Interviewing Tip: Focusing Your Remarks
© 2012, Vicki Hinze
As a writer, you’ll be asked for interviews in a variety of mediums. Some will be for radio, others for television, and many requests will be for articles that will appear in written format. That makes for a diverse audience.
Today, writers often are interviewed by bloggers, and that’s the focus of this tip.
Before you tackle the questions the blogger asks, visit the blogger’s site. What is itss focus? Who are its readers? Are the majority of its readers writers or readers or mothers or activists in a subject you’ve addressed in your book? What can you share that is most apt to be of interest to them?
The reason this is vital is that you want to speak with the blog’s readers. If those readers aren’t, let’s say, writers, then responding to the interview questions in writer’s speak is going to be dull and uninteresting to the readers. If the blog readers are writers, then odds are they’ll enjoy writer viewpoint responses to the questions posed.
Think of the interview as an opportunity to interact with this group. Respect the group enough to get a grip on what its members expect and then respond honestly in ways that exhibit your awareness and your respect for those readers.
Interviews are not one-size-fits-all.
Blessings,
Vicki
