AWA Tour Book Review & Video Interview Project

Goal: To create more professional visibility for books by and about Latinos.

Objective: Ensure that quality information about your book is presented in a minimum of 8 different ways.

STEP ONE – sign up for the program (AWA and ISLA members only)

Empowering Latino Futures will review all participating AWA interested in this program and make assignments of who will be reviewing your book. We will take into account the language of the book and the target audience of the book. Please realize we may not find an appropriate interviewer for all books.

STEP TWO – Interviews and Reviews get done

What each participating author needs to do:

Provide the assigned reviewer a copy of your book.
Provide the reviewer with a set of ‘Talking Points’ and sample questions. (see a sample below from Sandra Elaine Scott)
Make yourself available for a video interview.
Provide a headshot photo, a photo of you speaking or in action of some sort, and the cover of the book. DO NOT slant the cover photo – just a pdf or jpeg of the cover.
Do the interview and write the review in a timely manner – six to eight weeks in most cases.

Video Interviews

The ideal interview is probably 7 to 15 minutes. We want to learn enough for us to care about the person being interviewed and their book. We do not want to learn ‘uncomfortable’ things. If they’ve done more than one book, bring it up – and the interviewee should hold up the book (just don’t oversell – please). Be sure to talk about more than the book. Cultural insights, work experiences, where they live… Make the viewer CARE.

Items to include in each book review:

A brief interview with the author of the book you are reviewing.
The age group, if appropriate, that the book is aimed at.
Title: The title should not be more than around 7 words. You can have a subtitle. The articles TITLE is it’s sales piece so the title MUST sell the book. We reserve the right, as do the places the article might run, to change the title of a review.
They should be 250 to 500 words in length.
The book review is then the highlights of the interview combined with your insights on the book.

STEP THREE – Get the Interviews and Articles out

Each video interview we approve will run:

On a national news service with distribution via 4 of the 5 largest internet media outlets.
On the Latino Reads website.
Can run on your website and you can send it to others.

Each review that we approve will run:

On a national news service with distribution via 4 of the 5 largest internet media outlets.
Will be posted on Amazon.
In Hispanic Marketing 101 or another of our eNewsletters.
On the Latino Reads website.
Can run on your website and you can send it to others.
You can use quotes for the article in your marketing efforts and on future editions of your book.

Questions for authors:

Length: The perfect length for these interviews is 7 to 15 minutes.

Language: Interviews can be in English or Spanish. For books in Spanish it make sense to do the interview in Spanish. For books in Portuguese the interviews can be in Portuguese or English.

Below are sample questions: You can use them and/or alter them for your own use. There are dozens of other sample questions for you to choose, or you can come up with your own.

1. How did you get started writing?

2. Would you please tell us a bit about the work you are being honored for?

3. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

4. Anything else you would like to tell our audience?

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing (name) author of (title)
Hi (name), thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
What were you like at school?
Were you good at English?
What are your ambitions for your writing career?

Which writers inspire you?

So, what have you written?
(*Include books, novellas, short stories, poems, blogs, awards or anything of interest.)
Where can we buy or see them? (* include American, European and any other relevant links. Free, free promotions or prices can be included)
Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special?

What are you working on at the minute?

What’s it about? (*if relevant)
What genre are your books?
What draws you to this genre?
Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from your most recent book?
How much research do you do?
Have you written any other novels in collaboration with other writers?
Why did you do decide to collaborate and did that affect your sales?
When did you decide to become a writer?
Why do you write?
What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Do you write full-time or part-time?
Do you have a special time to write or how is your day structured?
Do you write every day, 5 days a week or as and when?
Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?
Do you write on a typewriter, computer, dictate or longhand?
Where do the your ideas come from?
Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
What is the hardest thing about writing?
What was the hardest thing about writing your latest book?
What is the easiest thing about writing?

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

Do you ever get writer’s Block?
Any tips on how to get through the dreaded writer’s block?
If this book is part of a series, tell us a little about it?
What are your thoughts on writing a book series.
Do you read much and if so who are your favorite authors.
For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or traditional paper/hard back books?
What book/s are you reading at present?
Do you proofread/edit all your own books or do you get someone to do that for you?
Do you let the book stew – leave it for a month and then come back to it to edit?
Who edited your book and how did you select him/her?
Tell us about the cover/s and how it/they came about.
Who designed your book cover/s?
Do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process?
What would you say are the main advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing against being published or the other way around?
How do you market your books?
Why did you choose this route?
Would you or do you use a PR agency?
Do you have any advice for other authors on how to market their books?
What part of your writing time do you devote to marketing your book?
What do you do to get book reviews?
How successful has your quest for reviews been so far?
Do you have a strategy for finding reviewers?
What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?
Any amusing story about marketing books that happened to you?
What’s your views on social media for marketing?
Which social network worked best for you?
Any tips on what to do and what not to do?
Did you do a press release, Goodreads book launch or anything else to promote your work and did it work?
Did you get interviewed by local press/radio for your book launch?
Is there any marketing technique you used that had an immediate impact on your sales figures?
Did you make any marketing mistakes or is there anything you would avoid in future?
Why do you think that other well written books just don’t sell?
What do you think of “trailers” for books?
Do you have a trailer or do you intend to create one for your own book/s?
(* please provide a link to trailer if you have one)
Do you think that giving books away free works and why?
How do you relax?
What is your favorite motivational phrase.
What is your favorite positive saying?
What is your favorite book and why?
What is your favorite quote?
What is your favorite film and why?
Where can you see yourself in 5 years time?
What is your favorite movie and why?
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?
If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Where do you see publishing going in the future?
Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t included?
How can readers discover more about you and you work?
Did you format your own book?
In what formats is your book available?
If formatted by someone else, how did you select them and what was your experience?
How are you publishing this book and why?
(*e.g. Indie, traditional or both)
How do you relax?
What is your favorite motivational phrase.
What is your favorite positive saying?
What is your favorite book and why?
What is your favorite quote?
What is your favorite film and why?
Where can you see yourself in 5 years time?
What is your favorite movie and why?
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?
If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Where do you see publishing going in the future?
Is there anything else you would like to add that I haven’t included?
How can readers discover more about you and you work?