The Craft of Interviewing

by John Brady

John Brady, editor of Writer's Digest and himself an accomplished interviewer, has put together an indispensable guide to the art of questioning. In a lively, down-to-earth manner, "The Craft of Interviewing" covers all aspects of the interview process -- getting the interview, doing research, handling the subject face-to-face, hurdling hazards, getting tough, taking notes (on the sly, if need be), taping, dealing with off-the-record types, concluding the interview, verifying it, and writing it up. Brady has also filled the book with a myriad of anecdotes revealing the experiences of some of the best known interviewers of our times. A noteworthy appendix on the history of the interview is included.

Genres: Writing, Journalism, Nonfiction, Psychology, Reference

378 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1976

About the author

John Brady was raised in Liberty, New York, and educated at King's College (BA) and Bradley University (MA) before pursuing a career in teaching, writing, and editing. He taught magazine writing at Indiana State University for eight years, and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, and numerous other periodicals. The author of five books including The Craft of Interviewing, The Craft of the Screenwriter, and Frank & Ava: In Love and War, Brady served as editor-in-chief of Writer's Digest and Boston magazine, as well as founding editor of The Artist's Magazine. His work has also appeared in New York magazine, Esquire, and The Sunday New York Times.

Reviews

[Daniel Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interviewing is once again in fashion with Google demanding ever-increasing amounts of fresh content. The only way to uncover information not already online is to speak to experts. I came across this book because it's mentioned in How to Write Fast by David A. Fryxell, which was the book that launched my article writing career. Brady presents a nuts-and-bolts guide to all the methods a reporter can use to get good interviews, including those that can be regarded as morally questionable. Ultimately, if you want to get good at interviewing people for your content, then this is the guide for you.

[Russ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book probably deserves four stars if you're a journalist or a journalism student. It is chock-full of useful information about how to obtain and conduct an interview, usually with a prominent person, to write an article for a newspaper or a magazine.

So it's probably unfair for me to give it two stars. But as a layman non-journalist, a lot of it just wasn't geared toward me. I may periodically need to interview subject matter experts professionally or for background for my fiction writing. I read samples of several books about interviewing to see which might be the most useful to me. A lot of them seem to be about interviewing politicians or rock stars. But this one seemed the most applicable and insightful about the general conduct of interviews.

There were a lot of good suggestions about how to persuade unwilling subjects to undergo an interview. I also liked the suggestions about how to organize questions and build rapport with your interview subject. The pros and cons of taking notes or recording subjects is still relevant. Brady's suggestion to have your interview subject review your transcript for accuracy, not for approval, prior to publication is probably a very wise and sound policy.

There were lots of fun anecdotes too about interviews that went really well and those that went wrong. Even though this book is dated, you'll recognize the references to people like Barbara Walters and Henry Kissinger.

A good read. But I'm still waiting for somebody to write THE book on how to conduct basic informational interviews for the purposes of research.

[Miles Menafee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great anecdotes about Alex Haley and other journalists throughout the book- "Yet when he was researching The Autobiography of Malcolm X-a book that required an intensive year of collaboration with his subject - he came away without a millimeter of recorded conversation. Why? 'I noticed that with other people or a recorder, he changed," notes Haley. He recalls talking with Malcolm X one day when they were interrupted by a broadcaster who had come armed with a tape recorder for an interview. 'I watched how Malcolm, who with me had been going on and really flowing, sat down at the mike and gave the appearance of very carefully editing what he said. I could see that he was thinking what he was going to say next... Malcolm had a particular caution about anything irrevocably recorded because he was one of these people who felt that a few words can mean a lot- good or bad- to other people'(p.139)

[Carolina]

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