My Dirty Little Secret — And 5 Ways to Beat Your Fear of Interviewing Sources
A couple of students in my current Write for Magazines class (next one starts Jan. 9!) have told me that they’re dreading the interview portion of the class, where they find and interview experts to add credibility to their queries.
Here’s where I reveal my dirty little secret: I don’t like interviews, either. By my very rough estimate I’ve done more than 2,000 interviews since 1997, and I still get a little bit of stage fright before each one.
I don’t share this to discourage you, but to let you know that even if you’re afraid of doing interviews, you can get through them and make a great living as a freelance writer. And believe me — the fear becomes much less intense over time.
Here are some of my tips for beating the fear:
1. Come clean.
If I’m interviewing someone on a topic that I don’t feel confident about, I usually just come right out and admit it to break the ice. I say something like, “I’m a newbie to this topic, and most of my readers will be too, so I apologize if some of my questions seem elementary.” I did that just today when interviewing an economist about the Profit Per Employee metric (don’t ask). Zap — tension broken!
2. Be prepared.
Even though I’ve done thousands of these, I never go into an interview without a list of questions. The trick is to write questions that will garner the info you need to bolster your idea and fill in any gape you have in your research. And don’t worry about writing down every single question you can possibly think of asking; write down the main ones and leave room in the conversation to ask questions on the fly. That way, it will be more of a normal conversation than an interrogation.
3. Don’t have an all-or-nothing attitude.
Many writers are afraid that they’ll mess up the interview, not get the info they need, and be stuck. Take heart: If you miss something, you can always go back for more. I like to ask at the end of every interview, “Is it okay if I get back in touch if questions come up as I’m writing this article?” Every single source has said yes — no exceptions. And I often do go back to them with a couple more questions.
4. Remember, sources are people too.
In 14 years I have never, ever (and I mean ever) had an interviewee make fun of me, hang up on me, or otherwise be a jerk. Now, I have had difficult sources like Run-On Ralphs and Product Pluggers, but there are ways to handle them.
5. Read these posts.
Diana and I have posted other tips in the past for helping writers beat their interview fear and get the quotes they need. Do check them out!
Bust My Excuse: I’m Afraid of Interviewing!
Are You a Phone-Phobic Freelancer?
Bust My Excuse: I Don’t Know How to Find Experts — Or Make Them Talk!
How to Deal with Difficult Interviewees
Are you afraid of interviewing? How does it affect your writing career? What have you done about it? Post your experiences in the Comments below! [lf]
If you liked that post, you might also like:
Nov 10, 2011 Advice, Interviewing
For “Be Prepared”, something I do when transition to a question I’ve prepared is bring up something the source has mentioned. For example, if I’m interviewing someone about their service or latest product, and have a question about its benefits, I could say something like, “I know you said that Product X saves people time, but what other benefits do people get from it?” It shows that you’re paying attention while having the conversation run smoothly.
Great tip, Allison! I do the same thing so it doesn’t feel like I’m just interrogating the source with a barrage of disconnected questions.
What a timely post. I’ve been trying to contact sources for quickie factoid questions. Two were fabulous (and I will keep them in mind for future feature story sources, others are not returning my phone calls (ack!) and the deadline is inexorably drawing nigh, while the last refused to offer any advice unless he agreed to the magazine caption layout AND got paid for his time. Um, no.
However, when I source experts through HARO, Profnet, or other associations, these people WANT to talk with me. They want to talk with me so much that they start spamming me with press releases about anything and everything they do. It’s almost as bad as Facebook, sometimes. But to be fair, I am giving them exposure, helping them market their books, talk shows, etc.. I’d probably do the same.
On the other hand, if you are an investigative reporter, I can understand the concerns because most of these sources are not quite so excited to see you.
Yes, exactly Gwynneth. I find that for the vast majority of stories I write, the sources are *happy* I’m calling and talking to them. Often, the published article is something they can use as a bit of publicity.
Even when I was in college and doing some (college-paper level) investigative reporting for the school paper (the guy in charge of the university’s IT department abruptly resigned and there were *tons* of rumors, so I went digging), I found the vast majority of people were really nice to me. Several of them gave me information I never would have thought they’d given me.
It wasn’t exactly “60 Minutes,” but I did find out a lot of information that I was able to put into the article.
As for people who want to be paid for their time or approve the layout, etc., all I can say is that some people are just clueless.
Yeah, I have never had someone ask to be paid for an interview but it’s happened to other writers I’ve known. It’s usually pretty easy to dump them and find someone who has a clue.
Yeah, chasing after sources is one of the hardest parts of this career! Even when someone might be excited to talk to you, they could be on vacation, busy, sick, etc. Nailing down sources can be difficult, which is why I always do that FIRST thing when I get an assignment.
Ha ha, spammed press releases! I always ask to be removed from their lists. After 14 years of full-time freelancing, there is exactly ONE PR firm I accept press releases from.
You’ve never had a source be a jerk? Jeez, I’ve been called illiterate and other names, and I’m not even that annoying a journalist. I guess it’s just a matter of degrees.
Nope! I’ve had some difficult interviews, but no one has ever been a jerk to me.
I’ve had a few sources act like jerks to me. But I’ve been doing this a long time, and statistically it had to happen! It’s rare, though. Which is good.
I don’t really get nervous about interviewing people anymore because I have done it for so long. But I DO get nervous about pinning down the right people to interview. For example, I’m working on an article right now and I cannot get anyone to call me back or email me back, and I’m starting to get panicky. It will be a welcome relief to actually get to do the interviews. (Please, God, please let them return my calls…)
Ugh, I hate it when I’m on a tight deadline and no one is getting back to me. You never know…sometimes I hear back from everyone right away, and sometimes it seems like everyone decided to go on an extended vacation at the same time (maybe together?).
This week was the first time I ran into a real jerk. Most of the time though, my ‘challenged’ sources include either Blabbermouth Bill or Reticent Rita
And not to keep kicking a dead horse here (ugh, who comes up with these metaphors anyway?) but another thing I’ve painfully discovered about sources is that I must have one or two backups in case the main ones flake out–and sometimes they do flake out after you set up the interview time.
Oh yeah, that’s a great piece of advice: always have back-up sources. If you think you’ll need three quoted sources in an article, call five. Just in case.
I stink at that…when I get a source interested in an article, I like to do my best to make sure they appear in it. So I’m afraid to call 5 sources in case all 5 agree to an interview and then I have to tell two of them I don’t need them after all. This does happen once in a while when I’m on a tight deadline and the sources always understand, but I still hate it!
These are all great tips – and not just for interviews! I don’t do a lot of magazine writing, but I frequently write white papers and case studies that require discovery and conversation with third party experts. The same suggestions hold true for those discussions (which can also be kinda intimidating!). Thanks for sharing Linda.
Yes, phone fear permeates ALL types of writing!
I’d love to see a whole post on dealing with Run-On Ralphs!
Then I’d be a Run-On Ralph!
I am actually kind of a shy person, so I still get nervous right before an interview (10 years later and it never goes away). You’re right in that you never know what to expect. One thing that helps me is I try to remind myself that, for the most part, people like to tell their stories. They like being asked questions, and are usually flattered by someone wanting their opinion. I’ve never encountered someone who accepted an interview only to be a jerk about it.
That’s so true! People are usually THRILLED to talk about what they do.