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Article:
Learn the Secrets of Print Interviewing by: Susan Harrow 1. Remember you're always on the record. Even when the tape is off, even when the reporter has put away his pad, even when you think that the reporter thinks you walk on water, you are on the record. One of my clients who knows better, gave an interview to a columnist at a prominent national paper. She thought they had a jolly rapport and became a bit loose lipped about the fortune the business had amassed in a hard-won deal. The interviewer positioned her as a spoiled and arrogant twit who had, to a certain degree, lucked out. She called me fuming, and at the same time knowing it was her fault. The reporter is not your therapist so this is not the time to discuss your innermost workings. I remember a friend of mine saying that there was nothing so mesmerizing as having a therapist listen to her in total attention. It's seductive to know that a person finds you fascinating. While you're not paying a reporter, their job similar to a therapist's, is to be a skilled listener. The reporter is there to do one thing-get a good story. If you don't want to see it in print, don't let those precious words leave your lips. Period. 2. Don't beg. Your lips are made for talking. While it's imperative to be attentive don't bow, scrape or otherwise raise your lips to the posterior of the reporter. You are there because you have valuable information to impart. Much as some reporters pretend they don't need you, you're a critical part of their job. Focus on their questions and your message and you'll make a good interview. 3. Ask to verify your quotes. Author Bill Barich describes his first media encounter for his first book *Laughing in the Hills.* So I flew off to New York in February with a borrowed suitcase, feeling for all the world like John Boy Walton, the would-be-writer of television fame. The magazine (The New Yorker) put me up at the Algonquin Hotel, directly across from its headquarters, and soon I was seated in the regal lobby bar and conducting an interview with a journalist from (of all places) Women's Wear Daily, who'd been dispatched by The Viking Press for some advance publicity. Hardly a pro and suffering from years of isolation, I delivered an impromptu lecture on the importance of literacy in a democratic society (a surefire topic for the poor guy's audience) and forgot to mention my book. When the story ran, I had my first experience of being misquoted. My entire lecture was boiled down to a single remark, *If you can't read, you shouldn't be allowed to vote.* (SF Examiner Magazine, April '12
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