How To Get Featured On Author Quiz

Important: Author Quiz is taking a break.  Unfortunately I'm no longer able to devote sufficient time towards running this blog.  Thanks to all the authors previously featured on Author Quiz who submitted interviews, but at the current time there are no plans to feature new author interviews in future.

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Important Notes:
1) Please include the corresponding questions with your answers.  (It's usually obvious to work out which question each answer relates to but submitting only answers creates unnecessary work when publishing your interview.)
2) An interview works best as a promotional tool when accompanied by other details such as sales links, book cover image, twitter/facebook details, etc, so remember to check the full list at the bottom of this page for additional details of what to include along with your interview.

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Section 1:  Writing In General / About Yourself
1) What is it you love most about writing?
2) What's the best and worst thing about being an author?
3) Are there any parts of being an author that you dislike?
4) Is there anything about you or your writing that makes you unique from other authors?
5) Tell us a bit about yourself and your work as an author.
6) If you had to sum up your book, (insert title), in three words, what would they be?
7) What are you working on now and what projects and ideas do you have lined up next?
8) Do you ever feel yourself becoming quite emotional when writing a particularly intense scene and is there a specific passage in particular where this was the case?



That lightbulb moment.

Section 2:  The Creative Process

1) Where did the inspiration for your first/latest* novel, (insert title), come from?

* Delete as appropriate.

2) Why do you enjoy writing in your usual genre? or What is it about your usual genre that appeals to you most as a writer?

3) If you were to write a novel outside your usual genre, which genre would you like to experiment with and why?

4) When you first get the idea for a new story, do you find that the finished product tends to differ quite significantly from your original idea, or does the original idea remain more or less intact?

5) What came first, the idea for your first book or the decision to write a book?
6) Would you expect yourself to be most creative as a writer shut off on a desert island or immersing yourself in a busy social life?
7) Have you ever had an idea which was inspired by a real life incident, but which you ultimately decided not to include in your story because readers would think it was too far fetched?



If your book was made into a movie...

Section 3:  A Bit Of Fun...  Movies/TV/Other Media

1) If your book, (insert title), was made into a movie who would you want to play the main character and why?

2) If you were to write a story featuring a fictional character from another author’s novel, who would you choose and why?
3) If you were to write a story featuring a fictional character from any movie of your choice, who would you choose and why?
4)  If you were to write a fictional story based on a real-life celebrity, who would you feature and why?
5) Would your book, (insert title), work best as a movie adaptation or as a TV series?
6)  If your book, (insert title), was made into a movie and you were asked for input into the soundtrack, are there any songs that would work especially well for any particular scenes?
7) Is there a particular scene from your book, (insert title), which would translate well to canvas and provide a powerful inspiration for a dramatic or emotional piece of artwork? 
8) If you could choose someone famous to record your book in audiobook format, who would you choose as the voice and why?

Which of your characters would you invite to a dinner party?

Section 4:  Your Characters
1) If you could invite one character from your novel(s) to a dinner party who would it be and why?
2) Are any of your characters based heavily on people you know or have met from real life and if so, would they regard it as a compliment or an insult to discover they were the inspiration for the character in question?
3) Are any of your characters based on yourself and if so to what degree, and do you find it easier or more difficult to write characters based on yourself?
4) Without being too specific and without revealing too much about the plot, have you ever killed off a character who you felt particularly attached to and if so was it an emotional experience writing the relevant scene?
5) Have you ever written a supporting character who took on a life of their own or turned out to be far more popular than expected and if so do you have plans to feature them as the lead character in a story of their own?

Section 5:  Marketing
1) What do you think stimulates sales the most; positive reviews or advertising?
2) When deciding on your book title what influences you most; potential sales or artistic integrity?
3) Are there any good book blogs or websites you would recommend, both for discovering new books and authors, and also for promoting your own work?
4) Have you ever used online advertising to promote your book(s) and if so which sites would you recommend as having produced the best results and where have your ads produced less than hoped for results?
5) Do you have any useful marketing tips for other authors?
6) If you could go back to the moment when you completed your first book and were at the stage where you were ready to release it to the world, is there anything you would do differently this time with regard to promotion?


Section 6:  The Bigger Publishing Picture
1) How do you see the publishing industry changing over the next few years?
2) What changes would you like to see take place in the publishing industry over the next few years?
3) Do you foresee more and more authors making a living from their writing?
4) What advice would you give to publishing houses with regard to how to go forward and adapt to the industry over the next few years?
5) If you worked for a publishing house, what sort of books would you be looking to publish?

Enthusiastic comments with ungenerous ratings.

Section 7:  Reviews
N.B. If you include review quotes in your answer to any of the questions from section 7, then please also provide your own thoughts on how you felt about the review, as this makes more interesting reading than just cutting and pasting a review.

