Piper Nuelle

My previous blog post was about questions you could ask when conducting an author interview, but todays blog post is about how to prepare and plan for if you need to interview an author. It may seem like a scary experience or thing to do, but, as long as you plan ahead and make sure things can go as smoothly as possible then it should be all good in the hood…

One thing you need to remember is that author interviews are a fabulous way to get to know upcoming, new and established authors and to highlight and help promote their work. As a great workaround, it can also bring in more readers to your own platform such as a blog or where it is you decide to post about the interview. So, either way it is a win, win… One rule of thumb, don’t make it about you and your blog, you need to remember to make it all about the author, their book and what your readership will want to know about them.

As with any interview, whether it is yourself doing the interview or being interviewed, you need to ‘Prepare’. My best plan of action is to have a small notebook on each author, like the small thin ones you can buy in the pound shops or supermarkets, or have a large notebook that you can have sections in for each author. Create a section for each author you will be interviewing and write notes on everything you know about them already. Knowing things in advance can make it easier to find connections with the author, ease into the flow of topics and discussions and to find a common ground to start with. Things you could research beforehand are;

• Where they live or where they come from?
• The name of their book, last book, book series etc
• A post they recently shared which can be a conversation starter
• Any hobbies you may have noticed they like from their socials

Being prepared will also stop any feelings of fear or your mind going blank during the interview.

Where will the interview take place? Will it be online via zoom or a teams meeting? Will it be face to face in a coffee shop? Will you need to visit them? Or they visit you? Whichever way the interview happens you will need to discuss and plan this early on so there is no confusion or mishaps. You also need to consider your own and their safety. Do you visit them in the comfort of their own home or yours? Is that a safe decision for you both? You would also need to be mindful of not spilling the beans on where they live and consider data protection, if they invite you over and then you tell the world where they reside it could mean trouble for them if a fan finds out and tries to visit them. You would also need to figure out travel expenses and book travel tickets beforehand to make sure you are punctual.

Different places and ways to conduct the interview;

• Via Email – You write out and plan the interview beforehand and send them a copy. They fill it out and email it back, ready for you to essentially cut and paste it to where it needs to go.
• Via Zoom or Teams – Conducting the interview this way makes it a little more personal with an almost face to face style of interview. You can take notes whilst talking or film it so you can either write about it or post it online.
• In a coffee shop or local bookstore – This could make it more relaxed, you can sit and talk over books and or coffee. Then write and take notes as you talk or record it to write it all down later on. This would mean working out a place that works for both parties and somewhere not to busy that you can’t concentrate or hear each other.

Time management is also another theme of conducting an author interview. Do you both live in the same time zone for example, especially if you are doing one over Zoom or via email. You don’t want to be calling one another at silly o’clock. Then there is also the matter of how long it will take for you both. Will it take half an hour, an hour, a lunch date over a couple of hours.

Questions. Other than the actual author this is probably the most important aspect of an author interview. If you have no questions to ask, then you have no interview. Like I said before I have already done a post on 20 good questions you can ask an author in an interview. But, also like I said before, planning is essential. Plan out those questions, read the book and research the author, make them feel like they are truly wanted and are the STAR of the show for the interview. Another thing to remember is the amount of questions to ask, I gave in my previous post 20 questions to ask, but it doesn’t mean you need to ask all twenty!!! You could maybe select between 8-10 good questions, tailored to your author and their genre and or niche.

Does your author want anything else added that may not be the questions asked? Some authors may have book trailers made, or want their book links put in a certain part of the interview post, or have book images that they want to include. Discuss this with them beforehand so you can make the interview the best it can be for both you and them. Plus if they feel they have had the best time with you being interviewed, they may tell this to others and you may get more author interviews and work via word of mouth, which indeed can help you grow as well as them.

Social media noise. One thing to remember is that most things will not be found without some advertising and noise to garner attention. Maybe once the interview is printed and ready to go, you could give a sneak peek on your socials to make people want to read more. You could even ask the author to also post it on their socials to make it a double whammy. You post to your readers, they post to theirs, more eyes on the authors work and more eyes on your blog.

And lastly, remember to thank the author for their time. Yes you are helping them raise awareness for their book, but at the same time you are using them and their book to gain more interest and readership to your blog. So always be polite and gracious. Who knows, maybe they could do the same for you one day, or if they release another book you could invite them back for round two.

I hope this blog post has helped you. Please let me know if you have any other comments or ideas.

Take care, xo Piper xo