Interview Questions You DON'T Want To Answer

[Chris Adams]

Imagine you're about to take part in an interview on a popular radio show or podcast, what would be your list of questions you wouldn't want to answer. I'm not necessarily looking for outrageous questions, but I'm open to hear all sorts.


(Chris Adams www.websitesforauthors.net)

[Gladys Hobson]

That's a difficult one to answer for a start! I'm a very open person. Perhaps questions that should not be asked concerning other people's lives. Questions that require a straight yes or no, since things are seldom black and white. And I don't expect that will help you one little bit!

[Chris Adams]

@ Gladys
Thanks for the input, they were indeed helpful. The Yes/No question comment reminded me of an interview I watched with the singer of the band Coldplay, a majority of his answers were either yes or no, and I couldn't tell if he just didn't want to be there, or if the interviewer needed to revise his list of questions.

-Chris Adams (www.websitesforauthors.net)

[Tamara Hughes]

I'm curious as to why this question has come up. Typically I didn't think you could control the questions asked.

But, the questions I don't care for are those about other authors and those that put me on the defensive. I recently took part in a radio interview for a writing contest I was in. The purpose of this interview was hopefully to get people to vote for my book in the contest. A couple of questions that I didn't particularly care for included: What do you think of your opponent's book? This is a catch-22 question. If I say anything negative about my opponent, I look bad, and I don't like saying bad things about people anyway. If I say anything good, suddenly the focus is off of my book.

A second question was what is the difference between your type of novel (romance) and soft porn. No kidding. That was actually asked. I found myself trying not to sound defensive, while still defending my book and the romance genre in general. Not fun.

[Chris Adams]

@ Tamara
Thanks for your reply! Your response explains perfectly why I posed this question. Depending on the interviewee and the purpose of the interview, there are certain questions that are irrelevant and disrespectful (as in the case of your "soft porn" question). The goal of any interview should be to provide unique insight for the listeners/viewers. In the case of author interviews I'm interested in the author's inspiration, what character they had the most fun writing about, etc.

-Chris Adams (www.websitesforauthors.net)

[Susan Whitfield]

On a LIVE radio show, I was asked why I wrote about a Testicle Festival in my book, Just North of Luck. My response: "I thought it would be fun to play with." Many snickers followed over the wire.

[Chris Adams]

;) I wonder what kind of response the interviewer was looking for.



-Chris Adams (websitesforauthors.net)

[Susan Whitfield]

Well, a good question, Chris. We were discussing the book, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina where there is no Testicle Festival, as far as I know. So the question is legitimate. I borrowed the tradition from the Rockies to add a little humor to an otherwise intense novel. I did comment on the air that I wrote a disclaimer in the front of the book that I really DID know that no festival of this kind exists in North Carolina. It was a funny scene in the book and I quite often get questions about it. I try to address it with humor. I suppose it does help readers remember my book.