him were futile.

For a blog interview to come off well. Good questions amd excellent give/take from both parties are needed.

Sometimes the question is the set up, and the author runs with it. Sometimes the answers is and interviewer runs with it. Either way both parties must be willing to have a little fun with it, and branch off into the unexpected. Especially if its a blog interview, since there is nothing to lose.

Just giving the straight facts about the characters and the story is boring and not a great way to engage a reader.

I think it takes a minimum of four back and fourth via email for an online interview to lose its stiffness and give the illusion that the two parties actually meet.

1) Try to read at least one work by the author, preferably the one the author has recently out and is promoting or from the series of which it is a part. If you cannot do this, at least research the novels — what they are about and the character names, and for an anthology, know which authors contributed. (If you are able to pick your subjects, best to certainly start with authors with whom you are most familiar who have books coming out.)

2) You don’t have to read the author’s whole blog, but try to read some entries about the book the author is promoting, about writing, and definitely read the author’s bio information, at the website/blog and elsewhere.

3) Reading other interviews with the author is excellent research. Try to read recent interviews, which tell you what’s been asked already about the new/best known books and will also give you ideas.

4) The best method seems to be 2 email questions at a time. Once the author has answered them, clean up and format the answers and send them back to the author for review. Sometimes they like to add things or adjust their answers. At 2 questions at a time, you’re also better prepared to ask follow-up questions in response to an interesting answer. IM can be nice, but it doesn’t give you or the author as much time to consider what’s being said or research a point that comes up, unless you can go back later and hash it out with email or further IM.

5) Try to keep the interview to the author and their works unless the purpose of the interview is a particular subject. (At least make sure some of the questions are about the fiction, anyway.) Remember that the interview is about the author, not the interviewer’s views on SFF and life in general. However, if the author wants to talk about those things, let them run.

6) A more interesting question than “where do you get your ideas” is “how do you research your fiction.” Authors get that one a lot too, but the answers are more interesting to readers, even if the author says he or she doesn’t do any research.

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