We feature interviews with published authors here at SellingBooks.com. Authors may be traditionally or self-published in fiction or non-fiction, print or ebooks. If you have published a book, we would be glad to consider you for an interview.
We often have a backlog, and generally publish interviews in the order received. However, if you have a need to get your interview posted on a specific date (e.g., for a blog tour) let us know and we will try to accommodate your request.
We love to work with publicists–feel free to share our questionnaire with your clients and include SellingBooks.com as a stop on their blog tours.
When submitting your interview, please follow the question/answer format. Do not submit a narrative or send only the answers without the appropriate questions. Your interview may be in the body of an email or a Word doc. Please do not submit PDFs. You can download the interview questions in a Word doc here.
(NOTE: In addition to these interviews, we publish articles on any aspect of writing, publishing and marketing books. You can learn more about submitting articles to us at https://www.sellingbooks.com/contribute-articles. You do not have to be a book author to submit articles. We run lots of pieces by editors, publicists, designers, consultants, publishers, etc. Although we appreciate receiving original, unpublished content, we also accept previously published articles.)
Please do not submit an interview if your book has not been published or at least scheduled for publication. We will only run interviews for books that are available for purchase.
You do not have to answer every question, but you do need to answer the questions that begin with an *. Please answer at least six questions.
Please do not do a hard sell in the interview. Tell us about your work – that should make us want to read your book.
Although it does not have an *, you will want to answer the last question. This is where you get to sell. Be sure to include a link to your website or blog, or to your book’s page on Amazon.com or another site where it can be purchased. Or mention your Facebook fan page, your Twitter profile, or your online media kit. We will include up to three hyperlinked URLs in your interview.
***The questionnaire is not carved in stone. Change the wording of a question. Modify it, if you wish, to be more specific to you. We do not want all of these interviews to read exactly the same, so feel free to be a little creative. After all, you are a writer!***
Should the questions be in a different order? OK – move ’em around.
Is there something we should have asked but didn’t? For example, maybe a good question to ask you would be why you decided to set your latest novel in Missoula, Montana, or what are the five things you should know before bringing home your new puppy. You know, questions that are specific to you and your book. Go ahead and add the question(s) we should have asked along with your answer(s). We love that!
We reserve the right to edit interviews for grammar, spelling, length or other reasons before publishing them.
When you send your responses, please attach one or two graphics – a photo of you and/or a graphic of your book cover. The photos we use on the site are usually 72dpi, with a width of 300 pixels. If that sounds like Greek to you, don’t worry about it. Just send a picture and we will figure it out. (Big pictures are better than small.)
Oh, and when your interview is published, feel free to blog about it, post a link on Facebook, tweet it or otherwise spread the word!
INTERVIEW STARTS HERE:
First things first:
*How do you want your name to appear in the title of this post? (Not an interview question, but we need to know who you are!)Now to the real questions:
*What is your most recent book? Tell us a bit about it.*Tell us something about yourself. (Where are you from, what is your background, how long have you been writing or anything we might find interesting about you.)
What inspired you to write this book?
How did you celebrate when you finished writing the book? When it was published?
How did you know you wanted to be a writer? How did you get started?
Are you a pantser or a plotter? (i.e., Do you outline and plan your story or do you just sit down and write?)
Do you have a daily or weekly writing schedule, or do you write only when you are inspired? How many words or pages do you complete in a typical day?
How many drafts did you write before publishing your most recent book?
What software do you use to write? Or do you prefer to write longhand or dictate your work? What made you choose the method you use?
If you were doing it all over again, what would you do differently?
Do you read reviews?
*What is the best advice you could give other writers about writing or publishing?
Do you have friends who are writers? How do you help each other to become better writers?
Who is the perfect reader for your book? (Please do not say “everyone.” ;o) )
Where can readers learn more about you and your book?
Whew! You’re done! Now just email the interview to cathy (at) idealady (dot) com, along with a picture of you and/or your book cover. Please put AUTHOR INTERVIEW in the subject line so I am sure to see it. We will let you know when your interview is scheduled to publish.
Questions? Contact us.