Turn Your Next Author Interview Into a Game of Tag
An easy technique for collaboration with document sharing
Hi Everyone,
This post offers a trick I’ve used many times over the years when promoting books, collaborating on posts, and co-authoring books. It’s an easy method for conducting interviews for publication, and it’s virtually guaranteed to please both you and your interviewee.
I’ve framed this post around author interviews because they’re a key part of the writing life, and this technique makes them simple. But it’s also useful for more general collaboration, too.
The one stipulation is that your interviewee needs to be as invested in the finished product as you are. Because this approach requires several back-and-forth steps, it does not work for interviewing experts or celebrities who only have time for a brief conversation. I don’t use this method for background research or for getting quick quotes, either.
But for interviews that you conduct in the spirit of equal partnership, this method works brilliantly. I encourage you to try it for yourself!
Why bother with author interviews?
If you’d like to get your work into a new publication or just want to expand your newsletter’s literary circle, author interviews can be a terrific vehicle. They’re relatively easy to pitch and get published, and they’re a great way to meet and bond with your favorite writers.
All that makes the author interview an invaluable publicity tool when you publish a new book. I did several around the time my last novel, Glorious Boy, was published. For example, this one for Ms. with the late, great Cai Emmons, or this with
, or this for The Rumpus with , or this one for The Rumpus with Mary Morris.I’ve also collaborated on interviews here on Substack, such as these with the wonderful
and :The Challenge
But the classic interview process of meeting (whether online or off) for a taped conversation, which then must be transcribed and edited into a coherent piece of writing, is laborious and time intensive. One common alternative is to generate a pre-set list of questions for the subject to answer independently, but this can produce wooden responses and a distinctly impersonal, if not indifferent, vibe to the resulting “interview.”
Fortunately, there’s a way to make author interviews both fun and much more efficient. Through trial and error, I’ve honed an easy system for avoiding both the labor of transcription and the deadening effect of lists. As a major bonus, your interview partner is sure to be happy with the final result. It’s fail-safe — as long as you want an interview that makes you both look good! (There’s a presumption of mutual trust and openness baked into this approach.)
The key to success here is document sharing. I’ve used Google Docs, so my tips will apply to Google quirks, but the basic idea also works with OneDrive or any other document-sharing platform that you and your partner both access.
Remember that the same rule applies to interviews as to stories: the best ending is both inevitable and surprising!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Aimee Liu's MFA Lore to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.