Source
r/IAmA•
thesoundandthefury

IAmA New York Times bestselling novelist. AMA.

Hi, Reddit. Long-time lurker who just created an account. I've written four novels (the most recent two both spent three weeks on the NYT bestseller list) and I thought I'd post in case anyone is looking for frank answers to questions about writing, publishing, the book business, or the like.

EDIT: Anonymity blown. My name is John Green. I'm the author of the novels "Looking for Alaska," "An Abundance of Katherines," "Paper Towns," and the co-author of "Will Grayson, Will Grayson." (I also share a popular youtube channel with my brother; another AMA for another day, perhaps.)

EDIT 2: If I were going to pretend to be someone, I would pretend to be someone far cooler than I am (like that freaking cosmonaut with >2,000 parachute jumps). Proof. Thanks for all your great questions and hilarious asides, reconfirming for me the awesomeness of Reddit. I'll continue to answer questions, and I apologize if I don't answer yours.

Posted Dec 30, 2010, 1:58 PM UTC · edited

693870
[deleted]•

I'm pretty sure you're John Green. The dates/ages/etc all match up.

353
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

....and now I will be much more circumspect in my answers. :)

215
[deleted]•

Should I redact?

140
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Nah. I'm impressed. I thought I was being so opaque!

174
[deleted]•

You're 33, which means born in ~1977. Your first book came out when you were 27, which means ~2004. Google for "bestselling authors born in 1977" yields this Wikipedia page on which you're the only one listed born in 1977. Clicking through to your page shows your first book came out 2005, which is close enough to 2004 for birthdays. It also shows two NYT best-sellers, though one of those is not technically in your four-novel count. Looking up your stuff on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, the covers in Europe looked a little more adult, while the books in the US were marked with a "Young-Adult" reading level.

Oh and all the youtube stuff (which I think I've seen some of and enjoyed, if memory serves) fits the idea that you'd do an AMA on reddit.

tl;dr - Once you're on wikipedia, there is no hiding.

397
cobain_angel•

Looking for Alaska was awesome and one of the books I used when I was learning English. Thanks!

14
Pyreking•

Authors use the word Nah? Isn't that an incomplete sentence?

2
nodren•

sorry for being the one who questions, but can we get some picture proof you are who you say you are? like you holding a piece of paper saying "Hi Reddit".

0
zebrake2010•

Don't mess in the soup.

He's accomplished something worthwhile and to which many of us aspire, AND he's answering questions in an open, helpful manner.

Let him be anonymous if he wishes.

5
holyghostbuster•

his posts had already taken away his anonymity, timdiggerm just informed him of it.

"they're all dead. they just don't know it yet"

8
ButtFartMcPoopus•

Props for being polite and respectful enough to offer, even if he was fine with it.

2
battery_go•

On that note, are you the main contributor to your Wikipedia page or are you actually amazed to find out that other people have taken their time to actually write about you, on the internet?

41
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I have steadfastly refused to edit my own wikipedia page, even when it has been rewritten to read, in its entirety, "John Green is a gay."

283
ambivilant•

Stephen King can be such a dick sometimes...

548
mycroftcooper•

Sorry about that.

39
nabrok•

Does your agent or publisher edit it?

6
ZZZlist•

As a Wiki editor, let me know if you need any creative editing. :wink wink:

4
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
z3rb•

Well, are you?

1
Rebish•

Sounds strangely similar to something I read in a certain book by a certain would-be-anonymous writer. =)

1
ginmhilleadh•

I did that :) Your books are the worst kind of tripe, stop writing.

-13
jc4p•

I don't really have a question, but congratulations on the baby!

- A nerdfighter

20
amphetamine•

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8OGZFPWYmk

1
[deleted]•

Blowing out the anonymity of the more famous AMAers is the national past time of Reddit.

3
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
thephotoman•

Dude, I was guessing that before I read the text box.

And I'm currently reading Anna and the French Kiss. It's all your fault.

1
and_on•

Dude! I love you! Nerdfighters and VlogBrothers! ...kay, I'm done fangirling.

1
[deleted]•

Dude! I went to altamont.

1
DFWPhotoguy•

goddamn I love e-stalkers...good job and upvote...

8
anotherkeebler•

Really? I was going to guess William Faulkner. That would be a great AMA but everybody would bitch about his paragraphs.

7
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
BlorfMonger•

Oh...childrens books.

I thought it was a REAL author.

