Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Be interviewed for the new Authors.com Spotlight Interviews series and featured on the homepage!

Good news! As a special feature for Authors.com members, we at Authors.com would like to give all you authors the chance to be interviewed. It will be a simple process and the questions are provided below. We created the SpotlightInterviews handle for this. Here's how it works:

Add SpotlightInterviews as a friend so you can send a PM (private message) to that handle.
PM your answers to the interview questions (see below) to SpotlightInterviews through your Inbox.
Add any single small image of your book you wish included to your PM.

We'll do our very best to feature you all in rotation on the front page of the site as time allows. Your interview Q & A will be included permanently on the Spotlight Interviews blog where we'll build a series of interviews. You can always promote it from that link.

It's easy! Simply copy/paste the questions into the PM and respond to them below each one as clearly and as in as much detail as you like. Take your time. Remember, the more interesting you make it, the more readers and comments you'll get. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to promote yourself and your book(s) free! All we ask is that you monitor your interview thread for any questions or comments and respond if necessary.

All of them can be found on the Spotlight Interview Blog here.

It's your responsibility to check the blog regularly for updates. We don't always have time to notify each and every one of you individually. And it's nice to read and comment on others. The more you do so, the more likely they will return the favor when yours is published.

DO NOT ADD YOUR COMPLETED Q & A TO THIS THREAD OR POST IT ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE SITE. This thread is for any general questions or feedback about the interview process only. We are using the private messaging system to gather interviews together in a structured fashion and to ensure that it's first come, first served. Please comply with that. Responses to the interview questions in this thread will be deleted. Send a PM only. Publicly displayed ones that have not been posted by a staff member on the Spotlight Interviews Blog will be removed. We do not want duplicate content nor queue jumping.

Here are the interview questions. Copy them, answer them and return them by PM.

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Q1: Thanks for participating in our Authors.com Spotlight Interview series! Please introduce yourself and your book to help our readers get to know you.
A:

Q2: Please explain how you came to be a writer, what inspired you to write your book(s) and how long it took.
A:

Q3: What did you enjoy most about creating this book?
A.

Q4: What facets of your life, both personal and professional, are woven into your book, if any?
A.

Q5. How did you get published?

Q6: Did you have any surprises or hiccups along the way during the book writing and/or publishing process?
A.

Q7: What one thing did you wish you'd known before you started this project?
A.

Q8: You're a fly on the wall when readers are discussing your book. What would you hope to hear them say about it?
A.

Q9: Tell us one thing about you that most people don't know or would surprise them.
A.

Q10: What single piece of advice would you give new authors?
A.

Q11: Share a short summary of a typical day in your life with us please.
A.

Q12: Describe where you do most of your writing. What would I see if I was sitting beside you?
A.

Q13: What's your motto or favorite quote you like to live by?

Q14: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us in closing such as your website, an imminent book launch or what you're working on presently?
A.

Authors.com profile:

Thanks for your time! Please share this Authors.com Spotlight Interview with friends and fans by linking to it, Tweeting it, Digging it, sharing it on Facebook and generally shouting about it anywhere you can. We'd ask fellow members to support you by doing the same.

Members, want to be interviewed too? It's free! Instructions are here: http://www.authors.com/forum/topics/be-interviewed-for-the-new

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Hope that's all clear! We look forward to helping you all shine a spotlight on your books. :)

IMPORTANT: PLEASE KEEP YOUR CHARACTER COUNT, INCLUSIVE OF THE FINAL PARAGRAPH WE ADD, UNDER 10,000 CHARACTERS. ANYTHING LARGER WON'T FIT IN A TEXT BOX.

ANY INTERVIEWS THAT DO NOT FOLLOW ALL THE ABOVE GUIDELINES WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. THAT INCLUDES FORMATTING ISSUES CAUSED BY YOUR LAYOUT AND TYPO-RIDDEN CONTENT. WE DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO PROOFREAD AND CORRECT YOUR INTERVIEW! COPY THE QUESTIONS INTO A SIMPLE PROGRAM LIKE NOTEPAD WHEN ANSWERING THEM AND DOUBLE CHECK IT PRIOR TO SUBMISSION. PUBLICATION DATES WILL VARY. INTERVIEWS ARE PUBLISHED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED BASIS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by kjforce on August 16, 2011 at 5:17pm

I too am having a problem sending a PM...sorry to hear about your Husband..thoughts are with you..tend to your priorities first and we'll still be here when you get back on track..respectfully..weedbychoice..kjforce

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Permalink Reply by kjforce on August 16, 2011 at 5:23pm

I too am having a tough time with the PM and sending...but..for now I can wait till you are back on track..sorry to hear of Husbands illness, take care of your priorities and we will still be here when you get back..thoughts are with you..weedbychoice..kjforce

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Permalink Reply by SpotlightInterviews on August 17, 2011 at 4:01am

Which is why the instructions say step 1 is to add me as a friend. Members need to have a little patience and wait until they are accepted before attempting to PM me. I'm not online 24/7.

