If you’ve ever wondered what really happens behind the scenes of writing a book, Becca Freeman is the person you want to talk to. She’s the Brooklyn-based co-host of the Bad on Paper podcast, the writer behind the Book Enthusiast newsletter, and now the author of two novels. Her latest, Back Where We Started, hits shelves October 13th. I’ve known Becca since the OG Girls’ Night In days (raise your hand if you were at the live Bad on Paper event in D.C. pre-pandemic?!) so of course I had to reach out to catch up.
I sat down with Becca to talk about what it takes to make a writing career work, her second novel, and, of course, her best downtime recs. Also: Did Tree Paine make her change her book's Taylor Swift-inspired title?! :) Enjoy.
Downtime is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Alisha: Becca, congrats on the new book! Before we get into it, let’s talk about the world you’re in now. You generously share info about the author life on your podcast and newsletter. What’s one thing about the author life that readers might be surprised to learn?
Becca: I didn’t fully realize how much work goes into a book. Of course, I understood that writing a 100,000-word manuscript takes time, but I didn’t realize how many rounds of edits there’d be or how substantive they’d be. My first draft of this book was maybe 105,000 words, and I ripped it down to the studs so many times — full plot lines changed, people’s jobs, personalities, everything. I didn’t understand how normal it is to fully rip apart a book. I talked to Grant Ginder, who said he doesn’t think a single word from his first draft made it into his final draft.
On a lighter note, I think people would be surprised by how little involvement the author usually has in the book cover process. The author is the approver, offering feedback, but not designing it. There are exceptions, though. Ann Patchett commissioned a painting and handed it to her publisher with the draft and said, “Here’s the cover.”
Alisha: Yeah, but she’s Ann Patchett.
Becca: She’s Ann Patchett. For the rest of us, there’s a whole production side of the house that deals with copy editing, designing the interior, the art department that designs the cover. Then there’s marketing and publicity, and a whole sales force getting the book into bookstores. It’s a much bigger machine than I realized.
On The Realities of the Author Life
Alisha: How have you been navigating the financial side of an author career, especially given how long it takes to write a book? I’m always curious about this, and you’ve been very open.
Becca: With my first book, I was working in marketing consulting. It was a pandemic project; I suddenly had less of a social life and more time. I was lucky because I was mostly working West Coast hours while living in New York, so my mornings were free, which is when my brain is freshest. After I sold the book on a two-book deal, I was really excited because I’d lost passion for consulting. I thought I could write a book in a year—you look at Carly Fortune, Annabel Monaghan, they’re churning out books. I thought having written one, the second would be easier. But that was not the case whatsoever.
It became clear about six months after my first book came out that I was not close to finishing the second. Having financial pressure on that second book really changed the process. It was tied up in the mental muck of finances in a way the first one wasn’t. So in February 2024, I launched the paid tier of my Substack, going from monthly to twice weekly. I wanted to build an income stream outside of books. The podcast has always existed as an income stream, but it’s much smaller than people would guess. Building that Substack side was the best thing I could have done to take the financial pressure off.
Alisha: I’m so glad it’s working for you. Through your podcast, I also learned that most authors typically have an additional job or two to make it work. I was surprised by that, but it makes sense!
Becca: As I meet more authors, I’m struck by how many have 9-to-5 day jobs and are writing in the early mornings or on weekends. People who are writers in their day jobs—churning out articles for digital publishers and then coming home to write novels. I can’t fathom how they have enough brain cells to do that!
About Back Where We Started (And The Taylor Swift of It All)
Alisha: Okay, very important question: Can you tell us about the Taylor Swift inspiration behind your new book, which is a second-chance romance?
Becca: During the pandemic, I joked that I was basically my own dog—I had to take myself for a walk every day so I didn’t start chewing the furniture. I’d go on these long walks to nowhere all around Brooklyn, listening to a lot of folklore and evermore. One day in the dead of winter, “’Tis the Damn Season” came on. I’d heard it before, but for some reason that day it scratched my brain in a new way.
I was so interested in who the people in this song were, especially the line, “All my friends will write books about me if I ever make it.” It sounded like she was famous, but maybe not in a good way. This was the era where Taylor was saying these were all stories about other people, and I just vividly started fantasizing. I came home with a note in my phone that was a pretty faithful version of what became the prologue of the book, plus a lot of character ideas. When I eventually pitched the book, everyone I talked to was excited. The core idea was always from “’Tis the Damn Season,” and until almost the end of the writing process, that was the working title.
