It’s been 27 years since J.K. Rowling graduated from Exeter. Now Exeter welcomes another budding writer Beth Reekles, whose debut novel high school romance ‘The Kissing Booth,’ gained 19 million hits on online forum Wattpad, leading to a three book deal with Random House, and paperbacks being sold across the US and Europe. And all before her A-Levels! Labelled a media sensation and an indicator of the power of self-publishing online, Beth achieved 4 A’s in her A-Levels and joins Exeter to study Physics. Her second book, ‘Rolling Dice,’ was released in August.
Hi Beth! Welcome to Exeter! You’ve had amazing success with your debut book ‘The Kissing Booth’! What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always really loved writing, and reading. With ‘The Kissing Booth’, I was looking for a regular high-school romance to read – at the time, everything was vampires or werewolves, and I was sick of it. So when I couldn’t find the kind of book I wanted to read, I decided to write my own instead, and ended up with ‘The Kissing Booth’.
So you posted your writing in instalments to online forum Wattpad during your GCSE’s. How long was it before the story started to gain attention?
It was a couple of weeks before I started to realise just how much attention my book was getting. I’d been posting it maybe a month or two before I uploaded one chapter with a particularly big cliff-hanger at the end – and woke up the next morning to about 400 emails! It took a couple of months for the book to start getting millions of reads, but then the number just kept growing.
Tell us about what happened when Random House contacted you.
I’d been sat at home checking my emails and saw a message I’d been sent on Wattpad. It was a little more formal than the usual ‘OMG I love your book, you should make a sequel’ – I skimmed through it, seeing words like ‘commissioning editor’ ‘Random House’ and ‘interested in publishing your book’. Then I let out a scream and ran in to my parents. The message was from the lady who’s now my editor, and she’d given me contact details to get in touch. Once I’d calmed down, I emailed her and said I’d like to hear more from her about publishing ‘The Kissing Booth’, and my dad and I went up to visit Random House in London the next week. I was offered a three-book contract there and then!
What do you think it is about ‘The Kissing Booth’ that has made it so popular?
I think that part of it is that it’s simply a regular high-school romance, without any of the fantasy aspect that’s been so popular recently. And the hype it gained online hasn’t hurt either! I did my best to make a believable and relatable sort of character, and I tried to write it honestly – without skirting around how nerve-wracking a first date can be, or a first kiss, or any of the other things teenagers experience.
How did you cope with global success and studying for your A-Levels?
It was a challenge, but I had to take it in stride. The paperback was released in April so I had to juggle interviews with TV and magazines between keeping on top of homework and upcoming exams. And right after publication of ‘The Kissing Booth’ I was working on polishing up my second book: I ended up proof-reading and editing ‘Rolling Dice’ in the middle of revision for my final A-Level exams this summer. I was determined to manage both, though – and the interviews that would pop up every week or so – and I just had to sacrifice some other things, like watching TV.
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Why did you decide the University of Exeter was the next step for you?
I visited Exeter for a departmental open day and I loved it the second I got out of the car. I’d really liked the look of the university from the prospectus, and the course sounded great, too. When I arrived for the open day though, I knew it was the university I wanted to go to: it was hilly and green, just like home in Wales, and I thought that the course and facilities were brilliant, too.
Why did you choose to study physics?
I’ve always kept writing as a hobby rather than a career – I started out doing it for fun, not with the aim of becoming published. So in school, whilst I liked English, I felt that it sucked the fun out of books a little, and I felt that physics was the way I wanted to go in terms of a career in the future. I really enjoy physics, and I find it fascinating.
What are your plans for the future? Could we see a mixture of physics and teen romance in your next book?
Actually, in ‘Rolling Dice’, one of the main characters is a bit of a physics nerd! I haven’t got any solid plans yet for the future: I want to keep my options open, which is part of the reason I’ve chosen a physics degree, and I’d like to have a career in that field. But I think I’ll have to see where I am with my writing career when I’m done with my degree – if I have to make being an author a full time job, then I will, but hopefully I’ll be able to keep it as something I do for fun on the side of a job in physics.