No member can send any other member a PM without having already been accepted as a friend, period.

Amy Manemann said:

I'm pretty sure I'm doing this wrong but how do I send you a PM? Every time I try to click send a message it says I can't until you accept my friend request. Thanks!!

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Permalink Reply by SpotlightInterviews on August 17, 2011 at 4:22am

Thank you for your kind words, kjforce.

You were accepted as a friend ages ago and I have received other PM's from you recently so the problem lies with that particular message. The only reason the system wouldn't send your PM would be if your message is too long. That's already noted in the instructions at the bottom of the post.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE KEEP YOUR CHARACTER COUNT, INCLUSIVE OF THE FINAL PARAGRAPH WE ADD, UNDER 10,000 CHARACTERS. ANYTHING LARGER WON'T FIT IN A TEXT BOX.

I've already explained why that's needed in the comments on the first page of this thread. Here it is again for ease of reference.

Please keep your interview replies under a 10,000 character count. It's come to my attention that the interview PM's cannot be sent by the system if they are larger than that. This is a site-wide setting.

If you're over the 10,000 you'll get a message saying you are exceeding that and it cannot send it when you attempt to send the PM. The solution is to trim your interview down to below that number. Remember: it's a character count, not a word count.

If you don't get that message, it's been sent just fine. You can always check your Sent tab in your Inbox to make sure.

The tool below can check the character count if you need to revise it. The character count will show beneath the box.

http://www.spellcheck.net/

Thanks and apologies for any inconvenience.

If you still have problems after doing that, kjforce, please use the Report an Issue link at the foot of this page to alert the support side of that. Thanks.

kjforce said:

I too am having a tough time with the PM and sending...but..for now I can wait till you are back on track..sorry to hear of Husbands illness, take care of your priorities and we will still be here when you get back..thoughts are with you..weedbychoice..kjforce

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Permalink Reply by SpotlightInterviews on August 17, 2011 at 4:28am

Our latest Spotlight Interview is with Susan Avitzour, author of And Twice The Marrow of Her Bones. Please see her Spotlight Interview at the link below. Thanks Susan!

http://www.authors.com/profiles/blogs/spotlight-interview-with-auth...

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Permalink Reply by SpotlightInterviews on September 2, 2011 at 1:04am

Our latest Spotlight Interview is with Garry E. Lewis, author of The Rileyville Mystery and more. Please see Garry's interview at the link below. Thanks for your participation Garry!

http://www.authors.com/profiles/blogs/spotlight-interview-with-auth...

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Permalink Reply by SpotlightInterviews on September 16, 2011 at 12:47am

Our latest interview is with Sean Noonan, author of Of Lights in the Night and A First Christmas. Please see Sean's Spotlight Interview at the link below. Thanks Sean!

http://www.authors.com/profiles/blogs/spotlight-interview-with-auth...

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Permalink Reply by Humberto Sachs on September 20, 2011 at 12:31am

Well, it is not clear at all. I would love to do it, and include in my website, but I cannot find a single link where I can go to input the interview. Will you please help? If you can, add me to your contact list.

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Permalink Reply by SpotlightInterviews on September 20, 2011 at 1:10am

Humberto, you did not follow step 1 of the instructions which is why you couldn't send it. You cannot send a private message (PM) to anyone without you doing that or them adding you. You must be a friend to exchange PM's.

STEP 1: Add SpotlightInterviews as a friend so you can send a PM to that handle.
All you had to do was click on my name and select Add as Friend in the left sidebar. I've added you now from my end so you can now PM me.
STEP 2: PM your answers to the interview questions to SpotlightInterviews through your Inbox.
Look for your inbox in the right hand sidebar. It will look like this. (Obviously with your name at the top of it, not mine.) Find my name, click the tick box against it, and send me the message. It's no different from the way you would post on the forum.
STEP 3: Add any small image of your book or yourself you wish included to your PM.

To add an image, look for the picture frame icon next to the word "link" in the text box. Or just give me a link to a page where I can get a small image, whatever's easier. If you don't want one, that's fine too.

Is that all clear now or is there anything else you're unsure of?

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Permalink Reply by Humberto Sachs on September 20, 2011 at 7:38pm

What is a PM?

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Permalink Reply by Sean Noonan on September 20, 2011 at 8:38pm

PM is a personal message from the members place on this website. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by SpotlightInterviews on October 2, 2011 at 12:53am

Thanks Sean for clarifying that. Humberto, I got your interview. Thanks!

Our latest interview is with Lori A. Moore, author of From Zero to Christian in Just 35 Years, Missing Andy and Grady the Gray Cat. Please see Lori's Spotlight Interview at the link below. Thanks Lori!

http://www.authors.com/profiles/blogs/spotlight-interview-with-auth...