This year, I've started writing a few articles for magazines and journals. I got lucky on the first few--the editors were perfectly happy with emailed questions and answers. Then came the day when an editor requested I call a source and interview her.
Great, I thought. Now what? Somehow I had survived more than eleven years in the writing business with only rare phone contact with my sources.
I was sure I was going to make a complete ass of myself, but I didn't. Furthermore, the editor was right. The quotes I got from that phone call were far better than anything I could have pulled from a politely-worded email.
Since then, I've done many phone interviews with different types of experts. In doing so, I've stumbled upon a few secrets I wish I had known the first time I picked up the phone and nervously made my first call to conduct an interview.
1. Record the Call...If Your Subject Agrees
I love recording phone calls. They allow me to listen to the subject rather than scribbling incomprehensible notes to myself. The recording also gives me some piece of mind, in case there is ever a dispute about what was or wasn't said. Of course, I always ask before I turn on the recorder. Not one subject has ever refused consent once I explained that the recordings were for my own personal use and that I would delete them after the article ran.
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