A month after my book came out, I was honored to be asked for an interview by a blogger who is also an author. She interviewed me privately through Facebook. She asked several questions which I promptly responded and her
final piece about my freshly published novel turned out beautifully. I was
very impressed and
very pleased.
When another blogger happened to request the same, I obliged, but his questions were a bit distorted. I assumed it was because his first language was not English. He approached me as if my book was
romance. I told him immediately that it was hardly a romantic story and questioned if he had read my book; he replied that he had read
excepts through my blog. I was a
little hesitant but figured it would be just fine, so he sent me questions and I answered them.
Within 24 hours I was given the opportunity to read what he already made public. It was a copy paste blog of my answers to his questions. There was little editing and it read a bit unbalanced. I was distraught... And upset at myself more than at him for not thinking this interview through. The big clue was when he mentioned he had not
fully read my book.
I don't know if the first blogger read my book or not, but she covered all the basics, was professional, and did an excellent job. The second blogger did not put enough effort (in my opinion) to construct a well written piece. At one point during questioning, he kept calling me Martina; I promptly mentioned that my literary name is
ElenaMartina, first and middle names
together, but it seemed to not matter... On his published piece he still referred to me as Martina.
Afterwards and privately, I mentioned his lack of attention but there was nothing I could do. The interview was out and already getting attention from
his Facebook readers, some liked it, and some were interested in my book. A day later, he re-wrote his piece to accommodate my earlier inquiries, but the new piece was hardly better, so I thanked him for trying and for his time and effort.
If I seem ungrateful, I am not. I am happy that a blogger across the ocean took an interest in my book and allocated time to interview me. The lesson I learned was to be more patient and be careful as to who I interview with when dealing with foreign markets. My book is a product and as such, an interview done well helps sales. As writers, we should specially pay attention to interviewers who may not be fully bilingual in our language as it might cause problems in translation or viewpoints. I am happy to say that his interview drew the attention of a German blogger who asked to translate it in German. Although I was pleased to see that, one wanders where this could lead and hope it does well when done properly.
ElenaMartina.
Writing "The End" on the last page of your novel really translates into the beginning of taking yourself serious as public persona, becoming a salesperson, learning about marketing, showing up as presenter, or speaker, a writing instructor, and the list goes on until we run out of clever ideas. Our work plus editing process can, and will, sometime take years (my novel Clinging to Deceit took almost 2 1/2 years before it was published) but it all doesn't end there.
