An Author Prepares for a Book Interview-Excitement or Dread?

You worked for months, even years, for this day. Your book launch is in sight and you are going to be interviewed about your book. This is the day most authors dread.

The more I learn about authors the more I realize how introverted we really are. We love the writing, the quiet time, the introspection. It is who we are. Now, when the hard work of actually getting our manuscript ready for publishing is done, we need to pivot our thoughts to marketing. And marketing means talking about our book in succinct, compelling and powerful ways. What is an author to do?

I was fortunate enough to get a LinkedIn message from Sherrie Clark, one of the hosts from our Jacksonville, Florida BUZZ TV studio. She invited me to come in for an interview about my work and my book. My initial excitement quickly gave way to dread. What am I going to say? What questions will she ask me? Will my mind go blank while I am on camera? What should I wear?

Then my planning instincts kicked in. After all, my colleagues know I spent years in corporate planning roles.

Here is how I prepared for my interview:

1. Watched other Sherrie Clark interviews to see her style and how other guests have performed.

2. Reviewed the likely interview questions that BUZZ TV sent to me, and wrote down my responses. Then I went to work to edit, edit, and edit again those responses to be succinct.

3. Re-watched some of Sherrie’s interviews and noticed that the conversations were free flowing and did not follow along with the likely questions that BUZZ TV sent to me. I panicked (a little).

4. Then I came across Paula Rizzo. Paula is an author and media trainer. She has a focus on helping prepare authors to talk to the media about their books. If you connect with Paula like I did, she will send you the 10 questions every author needs to be prepared to answer. She has lots of great tips too. You can get them here.

5. I diligently wrote my answers to the 10 questions. Paula has a set for non-fiction authors like me, and another set for fiction authors.

6. Now a had a plethora of material—questions and answers. But where was my focus?

7. I thought long and hard about it and came up with the most important things I wanted to say. Those centered around: my mission, my most important message, my story in a nutshell and why I am qualified to talk about open adoption.

8. I wrote the answers to these things and memorized them by saying them out loud again and again. I even recorded myself to get better at it.

9. Then I challenged myself to come up with a single statement. For me it is:

“An adopted child can benefit greatly by knowing and connecting with their birth parents and/or other members of their biological family, when it is safe and possible.”

10. Oh, and I can’t forget the all-important what to wear question. I solicited the help of my sisters to go shopping with me. I already knew that my author brand colors were green and yellow (topic of another discussion) so I wanted to stay on brand. We shopped in stores and online and I found a professional looking jacket that spoke my brand color green, representing new life and growth. Now I was ready.

Here is the link. How did I do?

If you want to learn more about creating an author brand, here are two great resources:

Nancy Blanton’s Brand Yourself Royally in 8 Simple Steps. It is an easy to digest and follow guide for authors to use. Here is the link.

Rachel Thompson’s The Bad RedHead Media Fast and Easy Guide to Powerful Author Branding. Here is the link.

If you or anyone you know would like a speaker on the topic of open adoption, please contact me through my web site. And while you are there subscribe so that you will get notice of my blog posts, news and book updates. My gift to you is THE 10 THINGS I WISH I KNEW ABOUT OPEN ADOPTION AT THE START OF MY JOURNEY. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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