One Question Interviews

Yesterday was my day to blog at SF Novelists.  This time I talk about the ups and downs of starting a new novel: That New Manuscript Smell.

Some of you might have seen this already, but Nnedi Okorafor’s My Response to District 419 — I mean District 9 is very much worth reading.  Go.  I’ll wait.

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Five weeks until The Mermaid’s Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] comes out.  Anxious?  Me?  Not at all.  I always spend this much time Googling for pre-release reviews.

I’ve also been trying to figure out how best to promote the release online.  I’ve talked about writers and promotion a fair amount over the years.  It’s always a balancing act between wanting to sell the book and getting so obnoxious you just turn people away.  Some lines are pretty clear cut.  Others less so.

For a while, some of the SF Novelists group were doing interviews to be posted when one of us had a new book out.  I did this with Stepsister, and looking back, I don’t think that worked too well.  Authors interviewing other authors can be effective, if it’s a good interview.  But in this case you still ended up with the same interview being posted multiple times all over the place, and I suspect that got old quick.

I wonder how many people even read these lengthy interviews.  Maybe if it’s a big name like Terry Pratchett, but how many of you actually read author interviews from random midlisters?

So here’s the deal.  I’m going to try the interview thing again, but we’re doing it differently this time.  You’re all invited to play along, but you only get one question.  You can ask anything you’d like, serious or silly.  Just make that question count.

What I ask is that you post your question and my answer on October 6 when Mermaid comes out.  If you want to say a little about Mermaid or Stepsister, that’s wonderful, but not required.  The only requirement is that you link back to the index of questions.  (I’ll provide that URL.)

Questions should be sent to mermaid@jimchines.com any time between now and 10/2/09.  I’ll answer every question I receive.  (Please note that I’m not guaranteeing a serious answer to every question.)

What do you think?  I’m hoping this will lead to a lot of fun and interesting posts without being overwhelming or repetitive.  I could always toss in a free book for a random participant, or let people vote on the best question?  Maybe a copy of Strip Mauled, which should be coming out the week before?