photo by Kelly Robson
Something I’m trying to do right now is work up a list of all the questions I–and other authors–get asked on a regular basis. These are questions my students ask me, or that come up in conversations at readings or launch parties or what have you. I want to gather up piles of them: twenty questions, thirty, even fifty. I want to tidily sort them into piles by their general intent: are they craft questions? Genre questions? Process stuff? Are they about selling, marketing, and the publishing biz?
Here’s the quick and dirty list I’m using to get started, in no particular order. It’s essentially a rundown of the things I’ve been asked in the last month or so, at places like SFContario and in the classroom.
1. Where do you get your ideas?
2. Why should/shouldn’t I self-publish my book?
3. Should I be writing short stories or novels if I want to build a career?
4. How come I hear people saying my new novel should never have a prologue?
5. Is it automatically YA novel if the main character is between ages 10 and 16?
6. So you write a book (or so) a year… are you really disciplined then?
7. Should I do NanoWrimo?
8. “Is said really an invisible word?” she grumbled petulantly.
9. What made you decide to write genre fiction?
10. Isn’t whether or not you sell a book mostly dependent on who you know, or your Twitter following?
I welcome any and all additions to this list.