1) What are some of your favourite quotes from reviews that you've received?
2) Are there any book blogs or websites which you would recommend for an author looking to find potential reviewers for their book?
3) What strategy do you use for getting reviews? 
4) Do you have a favourite review or has anyone expressed a particularly nice compliment about your writing which stands out as your most memorable piece of praise?
5) Has a reader ever e-mailed you with a glowing remark on one of your books, but then when they published a review this praise had been toned down into a more restrained professional comment and had lost some of its power as a result?
6) I read a book review on amazon once where the reviewer described the book as a page-turner and had clearly enjoyed the book, and yet only gave it three stars out of five.  Have you had any similar experiences with reviews yourself and if so did you take pleasure in the positive comments or frustration from the unduly ungenerous rating?

Section 8:  Sales / Finances
1) Would you rather have great reviews but average sales or great sales but average reviews?
2) Which ebook seller has been your most successful outlet?
3) Have you tried experimenting with different prices for your book(s) and if so what pricing strategy worked best for you?
4) What is your opinion on Amazon's KDP program?  Have the free book promotions helped overall sales?
5) Do you opt for Digital Rights Management on your ebooks and would you recommend it to other authors?
6) Can you remember the moment when you logged into your author account and discovered you had made your first sale?
7) Would you rather sell 1000 books at $10/£10 each or 2000 books at $1/£1, i.e. what gives you the greater sense of satisfaction; overall earnings or overall sales?

Section 9:  Other Books And Other Authors
1) Apart from yourself, which other indie author would you recommend to readers and why?
2) What advice would you give to a new author who has just finished writing their first novel and is unsure as to what steps to take next?
3) Which book more than any other have you read and thought, 'I wish I'd written this book'?
4) What other book would you regard it the biggest compliment to have your own work compared to and why?
5) Is there a book out there which you feel is underrated and deserves a bigger audience?

What is your biggest strength as a writer?

Section 10:  Promotional Section / The Big Sell
1) Why should people buy your book, (insert title)/books?
2) Who do you see as your target audience?
3) Why would you recommend your book, (insert title)/books to other readers?
4) What would you say is your biggest strength as a writer?
5) What target audience would you recommend your book, (insert title)/books to?
6) What sort of audience will your book, (insert title)/books most appeal to?
7) Of all your books, which would you say was the best starting point for a reader to be introduced to your work?
8) Is there a TV series or movie which you think would appeal to a similar audience as your book, (insert title)?
9) Can you list a few other books which you feel would appeal to a similar audience as your own book, (insert title)? 


Once you've answered your chosen questions please e-mail them to authorquiz@yahoo.com and I'll try to feature your interview on this blog as soon as possible.

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Notes:
You may feel that some questions work best as a follow-up to another question in the same section, so if you want to answer a couple of questions from the same category then that's fine.  Or feel free to skip a section altogether if you'd prefer.

Please also feel free to submit your answers in whichever order you prefer.  Things are pretty flexible.  It's all about using the interview to promote yourself in the way that best introduces yourself to potential readers.  Try to stick to between six to twelve questions though, if possible.

Some questions make most sense when referring to a specific book, so for those questions please insert the title of your book as highlighted.  Other questions include a couple of options so for those questions please delete as appropriate.

The only caution I would add is that Author Quiz is marked as a ‘No Adult Content’ blog, so if your book or books contain adult content then please bear this is mind when discussing your writing in your interview.

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Author Quiz is designed to help authors promote their work, so as well as submitting your interview answers, please also provide:

1) A cover image from one of your books.  Ideally sized around 320 x 480 is perfect but any image is fine and I can resize it if necessary.

2) A brief description of the corresponding book, ideally in under 200 words but if you need to go slightly over then I’m not going to quibble.

Include a portrait or an image to represent yourself.

3) A photo of yourself to feature with your interview.  Or if you’d prefer to use something other than a portrait to represent yourself (for example I use my ‘See No Hear No Speak No’ gravatar image to represent myself on the internet) then that’s fine as well.  An image size of 320 x 320 is ideal, but again any size is fine and I can resize it if necessary.

I’ll generally feature your book cover image with the blurb for your chosen book at the start of your interview, then include your author photo towards the end, but if you’d prefer it the other way round then just let me know.

4) Up to three genres that you’d like to be listed under.

5) The ASIN number(s)* for up to three of your books on amazon.

* Just to clarify, this is a ten digit number found in the link to your book on amazon.  For example, the ASIN number for my book 'How To Save The World: An Alien Comedy' is B007HAC5RM.

6) Up to three other sales links if your book(s) is/are also available elsewhere on the internet such as Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.

7) If you’re on twitter or facebook, then feel free to provide links to your twitter account or facebook page.

8) If you have a blog or website then feel free to also provide a link to your blog.

9) If you have a free sample of your work available on the internet then feel free to provide a link to the download page.

10) If there's a particular passage from one of your books which you are particularly pleased with or proud of, then feel free to include a short sample of up to 250 words.  You can also include an introductory sentence or paragraph to set the scene if you wish.

Finally, thanks for visiting this blog and once again the e-mail address to send your interview answers to is authorquiz@yahoo.com