-27
[deleted]•

My books are published for teenagers in the US, for adults in most European markets (I do pretty well in Europe)

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/etmyn/iama_new_york_times_bestselling_novelist_ama/c1au463

6
DFWPhotoguy•

Castle, stop posting here and go solve a crime!

  1. How long does it typically take to write a book?
  2. Do you have a preferred environment?
  3. Do you storyboard your plot prior to writing? Either way can you expound on the reason you do or do not do this?
137
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Upvoted for castle joke.

  1. The general rule of thumb is that writers should publish a book a year. That sounds great in theory, but I've never been able to manage it. It usually takes me about three years to finish a book, but the third year of one book is the first year of another, so I try to publish every two or two and a half years.

  2. I'm at a starbucks right now. This works pretty well.

  3. I don't storyboard, although if I did, it might allow me to get the process down to a single year. :) For me, the first draft is an extended and very detailed outline, and then once I finish, I delete most of it. I do it this way because it's the only way I've ever been able to write successfully, even though it's super inefficient, and also because I continue to labor under the delusion that some day I will write a first draft, send it to my editor, and she will say, "Great. We'll publish it this Spring."

116
Hintshigen•

A book a year? Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for George R.R. Martin to get the next ASoIaF out?! Longer than a year sir!

69
limukala•

If you're lucky he won't die before the series is finished, like Robert Jordan.

46
-ThisWasATriumph•

Or Douglas Adams

40
xerexerex•

George RR Martin is gonna be on that list, I just know it =(

You could add Frank Herbert as well.

or if you wanna be retro you could say Chaucer.

4
misterandon•

DON'T JINX IT! I actually don't care about his books, but if you said that about an author I love, I'd be mad knocking on wood.

Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed a couple of years ago with early-onset Alzheimers, is one of my absolute favourite authors, and I live in constant fear that his mind will go. I want Raising Taxes and the next Vimes book, dammit. (Dear God am I glad that he finished the Tiffany Aching series now, so I don't have to worry about him leaving it hanging.)

2
phrenq•

I dunno, if they got Sanderson to finish that, too, I'd probably be okay with it.

1
Mr_Smartypants•

Jordan is awful (RIP, I guess). Sanderson is much better...

1
s1nkorsw1m•

i'm still SO bummed about that. new guy isn't as good.

1
[deleted]•

Or your most fervent fans won't die waiting for the final book like Steven King and Dark Tower.

Seriously, woman on her deathbed asked what the ending was as he was writing it and he said, I'm not sure yet.

1
seanmg•

I took a Novel Writing class this past semester, and our professor is a published author. One of the students casually brought this up one day, and the professor casually mentioned that he was good friends with George and had stayed out his house several times. The kid asked the same question you just posed, and the professor refused to even touch on that subject with George. "You're going to have to ask him yourself."

10
Accelerator•

But then look at guys like Steven Erikson or Brandon Sanderson or Jim Butcher.

Erikson has written a doorstop fantasy novel every year for ten years, plus novelettes. Jim Butcher has managed to write a Dresden Files book every year while simultaneously writing the Codex Alera series and various Short Stories.

2
Dergeist_•

This was the first thing I thought of as well. Confound that GRRM!

1
mage2k•

The sad thing is that due to how long this next book is taking, along with his age, I won't buy it, or any other ASoIaF books, unless he manages to finish the series.

1
BackdoorDan•

a starbucks? I thought good writers were supposed to avoid cliches. :)

23
[deleted]•

You know what's really cliche? Avoiding cliches.

3
mahcuz•

Starbucks is a cliché? I thought it was a coffee place; that is, a place to buy and drink coffee, not a place made of coffee. Is this a US thing?

2
retinarow•

In the US it's kind of a thing that people go to starbucks and sit on their macs and all write their novels/screen plays/memoirs/whatever. It's a shame, because now there's kind of a stigma attached to sitting in a coffee shop and working on something.

15
[deleted]•

Writing at Starbucks as a cliche has already came and gone.

1
[deleted]•

I continue to labor under the delusion that some day I will write a first draft, send it to my editor, and she will say, "Great. We'll publish it this Spring."

Hahahaha, I think every single writer in this room is laughing in recognition. :)

16
HipX•

How many writers are in the room with you?

8
[deleted]•

Hahahaha, I think every single person who wishes they were actually in a position where their abilities were at that level in this room is laughing in recognition. :)

FTFY

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
[deleted]•

Yes, that's the joke.

1
[deleted]•

Yeah, this one's laughing in recognition because my publisher printed my terrible (nonfiction) first draft instead of editing it!

