Forty-five minutes with an author sounds generous until you are twenty minutes in, the tea has gone cold, and you are asking your fourth question about where the idea came from. Good interviews are rarely the product of spontaneity. They come from preparation the reader never sees: the backlist you actually read, the questions you wrote and then rewrote, and the small courtesies that persuade someone to speak candidly. Here is how to do that work well, whether you are writing for print, recording a podcast or hosting a live event.

Read the backlist, not just the new book

The new book is the reason for the interview, but it is rarely the whole story. Read it twice if the schedule allows — once for pleasure, once with a pencil. Mark the lines you might quote, and note the page numbers beside them, because you will not remember them at the time.

Then go back. Choose at least one earlier title, ideally the one where the voice changed or the one that did less well. A first novel and a fourth often share DNA, and questions comparing them tend to be more revealing than questions about plot. While you read, keep a running list of:

• recurring images, settings or preoccupations across the books
• sentences that show you how the prose was made
• gaps and contradictions between what the book does and what the author says about it
• what is conspicuously absent — a parent, a place, a war

If time is short, read the opening thirty pages and the final chapter of the new book, plus one earlier book in full. Knowing one title inside out beats skimming six.

Research beyond the page

Find three or four previous interviews and read them properly. Note the questions that come up every single time, and set them aside unless you can bring a genuinely new angle. Your value as an interviewer lies in the question nobody has asked yet.

Look for the practical facts: the gap between books, the change of publisher or genre, the move abroad, the day job. The blurb will give you a summary; the acknowledgements and dedication often give you the real story. A paragraph thanking a research librarian tells you something worth asking about.

Verify rather than assume. Names, dates and titles are easy to get wrong, and one small error can undo an hour of goodwill.

Write questions that open doors

A question that can be answered with yes, no or a number closes the room. An open question hands it over to the author.

Instead of: Did you plan the ending?
Try: You have said the ending arrived late. What did the book look like before it did?

Other prompts that work well:

• What did you cut that you still miss?
• Which scene did you rewrite most, and why?
• Where did you get stuck, and how did you get out of it?
• What did you believe about this subject before you started writing?

Avoid "How did it feel to…", which invites a summary of emotion rather than description. Try "Walk me through the day you…" or "What did you notice when…".

Write twenty questions for a forty-five-minute interview and expect to use eight. Beside each one, jot two follow-ups — "Can you give me an example?", "What happened next?", "Who disagreed with you?" — because the second question is often the one that produces the quotation you keep.

Build an arc, and keep a spare

Order your questions so they climb rather than jump: craft first, then character, then themes, then the personal. Most authors warm up after ten minutes, so putting your sharpest question first wastes it.

Place the hardest question in the middle. If it lands badly, you still have time to recover the tone. Keep two generous, easy questions in reserve for the moment answers start to shorten. Above all, treat your list as a map rather than a script. If an answer opens something better, follow it; you can always come back.

Handling sensitive subjects professionally

Some books are built on grief, illness, addiction, violence or politics. Asking about them badly makes the interview about the interviewer's nerve.

Ask about the book before the life. "The novel spends a long time on a hospital ward. How did you decide what to show and what to leave out?" is a craft question that lets the author choose how personal to be. "Was that you?" is not.

If you want to go further, say so plainly and give them a way out before you begin: "This is something I would like to ask about, but if you would rather not, tell me and I will move on." Then honour it without comment. Do not circle back, however neatly it would fit.

If an author says something you think is wrong, do not argue. Ask them to explain it: "That is a strong claim. What led you there?" You are a questioner, not a prosecutor.

Take care with legal matters. If a case is live, or the book makes allegations about living people, check what you can safely publish before it goes out, and take proper advice rather than relying on your own reading of the situation. In the same way, if an author discusses health or financial decisions, report what they said rather than adding guidance of your own; readers should be pointed towards qualified professionals.

The etiquette that makes the difference

Before

• Confirm the format, the length, the start time and whether the conversation is being recorded
• Check the pronunciation of their name and what they would like to be called
• Ask whether anyone else will be present — a publicist, a translator, a family member
• Test your recording equipment, and bring a backup

During

• Open with something easy; they are as nervous as you are
• Do not interrupt, and wait a beat after they stop — the best answer often arrives in that pause
• Keep them informed. "We have ten minutes left" is rarely unwelcome
• If you get a fact wrong, correct it in the moment and carry on

After

• Thank them in writing the next day
• Tell them the angle and roughly when the piece will appear
• Send the finished interview, and if you have to cut a quotation, make sure the meaning survives the cut

Ten minutes before you start

Run through a short checklist and then put the list down.

1. Is their name spelled and pronounced correctly?
2. Do you have three questions you know are new?
3. Is the one question that makes you slightly nervous placed mid-interview, with a way out prepared?
4. Is the recorder tested, the notes numbered, the water within reach?
5. Do you know what they are working on next, in case you want a generous ending?

Preparation of this kind is not about control. It is what allows you to abandon the plan when the conversation goes somewhere better. The author will notice, and so will the reader.

Photo: Spudaitis / Pixabay