Feb. 27, 2006
I conducted approximately 15 phone interviews last week. It was kind of a crazy week. I know I did 6 on Thursday alone. I tape my phone interviews (if they give me permission, which 99.9% of the time they do). I made the switch to a digital recorder this year and it's definitely worth it.

Most were pretty good. I just got off the phone with a guy who gave me one-sentence answers. I couldn't get him to relax and expand on anything. Luckily, he was the third interview for that particular article, so I'm good.

Here are a few tips. These will apply to any interviews you might conduct in your research for your fiction.

1. Relax. Have, as much as possible, a conversation. Listen to what they're saying because a lot of times you need to follow up.

2. Prepare. At least a little. It doesn't take but a few minutes to write out questions ahead of time. I wander off the course all the time.

3. My first question is always: spell your name, do you have any credentials after your name, what's your job title and what is your company name, location, and what is the contact information--ie., phone and e-mail address.

4. My last question is almost always: What didn't I ask that I should have asked?

5. Be pleasant and courteous. They're doing you a favor. You may be doing them one as well, but not everybody realizes that. (Many do and know that being quoted in articles helps their credibility in certain areas of expertise).

6. If you don't understand, don't fake it. I write on technical topics all the time. If I'm unclear, I tell them I'm not sure I understand and ask them to expand or clarify.

7. The rule of 3: A typical article needs 3 separate sources. I write brief news articles that only require a single source, and at least one publication wants 6 (but they pay enough to make that reasonable), but three is what I typically aim for.

8. You may have to assure people that you're taping just to get things right, not because you plan to broadcast it in any way. People are increasingly concerned about this, probably because of pod and webcasts.

9. Sometimes you have to go through PR and media relations people. As a group of so-called professionals, I'm underwhelmed by their expertise (in my experience), but sometimes you have no choice. They can be your friend. Overall, though, many seem to feel that you're working for them. I want to tell them, the publication pays me, but I don't get a dime from your client, so kiss my ass. But I don't. It's counterproductive. Just be aware that they don't work for you either. They're using you and you're using them.

10.Make your best effort to send people you quoted a copy of the article once it's published.

11. Double check name spellings in articles. I don't think I'm sloppy about this, but errors have crept in from time to time. A name that gets spelled a couple different ways throughout the article. Last year I wrote and published about 135 articles and book reviews. With that kind of productivity, an occasional screw-up is inevitable. Not justifiable, but inevitable.

12. Pay attention. When I started out, I was very nervous about interviews. Now I enjoy them. I'm typically relaxed and open-minded. I've had wonderful conversations with people and learned all sorts of interesting things. I've re-interviewed people on different topics. Treat your interview subjects well and they'll help you out. I had a fantastic conversation/interview with author Jay MacLarty last week. Good guy, terrific books (Live Wire, his third Simon Leonodivitch(?) novels is out April 1), interesting life. That was fun. They're not always fun. Sometimes they are. People can be fun and interesting. Listen to how they talk. You'll learn a hell of a lot about dialogue by transcribing your interviews. You'll also learn a hell of a lot about people's thought patterns by transcribing interviews. Psychology at its most basic.

13. Remember. You don't have to be an expert. You just have to talk to experts.

Best,
Mark Terry