An author interview can be conducted multiple ways: phone, email, video chat, and/or social media. Yet, one aspect always remains the same - the person conducting the interview needs to already know most of the interview questions before it is time to conduct the interview. Now it is fine not to have every single question written down in advance because the interviewer might need to add in a few questions to get the author to clarify or expand on an answer, but the majority need to be written out beforehand. They should not just be scratched out on a piece of scrap paper either; they should all be well formatted and tested prior to the interview to ensure that the interviewee will be able to understand each question and know what is being asked of them.

How to Write the Questions

The most important thing is to make sure each question is specifically geared towards the author. It is fine to have one or two general question, but most of the questions need to be specific to the author and their book(s). General questions would be questions like:

1. What made you decide to become an author?

2. When did you decide that writing was the career path for you?

3. What made you decide to write a book on this topic?

One or maybe two of these are acceptable, but too many and the author will start to feel like they are being asked form questions that could be asked of any author. This can be easily rectified with a bit of research into the author and their book. Ideally, each question should be written to include a piece of information that is specific to the author or their book(s). Here is how the sample questions could be edited in order to be specific to the author:

1. Did growing up in (insert author’s home town) influence your decision to become an author?

2. I noticed you wrote your first published story during your sophomore year in high school. Did your success in publishing your story set you on the path of becoming an author?

3. Considering that you used to write mainly romance novels, what made you decide to branch out into science fiction novels?   

Types of Questions

The types of questions that should be asked during an author interview depend on the genre of the book(s) as well as the author.

If the books are fictional, then it is generally good to throw in a fun question or two about characters. For example:

1. Did you write yourself into the book as any of the characters?

2. If you could make (character 1) or (character 2) real, which one would you pick?

For non-fiction books, the questions should be more factual. Ideally, these questions should come from the content of the book(s). For instance:

1. I was surprised by the statistic that you presented in chapter three about (topic), and when you found these statistics, were they a surprise to you or were you expecting these results?

2. When you first began researching George Washington in your freshman year of college, did you ever think that you would be able to use your findings to write a book that would be published?

The most important thing to remember when preparing an author interview is that each author wants to feel as if the interview questions were written specifically for them and their readers!