How to be Interviewed as a Cosplayer

I already wrote an article on “How to Interview a Cosplayer,” now we’re going to turn the tables and talk about interviews from a cosplayer perspective. Interviews can be a great way to help your work reach a larger audience. In this post we will only cover written interviews, in-person interviews are a subject for another day. The interviewing conversation can be initiated one of two ways. Either the interviewer will contact you asking for an interview or you can ask to be interviewed yourself.

Let’s start with when you are asked for an interview. The most common place for interviewers to contact you is through a social media messaging system. In the process of asking for an interview the sender should state where the interview is going to be posted. If not, request to see where it will be posted before agreeing to be interviewed.

Now it’s time to do some digging. Scope out the site and see what other content is posted on it. Are there other cosplayer interviews? Read through a couple of other interviews to get a feel for what questions are going to be asked. This is your chance to screen the site. If the content makes you uncomfortable or promotes an idea you don’t want associated with your cosplay name, politely decline the interview.

NOTE: At any time you can end the interviewing process. If at any time you are uncomfortable with the interview, walk away (or in this case, terminate communication). You are not obligated to take part in the interview. If you are not comfortable with the questions being asked, you do not have to respond.

After you have agreed to the interview it is time to answer the questions! You can make your responses as detailed or as vague or as personal or as impersonal as you want. Fill out the response and send it back to the interviewer. The sooner you respond, the sooner your interview will be posted. Offer to send some cosplay photographs to supplement the interview. If the interviewer accepts, be sure to send the name of the photographer so the photo can be properly credited.

Once the interview has been posted, share it on social media so your followers can see it, too. Some cosplayers keep track of the interviews they’ve done and include links to them on their personal cosplay sites under a “press” or “media” tab. This isn’t necessary, but is an option if you are looking to expand your site/portfolio.

Now that we’ve discussed what to do when a site offers to interview you, let’s talk about initiating the interview yourself. Find sites that feature cosplayers and poke around them. Many sites like GeekXGirls have guidelines for submitting featured costumes or interviews. Simply follow the submission format (usually through email) and just wait to see if you are selected. It’s as simple as that.

Not all sites have their submission process advertised. For these you will need to contact the site directly, either through messaging or email. The key is to be courteous and professional.

NO. Just, no. I’ve written an entire article here about how and why “share for share” is not worth anyone’s time, but this takes the cake. And yes, I have seen this exact sentence (can I even call this a sentence?) posted by cosplayers on sites as their way of “asking” to be featured. There are so many things wrong with this I am just going to list them out for you.

There are no words. S4S? This cosplayer is assuming that the site even knows that this means “share for share”.
This is just lazy. Someone who can’t even be bothered to write three words is not someone who actually cares about the site; they just want free promotion all the while expending as little effort as possible.
Typing out “Share for share?” still isn’t convincing, but at least the cosplayer put in more effort than cosplayer #1.

Let’s take a look at some other messages:

Why are these better? Here are some reasons:

There are words. As long as those words aren’t horrendously offensive, this is still miles ahead of the “S4S?” message.
They show that you have actually taken the time to at least glance at the site.
You are thanking them for their time. This shows an appreciation for the time and effort it takes to run a site.

After sending your message there is really not much else to do but wait. The site might agree to interview you or they might not. If they do, great! Time to share that interview on social media with your followers. If they do not, it’s their loss. Just keep making cosplays and having fun!

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