Tips for Interviewing Authors
Adapted from 14 Tips for Interviewing Authors by Sarah Boon: https://hippocampusmagazine.com/2019/11/craft-14-tips-for-interviewing-authors-by-sarah-boon/
Interviewing an author isn’t as simple as picking up the phone and talking—there’s a lot of preparatory work that goes into the interview itself, plus things to remember both during and after the interview itself.
- Read the author’s latest book—preferably several times. Read closely and take notes if you have to. Most Q&As are about the author’s latest book, so you want to be prepared by knowing it inside and out. This will also help you come up with questions about the book. If you have time (and if the budget for the piece makes it worthwhile), read several of the author’s books. When I interviewed Barbara Kingsolver I re-read all of her novels and found that there were themes I hadn’t noticed before that I could ask about in my interview. This is helpful if you’re writing a craft piece about the writer’s process and writing themes.
- Read other interviews the author has done. This will help you avoid asking the same questions they’ve already been asked 100 times, and can help you generate ideas for new questions. Again, like reading their non-fiction work, reading interviews will give you insider tips on the author herself.
- As you start to pull your questions together, consider the audience for your interview. Are they writers looking for writing secrets and tips? Are they feminists looking for a woman-centered approach to writing? Each of these audiences will require that you ask different questions of the writer, from what her daily routine is to when her next book is coming out.
- Type out all of your questions beforehand. I usually split them into questions about their new book and then broader craft-related questions. Organize your questions in an order that flows for you.
- During the interview itself, don’t get caught in the trap of only asking only the questions you’ve written down. Sometimes the author will respond to a question with something that you’d like to explore further even though it’s not in your question list. Follow your instincts and ask new questions to tease out this new idea. If the author starts telling you personal stories, that suggests you’ve connected with them on a deeper level and you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to ask more exploratory questions.
- Thank the author for their time and ask them if they have anything else to add or anything they don’t want you to include (sometimes they don’t want the ending of the book to be given away, or they don’t want a particular plot twist to be included).
- Try to transcribe your interview soon after you’ve done it so that it’s still fresh in your mind. I usually transcribe it myself so that I hear the responses a second time and get a sense of how to make the interview flow.
- Edit for length and clarity. This is the standard disclaimer on interviews, but what does it actually mean? It means that you take out all the ums and ahhs. You cut out repetitive answers. You may decide that some questions were duds and remove them from the interview. You might rewrite your questions to better match what you actually asked the author. You might have questions to add that weren’t in your original list. And, in most cases, you’ll have too much information for the interview and will have to cut your word count in half. That’s what editing for length and clarity is all about.
- Once the interview is published, send a link to the author or to their publicist—whomever is your main contact. Authors need to know where, when, and how their books were written about to keep track of how they’re doing and what audience they’re reaching.