1
punandgames•

For #3, that's exactly how I write. Though I'm a policy analyst for a government official, so my writing is totally different (persuasive/non-fiction), it's funny we do it the same way.

I write a bunch of crap down, end up deleting most of it, but the 2nd (or 3rd) draft is beautiful. It's terribly inefficient but I have yet to discover another way.

3
eramos•

policy analyst for a government official

non-fiction

ಠ_ಠ

1
mattchu4•

damn, if J.R.R Tolkien followed that logic, then I'd be a happy man. a new Lord of the Rings every year? please.. just please..

1
CunningAllusionment•

How tightly do you plot out your stories before you start writing them? I've got an idea I like but I keep getting stuck on details that I feel like I have to work out first.

1
Altoid_Addict•

Personally, I like working out the details as I go. If something doesn't fit, you can always go back and change it.

1
[deleted]•

Ever use Scrivener? You should take a look at it if you don't, it very nearly storyboards for you. A number of new yorkey magaziney and clever bookey writers I run into around the neighborhood swear by it.

Also, people still read books? How long do you expect this to last?

1
drumrave•

I've kind of written this way when I was in school. If there was a requirement for first rough draft I would type something up real quick like and it would mostly be bland, with very little substance. After I got it back with the revisions and suggestions I would laugh at the suggestions and do a complete rewrite.

I have always found that the more I type about the same thing, the more different and interesting I could make the story.

1
bigcory69•

Nerdfigher!

65
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

(non-nerdfighters: Nerdfighters are people who fight for nerds and nerd culture; it's a community that grew out of the videos I make with my brother, a la Ze Frank and the sportsracers.)

64
peterd08•

See, this is the reason I love the internet: I can be on Reddit, minding my own business, open a new tab with this thread, and while I'm waiting for Reddit to do its thing (which takes a while) I watch the Thoughts from Places you posted yesterday.

I come back and I'm like HOLY SMOKES IT'S JOHN GREEN.

French the llama the internet rocks.

51
[deleted]•

It's an awful small world for being so damn big.

4
StickR•

put this on a t-shirt and I'd buy it.

3
draggles•

Vlogbrothers is one of the most entertaining channels on YouTube. So glad you guys decided to feature Vi Hart a little while ago.

21
adam_von_indypants•

Oh, wow! I stumbled across your vlog around a year after Ze Frank's The Show ended and was amazed by the similarities (e.g. fast pacing and cutting, themed weekly events, large creative projects, and general hilarity). I've wanted to ask you about this for quite a while, actually. Thar be semi-formatted questions abound:

  1. To what extent did you and your brother draw inspiration from Ze's project and the community that formed around it? Also, what about the vlogging form interested you initially?

  2. You seem to have created a veritable community of hundreds of thousands - do you have any long-term plans for the nerdfighters?

  3. How do you see your videos in relation to your writing, and why did you and Hank decide to continue working after the Brotherhood project officially ended?

Thanks so much for doing this IAmA!

2
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

We met Ze Frank earlier this year at the Vidcon conference, and he was really nice about our having ripped him off relentlessly. (To be fair, we've always acknowledged ripping him off relentlessly. Also, everything in online video is essentially a rip-off--or to put it politely, an extension--of what Ze Frank did with the show.)

Our long term plan is to continue coming together as a community to do and make stuff that makes the world suck less.

Hank and I continued doing Brotherhood 2.0 after the first year because we really liked the community that had emerged, and we wanted to keep those people together as best we could.

2
Tallain•

Just because you name dropped on the sportsracers and zefrank I'm going to go out and read all your books now. :D

2
enalios•

The Show was one of the best years of my life.

5
Tallain•

Indeed.

1
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Mine too. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I feel really lucky to have watched it while it was happening.

1
Rimacrob•

I'm pretty sure most of the people on Reddit are made of Awesome, and also like a lot of the stuff we do... except for Youtube comments, they've grown to despise those here.

1
InfiniteImagination•

How'd your concussion turn out?

1
slightlystartled•

Ah, see I was thinking along the lines of a firefighter.

1
mithwen_arataur•

Hoo haa, Nerdfighters! DFTBA, everyone!

1
laos101•

I'm working on a novel myself (frankly) for the last five years - but I honestly want to know several questions

  1. Does it pay well - and I know it varies, but being an NYTBS i'm sure it helps the value. I assume you are between well-off an mildly wealthy, but are you willing to give specifics?

