Do you sometimes feel apprehensive about your ability to handle book promotion interviews with finesse? That happens to a lot of authors -- even veterans of book promotion campaigns -- and that's why I'm pleased to offer a reassuring thought for the day. Here it is.
No matter what you do, and no matter what you say, and no matter what you forget to say -- you could never blow an interview as badly as Hulk Hogan did. In case you missed it, Hogan told a Rolling Stone magazine interviewer (in the context of venting his feelings about his ex-wife who's currently dating a much younger man)that he can "totally understand O.J." Did he stop there? No. In fact, he explained that he was capable of doing that which O.J. Simpson was accused.
Check out the CNN story, if you haven't seen it, and take heart. Unless you have scrambled eggs for a brain or mashed potatoes for morality, you could never mess up a book promotion opportunity as badly as that. In fact, Hulk Hogan has set the bar so low that, from now on, no interview we see or hear read could ever seem as incompetent, unworthy, or inappropriate as before.
Hulk Hogan has given us all a new reason to feel confident in our ability to do a reasonably acceptable interview. Now the challenge is to do an even better interview than you did last time . . . and that confidence and ability will come with practice.
Decency? Unfortunately, that probably can't be learned by those of us who have left our formative years behind. Sorry, Hogan, but no amount of media training can ever change the fact that you don't deserve to talk to another reporter . . . unless, perhaps, it's a court reporter.
