101 Interview Questions to Ask an Author

Interviewing an author can be fun. It helps you as a reviewer get followers, and it helps authors get more readers. A big problem has grown over the last few years. Interviewers keep asking the same questions over and over.

As authors move from one interviewer to another, the same questions get repeated. If I followed on specific interviewer, I would start to get bored as they have the same cache of questions they give each author. Needless to say, I start to ignore them all because I’ll just hear the same old things.

Let me take one step back. It is good to have a list of questions to pull from. Sometimes we are frazzled and have trouble getting ideas on what to ask. There is nothing wrong with having a list of questions to help us or even to prompt our minds to come up with something even better.

When interviewing an author, please read their book ahead of time. I’ve made that mistake several times and regretted it. If you read the book, you can discover more questions to ask that will actually get a potential reader interested in buying the book. Talk about the book and try to avoid the generic questions.

Yes, the questions I have listed could be considered generic, but I have added quite a few that many interviewers don’t ask. Also, the intent is to assist you and spoon feed you. Use these to inspire you for more questions that are unique and entertaining. Remember that you are doing this to entertain and to help gain followers for you and readers for the author.

The following are the list of jumpstart questions for you. Enjoy and have fun as you do this.

1. Tell us about your book.
2. Where did the idea for your book come from?
3. Who is your favorite character?
4. How long did it take you to write the book?
5. When did you realize you wanted to write books?
6. Where do you get ideas for scenes?
7. How often do you get to write?
8. If you could pick actors for your characters for a movie who would play which character?
9. What are you working on now?
10. Best advice to give new writers.
11. Best writing tip received.
12. What was the biggest challenge you faced while writing this book?
13. Describe the room you are in right now as though it was a scene in your book.
14. If you could change your main character’s name to someone you know, what would it be and why?
15. What caused you to choose the setting for the book?
16. What writing mistakes do you make over and over?
17. Tell us the good and the bad about your editor.
18. What was the hardest scene to write?
19. How similar is your main character to you?
20. What was the best ‘bad’ review you received?
21. How were the battles between yourself and your muse?
22. What kind of research did you have to do?
23. What are your thoughts on self publishing/traditional publishing?
24. How do you combat writer’s block?
25. Does writing ever get boring for you?
26. What books do you read?
27. Who is your favorite author?
28. How do you balance life with your writing?
29. Were any of your characters based on real people?
30. How did you choose the names for the characters in your book?
31. How does your family feel about you being a writer?
32. What drives you?
33. Which author do you consider a role model?
34. What words do you have the hardest time spelling?
35. Using an acrostic, take the title of your book and describe yourself as a writer.
36. If could meet anyone famous, who would it be and why?
37. What genre are you hesitant to write in?
38. Confess which words you misspell the most.
39. What is the best tool you have found to help you with your writing?
40. How hard was it to write about (difficult topic)?
41. Sum up your writing process.
42. How do you handle negative reviews?
43. Outline story or not?
44. Describe the relationship with your muse.
45. Where do you write that people would be surprised to know?
46. What one secret would people not think would apply to you?
47. Do you get bored giving interviews?
48. What do you struggle with the most about marketing?
49. What is the hardest lesson you have learned trying to get people to read your book?
50. Describe your swag and how you use it.
51. What do you wish you had been told before you became a writer?
52. What book(s) have you read more than once?
53. Titles of books. Are they are hard for you to come up with?
54. Do you struggle more with characters or setting?
55. How much description is enough?
56. What is your reaction when you walk into a bookstore?
57. What genre do you feel drawn to when you want to read and feel down?
58. Describe a typical day in your life as you fit your writing in.
59. Do you get ideas for your stories when you are public places?
60. Do you set deadlines for yourself when you are writing?
61. What mistakes do you see other writers making over and over?
62. Confess your writing quirks.
63. Describe the perfect library you could build in your house.
64. If you could be a character in a book turned into a movie, who would it be and why?
65. How do you go about improving your writing?
66. What is the best marketing tip you have received?
67. Did you have a mentor?
68. What book changed your life or greatly influenced you?
69. Was there one event in your life that has changed how you view the world?
70. How were you as a student in school?
71. How many drafts do you work on before submitting to your editor?
72. Do you get attached to your words?
73. How many stories do you have going on at the same time?
74. Did any characters become bigger than you had anticipated?
75. How do you react when the story goes in a totally different direction?
76. Did you take any writing classes?
77. Where have you gotten the most writing ideas from?
78. Where would you move to if money was no object?
79. What was the highest compliment you ever got in regards to your writing?
80. What did you want to be when you grew up?
81. What were you like as a kid?
82. What was the most interesting place you ever visited?
83. You walk into a bookstore. What is the first section you go to?
84. What is your guilty pleasure?
85. You are given the chance to have all your favorite dishes at one meal. What are they?
86. What is the biggest marketing mistake you made?
87. How often do you read your old works?
88. How do you get the settings so well described?
89. What is the key to character development?
90. What is your biggest writing weakness?
91. Your character has to make a decision on whether to save one person or themselves. Which would they choose?
92. What would be your character’s favorite board game and why?
93. How do you drop hints without giving too much away?
94. How hard is it for you to accept change?
95. Do you make handwritten notes?
96. How often do you get to have some free time?
97. What was your last vacation and did it inspire any stories?
98. What about you would people call weird?
99. What was the first job you ever had?
100. Tell us what you wish to see yourself as in five years.
101. If you had to give yourself a new name, what would it be?

Do you have ideas for more creative questions? Share them.