by Beth K. Vogt, @bethvogt

You write a novel … and the next thing you know, you’re doing radio interviews.

Okay, it doesn’t happen quite that fast. But when you’re sitting at home, waiting to go live on a radio interview, you can find yourself thinking, “They don’t talk about talking about your novel on the radio too often at writers conferences.”

We attend workshops about developing our characters. Our settings. Characters’ dialogue. How to pitch to editors and agents.

Radio interviews? Not so much.

To be honest, it’s more difficult for a novelist to land a radio interview nowadays – or so I’ve been told by folks in the know. But it does happen, so you need to be prepared.  Here are some helpful tips for a good radio interview:

1. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Utilize your Author Q&A developed by your publisher’s marketing department for your book release. Your media package, including the Q&A, should have been sent to the radio station, along with a copy of your book. The interviewer may or may not use some of the questions, but it helps to be prepared. Read over the questions and your answers, just in case. This is about being comfortable, not memorization – and keep a copy nearby during the interview.
2. Remember it’s not just about you. You’ll most likely be sent advanced information about the upcoming interview: day, time, whether you call into the station or they call you, if you’re using a landline or cell phone, and also a link to the radio program. That link? It’s gold! Use it to:
   1. listen to at least a partial segment of the program to introduce yourself to your interviewer’s personality.
   2. read your interviewer’s bio. You often find something that helps you connect with the interviewer on a personal level when you first say hello or during an advertising break.
3. Assume nothing. Your interviewer may have read your book – or not. They may go straight through your Author Q&A – or pick a theme from your book and go with that. A recent hour-long interview for Things I Never Told You, which centers on a secret one sister has kept from her family for 10 years,  focused on the question, “What can’t you talk to your sister about?” After one interviewer continually referred to specific pages in my novel whenever he asked questions, I always keep a copy of my book nearby.
4. Brief is always better.  We’re writers – we know how words count – and it’s true for radio interview too.
   1. Keep your intros brief. “I’ve been looking forward to talking with you” always works.
   2. Keep your answers to questions brief too. Respond. Let the interviewer react/reply and ask another question.
   3. Repeat the title of your book and your website – especially if your interviewer doesn’t – but don’t spam the interview.
   4. Be ready with a brief closing statement – a “what would you like our listeners to know” answer, which is often asked at the end of an interview.

Things I Never Told You by Beth K. Vogt

It’s been ten years since Payton Thatcher’s twin sister died in an accident, leaving the entire family to cope in whatever ways they could. No longer half of a pair, Payton reinvents herself as a partner in a successful party-planning business and is doing just fine—as long as she manages to hold her memories and her family at arm’s length.

But with her middle sister Jillian’s engagement, Payton’s party-planning skills are called into action. Which means working alongside her opinionated oldest sister, Johanna, who always seems ready for a fight. They can only hope that a wedding might be just the occasion to heal the resentment and jealousy that divides them . . . until a frightening diagnosis threatens Jillian’s plans and her future. As old wounds are reopened and the family faces the possibility of another tragedy, the Thatchers must decide if they will pull together or be driven further apart.

Includes discussion questions.

Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author and editor who said she’d never write fiction. She’s the wife of an Air Force family physician (now in solo practice) who said she’d never marry a doctor—or anyone in the military. She’s a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. Now Beth believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” Beth’s first women’s fiction novel for Tyndale House Publishers, Things I Never Told You, releases May 2018. Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. Her 2014 novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. A November Bride was part of the Year of Wedding Series by Zondervan. Having authored nine contemporary romance novels or novellas, Beth believes there’s more to happily-ever-after than the fairy tales tell us. An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Novel Rocket and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. She lives in Colorado with her husband Rob, who has adjusted to discussing the lives of imaginary people, and their youngest daughter, Christa, who loves to play volleyball and enjoys writing her own stories. Connect with Beth at bethvogt.com.