What Questions to Ask an Author About Their Book
For the two minutes you get at a signing table, in a school library, or with a microphone passed along an audience row. Every question here is short enough to say without notes, safe to ask when you are only halfway through, and free of spoilers, so nobody waiting behind you has the ending given away. Pick two before you join the queue. If you have a stage and forty minutes, longer questions will serve you better than these.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What made you want to write this one?
Why ask it
The plainest possible opener, and authors never mind it. It works whether you are three chapters in or finished last night.
How long did this one live with you?
Why ask it
Asks about the years rather than the writing schedule, which is easier to answer standing up. The number is usually longer than people expect and gives you something to say next.
Was it fun to write, or was it work?
Why ask it
A short question with a genuinely open answer, and writers rarely get asked it. It also gives a nervous asker an easy second line either way.
Was there a day you nearly gave up on it?
Why ask it
Personal without being intrusive, and almost every author has a story ready. Keep it to the one question and let them decide how much to say.
Was the book ever called something else?
Why ask it
Titles change late and the discarded ones are often funny. Safe for anyone who has not finished, since it gives nothing away.
Where do you write?
Why ask it
Four words, and you will get a specific room, cafe or kitchen table. Good for a queue because it needs no setup.
What did you have to look up that you knew nothing about?
Why ask it
Research stories are self-contained and can be told in thirty seconds. Nothing in the answer will spoil the plot.
Did you name anyone after a real person?
Why ask it
Light, quick, and almost always yes. It is the kind of thing readers repeat to whoever they came with.
Who did you most want to like it?
Why ask it
Short, personal, and the answer is often a parent, a teacher or a friend rather than a critic. Nothing in it gives away a word of the plot.
Who in the book is most like you?
Why ask it
Authors have an answer ready and it is rarely the obvious character. Works even if you have only met half the cast so far.
Is there a bit you are proudest of?
Why ask it
Lets the author choose the ground, which is the polite thing to do when you are holding up a queue. They will usually keep it vague enough not to spoil anything.
Did you have any say in the cover?
Why ask it
Most authors have less control than readers assume, and the ones who dislike their cover are often relieved to be asked. It also opens up how differently the book was packaged in other markets.
What is the question you never get tired of being asked?
Why ask it
A generous thing to ask at the end of a long signing session. It also hands you a follow up without having to think of one.
Who did you write it for?
Why ask it
Short and slightly unexpected, and the answer is often one real person. Nothing about it requires you to have finished the book.
Who do you read when you are stuck?
Why ask it
Recommendations come easily to writers and you walk away with a name. Useful if you want something to say beyond praise.
Do you listen to anything while you write?
Why ask it
Easy, harmless, and reliably answered, which is what you want when there are people behind you. Some authors have a playlist they will happily name.
Is there a question about this book nobody has asked you?
Why ask it
By this point the author has recognized that you have read the book, which is what makes the question work rather than seem like a trick. Expect a pause, and let it run rather than filling it.
What did writing this one teach you that you took into the next?
Why ask it
Authors are usually more candid about a finished book's failures once they have started another, since the lesson implies the flaw. Vague answers here often mean the next book is not going well, so read the room.
What should I read next if I liked this?
Why ask it
Turns your thirty seconds into something you take home. Authors like recommending other people's books and will often name one you have never heard of.
What are you working on now, or is it too early to talk about?
Why ask it
The escape clause matters, because superstition and contracts both keep writers quiet about work in progress. Offering the out is why you often get an answer anyway.
Talking to an author well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the event
Read at least one interview they have already given
Ten minutes of searching shows you the four questions they have answered in every appearance. Avoiding those is most of what makes a conversation feel fresh to the author.
Note page numbers, not impressions
A question anchored to a specific passage tells the author instantly that you read the book, and they will answer differently. Two or three marked pages are enough.
Check what the book is actually called and how the name is said
Mispronouncing a title, a character, or the author's own name is the fastest way to lose the room, and it is entirely avoidable.
In the room
- Ask one question, not three joined together. Multi-part questions get the easiest part answered and the rest dropped.
- Keep the preamble under two sentences. In a queue or a Q and A, the audience notices when a question becomes a speech.
- Follow up on the interesting half of the answer rather than moving to your next prepared question. The prepared list is a safety net, not a script.
- Let silences sit. The three seconds after an author finishes is often when the better answer arrives.
- If you are moderating, watch the clock rather than the author, and leave a third of the time for the audience.
Questions to leave alone
- How many copies has it sold, what was your advance, or anything else about money. Authors are rarely free to say and it is an uncomfortable subject for most of them.
- Which character is really you, asked as an accusation rather than a question about craft.
- When is the next one out, if the book being discussed came out last week.
- Comparisons to a more famous writer in the same genre, which the author has heard and cannot respond to gracefully.
- Requests for advice on your own manuscript during a public Q and A. Ask in the signing queue instead, briefly.
- Plot questions that spoil the ending for people in the room who have not finished it.
If it is a book club visit
Send two or three questions in advance
Authors visiting a group of ten prefer to know roughly where the conversation is going, and it prevents the first fifteen minutes disappearing into logistics.
Decide who is chairing
Without someone directing traffic, one or two members dominate and the quieter readers ask nothing. A nominated chair also protects the author from crosstalk.
Say what the group disagreed about
Authors find this far more interesting than praise, and a genuine split in the room usually produces the best twenty minutes of the evening.