My first interview

As I mentioned in a previous post, I sent out half a dozen Press Releases two weeks ago to various Australian newspapers in the hope that some cub reporter might get tossed a bone and do a write up on my book. I leant heavily on the fact that it was a romance story set in Canberra, Australia’s capital, which not synonymous with anything remotely romantic or fun. Although we do have a suburb called “Swinger Hill” which causes much titillation amongst new Canberrans.

So was a little surprised and also panicked when, late one Friday I received an invitation from a local radio station to come into the studio to do an interview. My panic stemmed less from having to talk about the book in detail to professional interviewers live on the air and more from the fact that I had chosen a female pseudonym, Audrey Horne, as my author’s identity.

I initially thought that I should duck the interview and make up some excuse – travel or something involving illness – as to why I couldn’t attend. Attend something I’d asked for.

And that was the crux, I wanted publicity and I was about to fall at the first hurdle. With the realisation that this interview may be the only publicity I ever get I emailed the station back telling that I would come in and talk.

Then the real panic started. I suddenly had to talk about the book I had been working on for five months in front of potentially thousands of people. What if I froze up? What if I didn’t know some critical detail? What if they were hostile?

I eventually found some time to myself and did a long walk up a local mountain to think about what I was going to say. I decided that I needed to explain why I had chosen a female pseudonym; what the book was about; what had motivated me to write it; and what was my day job. Once I had answers to all those questions straight in my head I relaxed.

To my delight ALL of those questions came up and I was ready. The interview was fun, and I would definitely do it again.

I intended to post the interview here, but the station has not sent me a copy yet.