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Interviews–My Checklist for Skype Interviews, Podcasts, or Radio

September 23, 2013 / Uncategorized / 19 COMMENTS


By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Although I don’t do a ton of interviews, I probably do a live or recorded interview every few months.  I especially like the recorded ones because I figure if I say something dumb, they can edit it all out and make me look as if I know what I’m talking about. :)

I’ve learned from my mistakes in the past with these things, too.  I think of my house as being a very quiet place, but apparently, judging from my interview experiences, there is actually plenty of noise pollution there.  The pets, for one.  My corgi will bark at the cats, at the doorbell, and sometimes when she wants to go outside.  The cats are male litter-mates and fight tooth and nail with each other.  Various appliances make buzzer-like alarms when they’re done running.  My UPS guy feels the need to hit the doorbell when he drops off a package (I do appreciate this, but it makes the aforementioned barking happen).


I try to schedule interviews when no one is at home.  This has worked with 90% of my Skype interviews. But I’ve got some kind of radio-related curse.  Whenever I have a radio interview, and the ones I’ve done have unfortunately all been live, I will most certainly have a sick child or a snow day on my hands (with school canceled). This is one reason I know it’s a curse—y’all know it doesn’t snow down here in the American South all that often.

So here’s the checklist that I use before an interview, in the hopes it can help you out, too:

Where are the children?  Have I told them what I’m doing, so that they won’t accidentally disturb me? Regardless of the fact you’ve told them about the interview, put a sticky note on your door so that they’ll remember before they knock.

Put the dog in a back bedroom.

Put the cats away (in a separate room from the dog).

Put a sticky note on the door asking Fed-X, UPS, and the mailman not to ring the doorbell.

Put my cellphone away or mute it.

Have water nearby.  I will immediately have a coughing fit, guaranteed, whenever I’m supposed to be recorded. 

Skype specific:

Do a sound/video check.

Turn on lots of lights in the house and provide backlighting, too. 

Wear lots more makeup than usual. Or, in my case, wear make-up, period.

Pull out my webcam. It seems to be much better-quality than the one that came with my laptop.

Remember not to look at the computer, where I see the interviewer.  I need to look in the camera, or else I look distracted.

What’s in the background? Do I need to dust?  :) 

Books.  Have a book nearby that I can hold up…if it’s that kind of interview.  Sometimes it’s not a promo thing, it’s a craft thing and I might just have books on my dusted table in the background.

Radio and podcast specific:

Don’t use my cellphone to call in.  Use the house phone.

Turn off call waiting if you have it.

They’re fond of hearing the station’s call letters in the broadcast.

For any interview:

See if I can get the questions in advance.  It helps me give a more thoughtful answer and just provides them with better content, in general.

Be able to sum up your book in one sentence because you’ll usually be asked to tell the interviewer about your most-recent release or what you’re working on now.

Last week’s interview was with Gabriela Pereira with DIYMFA for Lit Loft writing conference and online course.  You can see a little of what we touched on at Gabriela’s site, here.

Have any tips I’ve missed about interviews?  Have you been interviewed?  How did it go?

 

  1. Elizabeth – It’s nice to know I’m not the only one whose dog (well, in my case two dogs) should simply not be there during an interview. I love ’em, but they do bark. As for tips? I think you’ve covered ’em beautifully. The only other thing I do (because I’m obsessive perhaps) is that I take a good long look in the mirror before a visual interview. Are the clothes a flattering shade? Anything torn or unbuttoned? I suppose I just like to look ‘put together’ for interviews.

  2. Thanks for the tips. I’ve only done a couple of radio “shows” and I do lock myself in my office. Our dog doesn’t bark–it’s her breed, nothing we’ve done to train her–so that’s one less worry.

    Terry
    Terry’s Place

  3. Do I need to dust – funny! I think I could safely hole myself up in my office to keep out all the noise and distractions.

  4. My cats get locked up every time. Not that they are noisy, but I’ll end up with one in my lap otherwise.

  5. Some of these tips are also good to think about for people who want to record a podcast or something of their own.

    I’ve been thinking about doing readings via webcam, but I haven’t go around to setting up the right place for both sound and visuals. (I’ve been thinking of just doing the sound and putting it to images, like some people do with their book trailers.)

  6. Alex–Somehow I ended up without an office in this house… :)

    Margot–Good point! I had to use a lint roller at the last minute a couple of times. Dog/cat hair. :)

    Diane–Well, there is that, too! My cats like to come mess with anything I’m focused on. And walk across keyboards…

    Terry–Locking yourself in your office is a good idea.

