In August of 2011, with the release of my new novel "Night Undone" pending, I began accepting interviews from journalists and bloggers as part of my press campaign. Before I knew it, I was doing at least an interview per day. What I hadn't expected, however, was how difficult the interviews would actually be. The questions may seem "standard" to some, but to a person who doesn't like talking about herself, they weren't easy at all. In fact, I found some of the questions to be provocative, and I learned some things about myself and my process I hadn't ever taken the time to think about before.
All these interviews, and all the insight they provided, sparked an idea. How alike are writers? If I were to give published authors the same set of questions, how different would the answers be? Would the responses vary depending on genre, location, number of books published or method of publication? I decided it would be fun to find out. "On Writing Author Interviews" is an experiment. Published authors from around the world and from all walks of life are participating. I hope you find it enjoyable.
If you're a published author and would like to participate in this interview/experiment, please contact me through my web site at http://www.ksbrooks.com/.
Interview FAQS:
What are the requirements for being interviewed? You must have at least one book published (self or traditional is fine), provide cover artwork, and a buy link for the books.
Will you proofread my answers, make spelling and grammar corrections for me? NO.
What size cover art files do you need? Please keep your jpgs to around 50kb each. If you don't know how to resize them, we can help you.
Do you want a buy link for each of my titles? No - that would get kind of busy. We want this to be fun for people to read. If you have an Amazon author page or another author page that lists all your titles, that would be the best link to provide.
Can I reserve a specific date for my interview to go live? NO.
But I want my interview to coincide with the release of my new book. STILL NO. The lead-time from receipt of answers to the post going live hovers around 10 weeks. Please plan accordingly.
Do you want me to send you my life story and try to hard sell you that I should be interviewed? Please - NO. Just send me an email stating that you're a published author and you'd like to be interviewed. It's actually just that simple! Less work for everyone that way - saves you the time typing and me the time reading and we get right to the point.
Can I reformat the Word document you send me to use fancy fonts and colors? Oh please, no. Your responses are cut and pasted into the blog. Reformatting makes my life a nightmare and I will get annoyed. Please don't annoy me.
Why are you doing these interviews? Well, please read above. I also like that it helps other authors have a spotlight and some exposure - and people can read about completely different genres and mindsets - and see how different and/or similar some authors are. I also think authors can learn about themselves during the interview process.
Can I mention my genre and the title(s) of my book(s) right away? NO. That defeats the point of the interview - which is to raise the curiosity of the reader - to see if they can guess by your habits and answers what it is you write. Please no hard sells. Hard sells and blatant genre give-aways will be edited out to maintain the integrity of the interview.
