Quick Tips For Interviewing Book Authors On Your Podcast

I've had numerous authors on the Share Life podcast and I've developed a helpful process to prepare for a great interview.

First, I'll read the book. This is the key step.

While I'm reading the book, I'll underline and highlight things that stick out. For things that stick out the most, I'll mark in the margin with an asterisk. These asterisks are my interview bookmarks for the conversation.

​After I've finished reading the book, I'll go through all the sections with an asterisk and narrow them, and compile these ideas into a list in my Evernote.

This becomes the basis of my conversation. I'll throw in other ideas and questions that I'm interested in exploring as well. It's usually way more questions than we can cram into an interview but having more than enough questions is way better than not enough.

Ultimately, I'm following my curiosity, novel revelations, and value priorities. That which I want to understand at a deeper level and things I find as important are also threads I'll pursue.

Sometimes, I'll tie in other books, quotes, and ideas to enrich the question and context.

Another key to great interviews; be willing to throw some of the questions out the window if the conversation is flowing and you're running out of time to do them all. Consolidate, on the fly, down to the most important.

When you do use the questions, organically tether them to the current topic. Or, use a question to keep the conversation going when the energy dies down.

Also, another great benefit of this book interview preparation is that I've got my show notes prepared before the interview even starts, so I can easily include these details when I publish my podcast episode.