You Ask, We Answer: Snagging a Great Quote
Karen asks: “Do you have any questions that you always ask in a pre-interview with a source before a story? I’m thinking of pitching a profile piece on an outstanding human being I’ve come across who is willing to talk to me for an interview. I’m looking for the right open-ended written question that I can email him to get a quote worthy enough to put in my query that’ll make the editor bite.”
First: If you’re looking for a great quote for a profile, I don’t think you’ll get it through e-mail. If you’re looking for a quote on how much profit the cracker factory made in the third quarter, sure. But a quote from a profile subject that will have an editor reaching for the tissues — and her checkbook? Probably not.
On the phone, the question that elicits the best quotes for me is, “So how’s the weather out there?” I can start a phone call with a source who sounds like he’d rather be driving nails through his forehead than speaking with me, but after I ask that question I get five minutes of enthusiastic conversation about the rain in Seattle. Then, with the source sufficiently loosened up, we can get to the good stuff.
It doesn’t have to be a question about the weather. Any non-interview-type question that breaks the ice works fine. “How ’bout them Sox?” “Are you all set for Thanksgiving?” Once you get your source warmed up, he’ll be more likely to “give good quote.”
I also conferred with Diana on this question, and she said she gets the best quotes at the end of the interview. Just when you think the source is done talking, wait a few seconds. That’s when the best stuff is likely to come out, perhaps because the source no longer feels like an “interview subject” and now feels like a regular person again.
That said, I’m not the foremost interview expert on the planet. Readers: do you have a surefire question that works for e-mail queries? If so, please post them in the comments.
Got a question of your own? E-mail it to questions [at] therenegadewriter [dot] com. And FYI, I just found a couple of reader questions that were somehow stuck in a weird mailbox in my inbox, so forgive the delay — I’ll get to them in the next day or so![lf]
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Oct 31, 2006 Advice, You Ask, We Answer
this is pretty generic, but i like to say, anything else you want me to know before we get off the phone? there always is and they’re always good an loosened up at this point and happy to get on their soapbox. i feel like this is the point at which people show you their true values, passions, MOs, and whatnot.