    Corgis are great watchdogs, for sure. Except I don’t always want to be notified if someone is at my door!

  7. Oh man… You are giving me a panic attack just thinking about it. I know people who do these all the time, but I find this MUCH more intimidating than live, and even THAT scares me.

    Good checklist, though! (I can’t even think of a place in my house I wouldn’t be mortified to have in the background…)

  8. So far I’ve done interviews through email only. But I don’t have pets or kids, so it wouldn’t matter anyway! My husband can be pretty loud, though, especially if he’s watching sports or playing on the XBox. It’ll be nice someday when we don’t have to share an office!

    Your tips are really great, Elizabeth. Wishing you a smooth, noise-free hour the next time you have an interview!

    Happy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines

  9. Hart–That’s interesting…you know, I think I’m better at home than I am talking to people on a panel or something. There’s just something about seeing all those eyeballs trained in my direction that makes me unnerved. When it’s Skype or radio, I technically am speaking to far *more* people, but I can’t see them so I can pretend they’re not there.

    And, I’m sure you can find just a corner! Literally, a corner…that’s what I do with all of mine. Lug all the stuff in that corner out and leave it in the middle of the floor temporarily. Drag a table into the space to be behind you. Stick a lamp and some books on it. Just rearrange the furniture for lighting. :)

    The Daring Novelist–Readings on webcam…very cool! So….you’d set up a YouTube channel for it? Something like that? I like the idea of doing sound only.

    Laura–Husbands can most definitely be noisy, but if they’re at work, all the better! I lump mine in with the kids–better to have all of them out of the house when I do these things. He’s as absentminded as I am and would likely wander in accidentally during the interview.

  10. Yeah, if I did readings I would put them up on YouTube. At least for now. My main goal, at first would be to just produce them.

    The problem with “sound only” is that on YouTube you really do need some decent visual — people seem to like the amateur, person with a web cam stuff, but I suppose the still images of your book, and you reading, etc. could. I’ve even considered doing Lego tableaux or something.

    I could do illustrations, but that would take a long long time.

  11. Excellent post! The best surprise is no surprise.

    I was invited to do a public speaking event and failed to perform a check of wireless Internet connection. This was about five years ago.

    Much of my presentation was visual but I was not able to get an Internet connection. I tried to kook up my laptop to a video screen but that failed too.

    Gotta think of everything before going live.

  12. I would definitely need the questions ahead of time, or I’d freeze. That’s a great tip–to look in the camera and not the computer. I probably wouldn’t have thought of that. Now I realize why so many webcam photos don’t look right! Funny :)

  13. Stephen–I just might have nightmares about that tonight. :) Seriously, that’s like my worst nightmare coming true–a tremendous snafu while doing a talk. Ugh. Hat that happened to you!

    The Daring Novelist–I like the idea of it very much…keep hearing that we all need to expand into video to reach that market. I think my only concern would be the clock, as usual. Seems it would take a bit of time to get the visuals right and then we have to consider the ROI of that time. I’d guess, though, that once you did the first one, the others would go much quicker.

  14. Hi Elizabeth .. great post with most bases covered .. it’s that preparation isn’t it and making sure everything works – so that Stephen’s type of system malfunction doesn’t occur .. practise makes perfect.

    Seeing people on tv not looking at us – always strikes me as odd, but it’s a difficult technique I imagine, as most of us don’t like being interviewed at the best of times ..

    Helpful read .. cheers Hilary

  15. Elizabeth Maria–I have to work hard at it! My natural inclination is to look at my computer screen at the interviewer. My husband reminds me that I could put my webcam right in the center of my computer screen so that I’d be looking somewhat in that direction. But then it blocks the interviewer completely and I do sometimes like to see what the interviewer is up to.

    Hilary–Yes, and when TV anchors’ eyes move as they read the teleprompter….these types of things just distract us as viewers, don’t they? It should be common sense to look at the camera instead of the interviewer…odd how it’s not. I guess we’ve been drilled so much as children to look people in the eye.

    Thanks for coming by!

  16. Carol–For some reason the phone makes me the most nervous. I think that’s because I’m not comfortable on the phone even if I’m *not* being interviewed. :)

  17. … and this is why your blog rocks! I enjoy these kinds of how-to posts in areas that I have never considered before.

    Thank you,

    Kathy M.

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