How to win friends and sell books

[mollyringle]

What can an author--or any artist, really--do or say in a two-minute TV interview that would sway you into looking up his or her work?

I do not ask this question idly. Next week I'm due to get filmed by Art Zone, a local show that discovered me via the Bulwer-Lytton contest. They're now being kind enough to have me read the winning sentence and then promote whatever else I'd like to promote.

So, uh...eek! What do I say or do to charm the world? Or at least the local viewership? Ideas? And how do I make sure my hair will look okay?

(One thing I want to be sure to elucidate is the fact that I wrote the Bulwer-Lytton sentence to be bad intentionally, and that it is not the first line of any of my novels. You'd be surprised how many people don't grasp that.)

Comments

[astroman-rich.livejournal.com]

Is the show live or taped?

I think the main thing is simply to be cheerful and personable; I've seen two many interviews where the author acts like they don't want to be there, and that turns me off.

I presume they're going to introduce you and explain why you're there before they turn things over to you? If they explain the basis of the contest sufficiently, you probably don't want to reiterate it, lest you sound redundant.

Don't peg your current books into narrow categories, if at all possible.

Above all, get someone to tape it. :-)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thanks!
I'm pretty sure it's taped, so that takes some pressure off, certainly. Cheerfulness and having fun--good ideas as well. And that's a wise thought on not pigeonholing the books too much. That's why I usually say 'The Ghost Downstairs' is "a ghost story and a love story," rather than "paranormal romance," a term which makes lots of people go, "Huh?"

And it looks like they put the show on their site as streaming segments, so, hurrah!

[mariole.livejournal.com]

Be fascinating and interesting. Know fun facts that will intrigue your audience and deliver them well. You needn't even talk about the book, really. Expand upon it. You're selling yourself as an interesting person; that will sell the book.

Good luck!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Will think along the lines of interesting and fun sidetracks...hopefully she'll ask good leading questions too!

Thank you!

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

I think you should be relaxed. Don't be too serious. Don't have a shit eating grin but make sure it's obvious you smile at the drop of a hat :)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I think I already do the auto-grin thing, so that's covered. :) (See, even in emoticons!) Relaxing will surely come off best.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

What do I say or do to charm the world?

Don't. If you go on there with the idea that you MUST come up with something that will make someone buy your book, you'll almost certainly fail. Just speak about it as you normally would to anyone, and either the people watching will want to buy it or they won't. Be content with that.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I certainly don't want to come across as a *salesperson*. Ick. I may have to fall back on my usual position of being a goofball.

[naill-renfro.livejournal.com]

Don't worry - as soon as you get up there some jackass with designs shaved into his hair will grab the microphone and say...

Now I'm really happy for you, Molly, and I'ma let you finish, but Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, Privy Councilor and first Baron Lytton, had the worst opening sentence of all time -- Of All Time!

[Seriously, you could just say something like "I hope none of my *real* writing sounds like that...]

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Heheh--back during the week of media madness over the Bulwer-Lytton thing (there's pretty much been nothing between then and now), I talked to a couple of radio stations on the phone, and the on-air-personality guys did basically speak like that. Rather funny.

Luckily this is a friendly little woman who used to do sketch comedy, and is only a taping session rather than a live audience broadcast, so hopefully we can have something like an actual conversation!

[(Anonymous)]

This will be next week's highlight!

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