As someone who's spent the past two years curating, soliciting and interviewing authors, both bestselling and debut ones, I'm astute and well-versed in making someone feel comfortable enough to talk to me. I use my curiosity to dive into that individual and usually ask follow up questions to truly understand their perspective. After the interview, I do the write-up, and to ensure what they said matches up I also do some additional research to see what else has been written about that individual.