“Creating a personal catalog of stories associated with various emotions is a useful resource.” — Nancy Duarte
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If you’re an introvert like I am, you may dread people asking you questions at live author events. You may wonder what you could possibly say at these functions that would interest readers. You may not be gifted in pulling together concise, yet witty, answers in the presence of—gasp!—people.
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Here’s what I learned was THE best activity that helped me in live events for Calculated Risk.
In prep for live author events, obtain as many guest interviews on others’ blogs as you can. Click to tweet.
Why?
1. You’ll receive a full gamete of possible questions. So, you’ll encounter few surprises at live events.
Some blog interviewers request you choose a certain number of questions to answer from a myriad of questions. They’ll list the possible questions under such categories as: your book; your writing journey; your writing preferences; you as a writer; and you as a person.
2. You can formulate your answers in the quiet of your writing space. You can write and rewrite them until they’re concise and witty.
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3. You’ll write the answers over and over for all your guest blog interviews. Some blogs want short answers. Some want long chatty answers. Every time you prepare your answers for a guest post, you’re learning the best way to answer questions. The answers are becoming ingrained in your brain. You feel more and more comfortable with the questions.
For example, after ten or so blog interviews you’ll now know the silliest, the most exotic, and the gutsiest thing you’ve ever done. Questions about these are commonly asked. If you’d never thought to identify these oddest moments in your life, you’d probably get flustered or silent at a live event when asked such questions. But now, after scanning your life for these moments off stage, you’re ready for that kind of question.
4. You can keep all your guest blog interviews’ questions and answers handy in one place so you can review your answers in preparing for the live event.
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How to get invited for blog guest interviews.
- Join email and other social media author loops. I belong to my agent’s yahoo group, my publisher’s author group, and American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) main and regional groups. Request for guest bloggers come up on these loops all the time when bloggers are filling their interview schedules.
- Visit blogs that do interviews and contact the owners with a request to be interviewed.
- Apply to writing organizations and magazines for spotlights they offer in their publications. I applied for a spotlight on ACFW and received a spot January 12.
Obtaining author interviews on blogs is easy when you belong to writer groups. Click to tweet.
What are the most unusual questions you’ve seen asked in interviews? Share them with us so we can add them to our cache of get-ready questions.
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Here’s my question for you.
Which actress would you cast as Cisney and which actor would you cast as Nick in the film version of Calculated Risk. Did you have a ready answer for this question?
I often pictured Sandra Bullock for Cisney as I wrote certain scenes, which led to Ryan Reynolds for Nick as a possibility. But…
Great tips, Zoe.I’m going to gather all my guest post interviews in one spot so I can easily review them. Thanks!
So nice to have them easy to grab, Johnnie. I have a binder of the questions and answers. I pull it out every time a blog interviewer asks me a questions I’ve already answered else where. Sometimes I have to tweak it a bit, but it saves so much time.