In the meantime, Jonathan Strahan tweeted the formula (thanks!) to estimating word count when you don't have a computer: "Count 1 page. 6 chars (inc spaces) = word. No of words per line X lines per page." (I was inquiring how to determine if a story was a novelette.)
Here are some valid criticisms against email interviews (and I'll accept responsibility for the second one):
"I HATE doing email "interviews" (I ask 10 1-sentence q's, you do 10 essays, I get to put my name on it, OK?) That's a (bad) questionnaire" - Cory DoctorowZen photo (and pun) for the day courtesy of Librarian.net (who in turn got it from the Howe Library):
"If you are going to conduct an email interview, do the questions one at a time to allow for follow-ups, as the 'silent interview' technique when accompanied by some level of ignorance of the subject simply makes the interviewer seem like an amateur." - Nick Mamatas
Interviews
- The World SF News Blog (in this case, me) interviews Ashok Banker.
- The Book Show interviews China Mieville (podcast).
- Cory Doctorow at Internet Librarian International 2009 (video).
- 42SciFi-Fantasy interviews Lavie Tidhar.
- Mihai interviews Mark S. Deniz.
- Rick Kleffel interviews Max Brooks (podcast).
- Larry Nolen interviews Jeff VanderMeer.
- Jeff VanderMeer interviews Bill Schafer.
- Stomping on Yeti interviews Vandana Singh.
- William Morris interviews John Brown.
- Seattle Geekly interviews SteamCon participants including author Tim Powers (podcast).
- David Steffen interviews J.W. Schnarr.
- Adam Elkus and Crispin Burke on Speculative Fiction and National Security (PDF).
- Cory Doctorow on Doctorow's Project: With a Little Help.
- Jim C Hines on Why Doesn’t She Leave?
- Lionel Shriver on I sold my family for a novel.
- Penelope Trunk on The Internet has created a generation of great writers.
- Michael Stackpole on Resisting Temptation.
- Shawn Speakman on Importance of the Writing Space.
- Jaymee Goh on There is Totally Punk in Steampunk.
- Kassia Krozser on Moving Beyond Catch Phrases.
- Steven Harper Piziks on Writers Groups: Submitting Those Words.
- Rachelle Gardner on The Exclamation Point!!!
- Check out (and bookmark) the Booklife site.
- Joe Haldeman “Band of Brothers” Update.
- FTC Attorney Says Guidelines Not Aimed at Individual Bloggers.
The Secret History of Science Fiction edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
3 comments:
I do my interviews in somewhat the same manner as prescribed by Mr. Mamatas. While I don't send my questions one at a time, I will often email followup questions in a second email... it simply comes closer to approaching the give and take of a real interview. Plain ol' common sense, really.
I agree that follow-up questions are a good thing, and make an email interview more interactive.
I've had a phone interview that went awry also. a 1 sentence question became a 20 minute answer, no joke. Also, my audio recording program on my phone is sub-par, so transcribing anything of significant length is a huge pain.
If it weren't for these things, I'd rather do a phone interview anyway--I like to hear the other person's voice.
1) The follow-up question wouldn't have helped in the interview in question.
2) I do send follow-up questions when the need arises but rarely.
3) It depends on the response time of the interviewee. When I get a 6-month response time, maybe waiting for the answers to the follow-up question will take as long.
4) Yeah, phone interviews are better as you can sense how it's going based on the tone. But I live in the Philippines so that's usually out of the question, and home Internet is erratic which rules out Skype.
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