The first time I told someone that I was writing a book, I
received a curious look and a nod, though the person didn’t ask too many
questions beyond what the book was about.
They tuned out when they heard Romance, or Paranormal Romance. They didn’t ask too many questions beyond the
premise or the genre. When I told people
that I had published a book,
suddenly their interest level grew. When
they had the hard copy of the book in their hands, it was a completely different
reaction. They were surprised that I had
published a book and started asking all kinds of questions. Most people said they had never personally known
anyone who had written a book. They looked
at me differently. They were excited for
me, but it was beyond that, it was like they were excited that they had met a
real live author. It was strange since I
hadn’t changed and I had been writing my series secretly for over three years,
so I didn’t understand their reaction. That’s
when I realized that I had accomplished something that not everyone had done; I
had made my dream a reality.
Oh My God, You Wrote
a Book, How Cool! While I wasn’t
prepared for the new way that they looked at me, I wasn’t prepared for their
questions either. Now, the questions
were more about how I had accomplished this goal and what had inspired me to
write a book. I had never thought about
these questions before, since I had always wanted to write a book, and had
actually written a few that I wasn’t happy with as far back as high
school. To me, it was a fact that I
wanted to write and I had found a way to do it.
I couldn’t figure out why people suddenly cared about these kinds of
answers. It took some time for me to
understand that they were interested because it was something that they either
thought was an impossible task, or had always wanted to do, but never had the
chance. People are always interested in
others who do something they think is impossible, or that they would never be
able to do. I had to accept that they
wanted to know more about me and that I had to tell them something.
I had spent so much time thinking of ways to promote my book.
I had never given a thought to promoting
myself. I didn’t have an interesting bio
line for my book because I didn’t think I was all that interesting. It dawned on me that authors could be as
interesting as their book. People want
to know how you accomplished your dream.
They want to know how you managed to do something they have never done
before. That’s where the Author Question
& Answer becomes important.
Wow! How Did You Ever Manage to Write a Book? Taking the time to create questions that
people might be interested in and crafting an honest and interesting answer is
important for writers to do. Our books
go off into the world and we never interact with most of the people reading
them. One way to interact with them is
set up a Q&A on your blog, or your website so that people can learn more
about you, especially if you are creating a series and want readers to become
more familiar with you and your work.
I started off with basic questions for my Q&A, questions
that I had been asked by people I knew.
“What inspired you to
write a book?”
“Why did you decide
to write this genre?”
“How long have you
been writing?”
“How did you manage
to find time to write a book and publish it?”
“How did you come
with the idea for the book?”
These are just some examples of questions that seemed to
come up over and over again. At first, I
really didn’t have an answer for them because I never dwelled on it. After I thought about the questions, I still
didn’t know what to say because I had always been quiet about my writing. I never thought I would have to plaster my
life story on a billboard. I could talk all day long about my characters and my
story, but I’m just the shy girl sitting in front of her computer writing down
the stories in her imagination. Who
cares about me and what I do aside from writing? I realized that by learning about me, as the
author, they might glean some insight into how they might accomplish their own
goals. “If she could do it, I could do
it!” Other people were just surprised
that they didn’t know me as well as they had thought.
Talking about yourself can be tough for some people, so it’s
best to have some kind of a prepared answer so that you don’t come off sounding
like a babbling moron. You are a writer,
for goodness sake, so sound like you know how to string two sentences
together. Think about these questions
and be prepared to give people a glimpse into your world and your imagination. Your answer doesn’t have to be long, but it
should give the reader something to take away with them.
How Did You Create That
Character? Once you have down the
basic answers about you and why you are writing, you will need to tackle more
difficult questions for your Q&A.
You will have to answer questions about your books, but in reference to
you writing about the books. You have
already given your book blurb and your readers already know the plot and the
fact that the villain dies, but now they want to know what it was like to write
their favorite book, or their favorite scene, or their favorite character. Now you have the write the Book Q&A.
The Book Q&A isn’t about the how your main character is
destined to end the world; it’s about how you came up with the concept. What made you write about her? Your readers are curious about your writing
process and why you made certain decisions.
These questions can be difficult to tackle because most likely you were
writing and the idea came to you and wrote it down. Now you have to explain your decisions and satisfy
the reader’s curiosity about the story you wrote.
Here are some basic questions:
What was the hardest
scene to write?
What’s your favorite
part of the book?
What was the
motivation for your main character to (do whatever he did)?
Who is your favorite character
to write for?
How did you come up
with these characters?
How do you give each
character their own personality and voice?
To answer these questions, think about them from the reader’s
perspective. They love your characters,
or hate the bad guys. They want to know
how their love story was created, or if you knew someone like him or her. Are any of the characters based on someone
you know? When readers have an emotional
response to your book or characters, they want to know more about them. They want to feel closer to them and make
them more real, beyond the pages of the book.
There are even role-playing sites set for books and characters. Just because you wrote the characters doesn’t
mean they will stay yours forever. Readers
will want to experience them in different kinds of way. Give them what they want and make them fall
in love with your stories.
I’m So Excited for
the Next Book! If you are planning
to write a series, or already have one in the works, don’t let your readers
down. Give them a taste of what is to
come. If they fell in love with your
book, then odds are they are clamoring for information about the next one. Will their favorite character live or
die? Who will the main character chose
the farmhand or the rich lawyer? Will
they get married? Teaser Q&As are
even more important because they whet the appetite of your insatiable reader
and give them something to look forward to.
Give them just enough information that they will mark the date on their
phone so that they can preorder the next book the moment it’s available.
Teaser questions will be more tailored to your book, but
leave your answers vague or open ended, with just enough information to drive
the reader nuts. The questions are
specific to your plot line, but answer them as the writer.
Q: Will she finally make a decision on who she will chose?
A: “Annie” has a lot of things she needs to consider when it
comes to these two guys. One loves her
with all his heart, but has his flaws, the other is the better man for her, but
can she love him? Annie will have to
tough road ahead of her in the “Title of the next book”. (You
don’t have to tell the reader whether or not the decision will be made until
book 3, but you can help progress the story)
Q: He was captured/injured/missing, will they find him/will
he die in this book?
A: The last we saw of “Derick” he was in bad shape. We will see more of him the “Title of the
next book”, but he will face a lot of challenges. He will have to bargain for his life, if he
decides that he wants to live. (Tease
them with possible scenarios, or give them a vague description of what will
happen to Derick, but leave enough room for readers to worry about him. Make them HAVE to read the next book to make
sure that their favorite character lives or dies.)
Teaser questions can make or break the excitement of the
pending book, so work on it until there is enough suspense for readers to want
to dive into the next book.
What Do You Find
Interesting about My Book? If you
don’t know what to ask, then let your readers decide what to ask. Ask for feedback and open the floor up to
them. Create a form for them to ask the
questions they are dying to know. Use a forum
like Goodreads.com where you can allow readers to ask their questions through
the site. You can direct them there and
set the questions for daily, weekly, or for a specific time. You can answer just the questions you want or
ignore strange ones. Once you have your
questions, you can repost them on your own sites.
Creating and answering these questions will take time, but
they are worth it in the end. They are
yet another way of promoting your books, especially when you can’t be there
personally to answer the questions. Read
through your answers from a reader’s perspective to make sure that your answers
are interesting, but still leave something to their imagination. Go back and change up the questions once the
next book comes out so that there is always fresh information for your readers
to absorb. Have fun with the answers,
but give them something that they will share with their friends who also love
your book!
Click here to see how I handled my Q&A's on my site.
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