Since September of last year you have seen us promoting our new book, Backstreet Boys: 30th Anniversary Celebration. Now Karah’s and Emilia’s book is officially out now! We’re excited to share this book with fans worldwide. It’s available in bookstores and online. You can find all the details, including a list of bookstores, here. Don’t see your local bookstore listed? You’ll have to check your local stores online to see if it’s available.
We want to take this time to thank the fans who submitted questions through our social media. There were a few similar questions and we wanted to give everyone a chance to ask questions.
Megan: Did you learn any fun facts about the Boys that you didn’t already know while writing the book?
Emilia: Howie had done an interview with PopCrush several years ago explaining how he almost didn’t make it into the group because of his name. We all knew that, but he gave more details. He wanted to change his stage name that he was using at the time from Tony Donetti. His manager/agent felt Howard Dorough was too formal. That’s when Howie suggested Howie D. A name that a friend from choir in high-school would call him. This was something I didn’t know and had to include that in our book.
Karah: I don’t think this made it into the book, but while researching, I found out that the Backstreet Boys played in Atlanta at Centennial Olympic Park during the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta. They held concerts in the park, but I’m not sure if it was before the bombing or after.
Cinzia: How long did it take you to write the book?
Emilia: Not long. We had a deadline to write this by the end of July last year. So, roughly two months.
Janis: How did you get the book published? Do the boys know about the book?
Emilia: We were asked by the publishing company, Quarto Group, if we would be interested in writing a book to celebrate the Backstreet Boys 30th anniversary.
Karah: AJ does. A fan had him autograph their copy overseas. We wanted it to be a surprise, like a love letter to them and the fans. Karah: We had actually planned to do an ad in the Orlando Sentinel, much like Lou did and link to a bigger website with a lot of the same information. Then we got asked to do the book.
Ann: When did you start planning and putting this book into fruition?
Emilia: We started to plan details on what to do once we accepted, but didn’t get into the writing of it after we signed on to write this book.
Cindy: Are there any funny or interesting behind the scenes stories you can share that happened during the writing of the book?
Emilia: When you have two writers working on a book together it’s easy to get mixed up on who wrote what. There were a few times I’d write something and Karah had already written about it. Or we’d get confused on certain details because we may remember things differently and have to look things up.
Karah: It was hard meeting them during the tour last summer and not yell out “I’M WRITING A BOOK ABOUT YOU!”
What is your favorite section/part of the book and why?
Emilia: The timeline, discography, and the list of awards they won. It was something I had started on a BSB fan site I had made in 2013 for their 20th anniversary. After closing that site and my Nick fan site a few years later, it eventually was added to BSBFangirls. I thought it was cool to have something that I had worked on for my sites to be included. It’s like having a little part of my fan sites in the book.
Karah: The Intro … “Just Want You To Know.” It was the first thing written for the book. I remember writing it at one or two in the morning. We were still planning out the chapters, but I had it in my head of what I wanted to say. It’s a mixture of fangirl feelings, a letter to the journalist who don’t know what they are talking about sometimes in articles, and a love letter to the boys.
Mari: How did you get the idea to do this Book? What inspired you?
Emilia: We actually had plans to do something quite similar on the BSBFangirls website with their history. Including a timeline, and other things. This book was essentially the same thing, but more detailed than we planned to do on the website.
We were obviously inspired by our love for the group. Knowing this is their 30th anniversary we wanted this book to showcase their career the best it could possibly be.
Maura: What was the most challenging part about putting this book together?
Emilia: I’d say for myself probably making sure information regarding their lawsuits was as accurate as possible. I originally had started writing a bio on the guys on my own fan site years ago so I had found a few articles about them from 2002/03. I had never saved the links to them so trying to find them again became a little difficult. Also, when you want to search for something specific, not everything is available. Sometimes you come across links to things you’re searching for and find the article or website are gone. That could be a bit frustrating.
Karah: When it comes to the actual content, researching about the very beginning of the group. Going through old articles for the Orlando and Tampa newspapers, going through old books and magazine articles and picking apart what we now know to be fake and what was the truth. Personally, writing this in such a short amount of time while working full-time, having my Etsy shop, and my Mom’s health was really starting to decline.
When They Popped Pod: We wanna know both of your favorite bsb moments! And what you see in the future for the boys!
Emilia: There’s a few. My first moment would be going to LA for their 20th anniversary. It was the first time I got to travel somewhere to see them. Plus I was able to meet friends that I had known online. This is also when I got to meet them as a group for the first time. The other would be when I was asked to post on Nick’s official website. I had my own fan site on Nick at the time so that was an opportunity that I’m always grateful for.
As for their future, I’m not quite sure. More music obviously, maybe another Las Vegas residency.
Karah: I have too many. Obviously winning trivia on the 2018 cruise and Nick labeling me the trivia queen. Going to Europe with them on the 2016 cruise. Seeing them perform for the first time for a full concert after taking two years off for Nick to go solo. For something that I wasn’t there for? Them announcing that Kevin was coming back.
As for what I see in the future? I don’t see them continuing the big, long tours, not after DNA. I see more residencies, or short tours. I see more albums. Hopefully we finally get that Christmas special.
Jhie: What is / was the best part of writing and putting this book together?
Emilia: Seeing how much has changed over 30 years and reminiscing about those times. We would watch some old interviews to make sure we got our info correct. I don’t always watch old videos and to do that during research for the book was fun.
Karah: Definitely going back and watching things I hadn’t watched in forever, like “Behind the Music” and the documentary. Watching old concert footage or TV show appearances. The journalism nerd in me loved seeing the old articles I found from all over the world about them.
peytonsjen: What part of the book did you love and enjoy most when writing? Did you get emotional in some parts of the process?
Emilia: I don’t know if I have a part in the book that I enjoy the most or that I got emotional. I think overall I just enjoyed writing about them. You learned things about them along the way that you either didn’t know or forgot about. It’s also made me have more appreciation for everything they’ve done over the years.
Karah: I got emotional a few times while writing the book, especially talking about Kevin leaving. I wasn’t hard core into the fandom like I usually am during that period because of college, so reading his full message got to me. I really enjoyed writing the chapter about the fandom because I got to talk to fans and ask questions.
Amber: What’s one thing you didn’t know before researching and writing for the book?
Emilia: I, for one, didn’t know a thing about writing a book. I mostly wrote fiction as a hobby. I didn’t know about the process of how things worked with publishing, but I learned a lot about it as we wrote/edited this book. It made me want to pursue writing more and hopefully release a fiction novel some day.
Karah: I didn’t realize how far in advance you had to write things. A lot of things kept happening for us to make changes, such as the Christmas album, my Mom and Aaron dying.
If the boys could only be given 1 chapter of the book, which one would you want to give them and why?
Emilia: I’m not sure. Probably the early days as most information is hard to come by and there may be things they’re unaware fans know about. Back in those days you never knew what information was correct on certain things. How they became a group, their background, etc.
Karah: Probably the first thing, I think they called it a prelude, but it’s called “Just Want You To Know.” That whole thing I wrote and it came from my heart. That, or the fan chapter towards the end of the book because I feel like they would love to read what the fans had to say.
