Coaxing a reluctant subject into cooperating when you're writing a profile can take more time than the reporting, Lisa DePaulo writes, before offering some of her own tips for turning a no or maybe into a yes: "I always tell profile subjects: The more time you give me, the less time I’ll spend calling everyone you ever knew. When a subject cooperates, the piece is more empathetic. I have never totally trashed someone who cooperated. That is something publicists don’t get."
August 31, 2014