Alisha:Did you have to change the title for legal reasons?
Becca: My understanding — and I’m not a lawyer — is that a song title isn’t copyrightable, so you can use it for a book title. But this book starts in early December and goes through Christmas, and while there’s a Christmas scene, it’s much less holiday-focused than The Christmas Orphans Club, which was intentional. Hopefully the cover telegraphs that too. There are some snowflakes, but it feels more all-seasons. It’s got winter vibes, but you don’t need to save it to read in front of a Christmas tree.
Alisha: The female character in your book, Katie, is an actress. How did you get into the headspace of writing about the celebrity world and make it feel real?
Becca: In some ways I’d been doing background research for years, because I love a celebrity-normal-person book. I’ve read so many of them — The Idea of You by Robinne Lee, for example. I’m also a big celebrity memoir fan. It was actually much easier to capture Katie’s world because she’s getting famous in the early 2010s on a CW-esque teen drama, an era I lived through and voraciously consumed pop culture around.
(Image source: Becca Freeman)
Drew’s world, the political side, was much harder. Outside of The West Wing, I didn’t have the faintest idea what someone working in politics does day to day. So I did probably five or six interviews with people across different roles in politics. I read a lot of political memoirs including Pete Buttigieg’s book and Cory Booker’s memoir. I also talked to people who went to drama school to understand what Katie’s acting training would look like, because I couldn’t conceive of what a class would even be. This was my first time really doing research. With The Christmas Orphans Club, everything was close to my own lived experience and I didn’t do much beyond a Google search. This time I really enjoyed that aspect.
Becca’s Book Recommendations
Alisha: What’s the last book you loved and recommended to a friend?
Becca: I can’t stop recommending Under Story by Chloe Benjamin right now. It’s literary sci-fi, not my genre at all, but it felt like a triumph of book writing. I cannot believe this came out of somebody’s head. I was Googling mid-read whether she has a PhD in science. She does not. It’s such an original concept, though interestingly Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel came out the same month and deals with the same macro plot in a lot of ways.
Alisha: Under Story was wild and I’m seeing it everywhere, too. This actually leads me to my next question. What do you think makes a book break out beyond just “book people?” The kind that reaches your aunt or your workout class friend?
Becca: I think it’s different things for different books. The book of the summer this year, love it or hate it, was Yesteryear, and I think a lot of that was driven by controversy and curiosity. People hearing the differing takes, learning it was based on trad wives, which is such a controversial topic. But last year, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans was the book of the whole year to me, and that was driven by emotional depth— a surprising amount of feeling from a character you maybe hadn’t seen portrayed before.
Alisha:Do you think women are driving the book of the moment?
Becca: Women are 100% driving the book of the moment.
Alisha: The men are not reading.
Becca: The men are not reading! If the men are reading, the men are reading nonfiction.
Alisha: That’s a whole other can of worms.So moving on:are there any under-the-radar fall release you think deserves more attention?
Becca: I loved See You Next Tuesday by Kate Stayman-London. First of all, best title possibly ever. It’s a political romance: two campaign staffers who meet on the trail, immediately clash, and keep running into each other work-wise over maybe a decade. There’s a lot of text flirting, which is my kryptonite. It’s basically enemies to friends to lovers. It almost feels like When Harry Met Sally meets The West Wing.
Becca’s Downtime Recs
Alisha: What does downtime look like for you these days when you’re not writing or reading for work?
Becca: I’m so glad you asked, because I can’t stop talking about this. I bought a set of acrylic markers about a month and a half ago.Coloring with these empties my brain like nothing else. I’m not sure if I’m reaching a flow state, but it turns my brain off. It’s a marker, but it comes out like paint. There’s no streaks and it’s so satisfying. The best results are on a weekend morning with my coffee, listening to music. Sometimes I’ll color a few sections as a break between writing tasks.
Instagram
Alisha: Is there anything else you’re really looking forward to in the next couple of months?
Becca: The weekend before my book comes out, one of my best friends is getting married in Edinburgh. Everyone says it’s their favorite city and that it’s very bookstore-heavy, so I’m excited. My friend found a class at a heritage store where you can make a tartan purse. I’m very excited for that. After that, it’s the book tour! 11 events across the East Coast and Midwest. I’m extroverted and being around people energizes me, but we’ll see if I run myself down.
Nema komentara:
Objavi komentar