  2. Agent. I am about 150 pages between my first novel and am curious how to grab the literary agent. I don't have intentions to be a internet published sensation, just a traditional approach. How did you find your agent - and is it a love-hate relationship?

  3. Genre?

  4. Did you get a degree before or after your first book? Did your education (if you got one) help you substantially in your attempt at writing or does it come alone?

  5. How old were you when you published your first book - how did it do on the market at sale?

  6. Book tours, all that crap. Worth it?

Sorry about all the questions, been writing since I was in diapers and writing is something I've always thought about pursuing as a career.

58
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

EDITED to be a bit vague (sorry!)

Hi, good luck with your novel!

  1. It pays less well than people tend to assume. Writers usually make 10-15% of the hardcover price and significantly less on paperbacks. So if your book retails for $20, you can expect to make $2 to $2.50 per copy. And publishing is a pretty small business: Obviously there are some blockbuster authors who sell millions of copies, but for most working writers, the numbers are much lower than that.

  2. I don't think you should seek out an agent until you're finished with your novel. I know that's annoying, but it's the way of the world these days. (Even when I got my first deal, in 2003, I had to finish the manuscript before I could submit it.)

  3. My books are published for teenagers in the US, for adults in some European markets.

  4. I don't have an MFA. I think MFAs are helpful mostly insofar as they give you two years to write, but then again, that's spoken as someone who never went to grad school. (I do have a bachelors degree.) I would add (by way of EDIT) that an MFA from a prestigious school can definitely help when you're sending query letters to agents.

  5. I was 27 when my first book came out. I got an $8,000 advance (that was low even in those days) but the book far exceeded everyone's expectations.

  6. Worth it for me, but probably not worth it for most people. I have a very personal relationship with my readers, and I also really like them and enjoy hanging out with them, which is not the case for most authors.

Hope that helps!

75
syuk•

Did you enjoy the story of Beatrix Potter that was recently turned into a film? She was an English illustrator / story teller.

A lot of books I read today from bestselling authors seem to be very formulaic, almost as if they are writing 4 books at once, then they release 3 in quick succession. Is this a 'trick of the trade' or am I being overly cynical?

Do you think it's true that everyone has a good book in them, and what kind of control do you have on merchandising and protecting your characters (unless you are using real people please disregard that).

Good luck and great to hear of your success so far,

Avid Reader

16
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

You're not being overly cynical. Quite a lot of contemporary writers have become factories. James Patterson does not write James Patterson novels; Tom Clancy doesn't write Tom Clancy novels (or at least not all of them). Nora Roberts DOES write all of her books, but when you write three or four books a year, it's hard to keep it all fresh and different.

The factory model is growing in popularity because publishing is a very blockbuster-focused business. That said, there are a lot of writers who are committed to craft and who work very hard on each book they publish. The books may or may not suck, but the effort is there.

Do I think everyone has a good book in them? Yes, but I think most people can't write that good book. Writing is not so much about Having A Great Story; it's about knowing how to translate that great story into these meaningless scratches on a screen that will come to life in the mind of a reader. That's a tricky business, and not everyone is suited to it.

I have control over merchandising (although there isn't any merch associated with my books, and never will be). But I wouldn't be consulted about casting, for instance, if they ever made a movie. (And to answer a common similar question: Very few writers have any control over their book covers.)

EDIT: Re. Beatrix Potter movie, I haven't seen it.

72
ZeusBeard•

"Writing is not so much about Having A Great Story; it's about knowing how to translate that great story into these meaningless scratches on a screen that will come to life in the mind of a reader."

Good stuff.

39
dermballs•

To be fair writers like Agatha Christie wrote books as if they were coming off an assembly line. Before that Dickens wrote books to order and released them in a fashion to maximise profits (both wrote all their own stuff, in contrast to the others you mentioned). I'm pretty sure the business/factory approach to writing is not a new modern phenomenon to the modern market.

13
flekkzo•

I think that Alexander Dumas would be worth mentioning in this context. Interesting way of writing :)

2
[deleted]•

How does that work? Has Clancy outsourced the writing?

2
syuk•

Thank you, the Potter film, if you would like to see it is here.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Bobsaid•

While you wouldn't be consulted about your characters if a movie was made of your book would you have any control over the screen play? I've noticed that many times the author of a book writes an amazing book only to have it killed by a Hollywood Writer, see Clive Clussler's Sahara as an example.

1
shaver•

It's not just contemporary authors; I devoured the product of the Hardy Boys widget-punch as a child, and apparently even the author hated that process: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/05/AR2005120501092_pf.html

1
ahyatt•

It is possible to be a great writer and be a factory, to some degree. Alexandre Dumas did it in the mid-1800's, and that system was responsible for some of his best novels.

