‘We’re Not All Friends Online’: Kathleen Barber On Simon & Schuster Book ‘Follow Me’ & Social Media

(CBS Local)– A lot has changed in Kathleen Barber’s life since she quit her job as a lawyer.

The author left behind the world of bankruptcy law to pursue a writing career and she just published her second novel called “Follow Me.” The book tells the story of a woman named Audrey Miller who learns about the positives and negatives of posting too much on social media.

Barber said her second novel was much harder to write than her first.

“The biggest challenge of putting it together was making it as authentic as possible,” said Barber in an interview with CBS Local’s DJ Sixsmith. “Audrey who is the main character is kind of a social media influencer. She loves to put herself out there. She’s been doing it for so long that she doesn’t stop to think about how other people might be consuming the information she’s put out there. When somebody starts following her a little too closely and wants to follow her offline, she doesn’t even realize it at first. She’s so ingrained in doing this and you’ll have to read the book to see if she learns anything or not. Social media is such a far cry from when Facebook and MySpace started out. We’re not all friends online.”

“Follow Me” came after Barber’s first book was turned into the Apple TV+ series “Truth Be Told” starring Octavia Spencer, Lizzy Caplan, and Aaron Paul. Barber still can’t believe her debut novel found its way in front of Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine and was turned into a TV show.

“I had been writing the characters for Are You Sleeping, which is now Truth Be Told since I was in high school,” said Barber. “I had been working on these characters for so long. I was in law school and then I was working as an attorney. I didn’t really have time to sit down and devote time to the story. I was just writing these little snippets here and there. It wasn’t until I quit my job as an attorney that I was able to write the book. It was wild that people were interested in it and it was wild that Reese Witherspoon was interested in it. It is wild that Octavia Spencer is attached to it. Seeing a finished product was amazing.”