Craft. Publicity. Reach.

The best author interviews sound unrehearsed because the author rehearsed. Not the answers — the material. Know your book's opening line by heart. Know the two moments you'd read aloud to a stranger on a train. Know the question you wish someone would ask.

Set up a quiet room. Close the window. Put a soft cushion behind you. Wear headphones — always. And keep water within reach, not coffee.

Come with three stories you can tell in under two minutes each. One about the writing. One about the research. One about the moment you knew the book was working. Producers can always steer a conversation, but they can't invent stories for you.

A newspaper profile is not a book review. It's a story about a person who happened to write a book, told with the person at the centre and the book as their gravity.

Editors are looking for tension. Where did the book fight you? What did you have to give up to finish it? Who did you become while writing it? Answers to those questions travel further than plot summary ever will.

The rest is craft — a memorable first paragraph, one killer quote per section, and a photograph that shows you looking like the person who could have written that book.

The night your Spotlight airs is not the peak — it's the middle. The recording, the clips, the audience list and the press mentions become the fuel for the next six months of your author brand.

Cut three thirty-second clips within the first week and rotate them monthly. Send the recording to every bookshop you'd like to visit. Add the event page to your bio, your press kit and your email signature.

Momentum is what an author has when the world briefly agrees to pay attention. You extend it by never letting the assets sit still.