Can an Author Ask Too Many Questions?

Sometimes authors apologize to me for asking a lot of questions about their books. Some authors apologize after asking two questions, some after twenty questions, and then there are those who ask 7,482 questions and barely bother to thank me for answering all of them. (Of course I’m exaggerating; it was really only 7,481 questions.) Most authors do thank me though, even if they only ask one question.

So how many questions should authors ask? As many as they need to. I enjoy the give-and-take, the back-and-forth of “What about this chapter?” and “Should I add this or that or some other thing?” It’s all part of making the book better and—most importantly, at least from where I stand—making the author happy with the finished product. Because if the author doesn’t end up happy with the book and if they’re not proud to have written it, what was the point of it all?