1
quay42•

I got excited seeing that "Tom Clancy" had a new book out... Until I got closer and saw the actual author in small type. Am sure Clancy had a large had in it... But seems dishonest the way they handle that.

1
dexcel•

I know what you mean about the factory publishing I was just having this conversation with a friend about 30 mins ago. It really gets to me. Some of my fav authors when I was growing up like Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Dale Brown all crap now. Esp. Clive Cussler he used to write great books and now I can't even get through half of it before I get rid of it. Just reading the latest Tom Clancy so so boring, it has nothing on his last great book The Bear and the Dragon.

I think what annoys me about it is I get so excited when I find an author that I like reading as generally if I like one of the bits of work I like the rest of it and I think great there are another 5 books by this guy/girl that I can now read and enjoy right up until it says “xxxx with yyyy” then it all goes downhill.

Right now I am just hoping Lee Child doesn’t go down that route, so if you know him, can you pass that on.

Anyways, sorry no questions just a rant, but the Beatrix Potter movie was good, watched it over Christmas

1
darwinfish86•

(And to answer a common similar question: Very few writers have any control over their book covers.)

Noo! I'm done writing forever.

1
magister52•

How do eBook versions compare to paperbacks and hard covers in terms of how much you make?

As a side note, I also live in Indy, I didn't realize that anyone "famous" lived around here.

11
alex2468•

about #5 and the advance, did you sell your novel after it was completed or did you send out query letters before writing it hoping for an advance?

9
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I sold it after it was finished. (It's almost impossible these days to sell a first novel on proposal, unless you are, like, Lauren Conrad or Justin Bieber.)

29
alex2468•

good to know, i'll get to work on becoming the next justin bieber.

28
KelM0•

Hi there - just wanted to follow up on #2 (the agent question.) Once you did get your first novel finished and into good shape, how did you find your agent? Did you send query letters or was it through personal contacts? Or perhaps some other magical way that us not-yet-published authors can't even begin to fathom?

Thanks!

3
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I didn't get an agent until after I'd been offered a book deal by my publisher. (This is very, very, very unusual--but the publishing world was very different in 2003.) Once you have a book deal it becomes very easy to get an agent. (I chose my agent because I liked her clients and her clients liked her.)

The usual way now is to write a query letter. In fact I think that's the only way that works these days. I suggested somewhere else finding and following agents on twitter; I really do think that gives you a window into finding agents you'd like to work with.

4
johnji•

Parking next to this question eagerly, waiting for the answer to pull out...

1
lil_kuizi•

Hi there. Like laos101 above, I'm also an author hopeful. I have a really close friend with whom I've already completed a novel, but we scrapped it and we're about three fourths into our next one. Besides writing with her, I've started a few stories of my own. We're both still high school students, and we know we've got a long way to go. My only question here is how much help (parents, teachers, friends, etc.) did you receive in finding an agent or a publishing company?
And do I have permission to pm you? We just have a billion questions and I'm sure my friend will have a heart attack when I tell her. Whether you respond or not, I just have to say thank you so much for posting this. Even without all the advice you've given, this thread has been extremely inspirational.

3
laos101•

it does, thanks!

2
dorklogic•

CHEER

1
vanquish46•

And now it's your turn to delete it.

11
dorklogic•

'course ;p

1
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Done and done. Your move, sir.

5
aptadnauseum•

Edit yourself, he's already deleted it, you're the one blowing his cover now.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Major_Major_Major•

I can point to Alaska easily. Don't need to write a book about it.

55
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

(The book is about a girl named Alaska.)

Trolling comment aside, upvoted for excellence in the field of username.

58
Major_Major_Major•

Oh. Now I am somewhat annoyed that all your books have the names of characters in the titles except for "Paper Towns." Be consistent!

23
opportuneport•

"Let it Snow"

2
Aikidi•

You don't happen to be in the band Major Major Major do you?

1
dexcel•

Catch 22, it is one of the characters

4
Major_Major_Major•

Nope.

1
imitokay•

Be consistent!

that's what she said.

-4
[deleted]•

I know a girl named Alaska and sort of have a crush on her or something. Does this mean I should read your book?

4
TheDreadPirateRobert•

yes.

2
viper565•

Yeah, probably. Depends.

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Rx_MoreCowbell•

Hi - thanks for coming here and being open to all these questions. Usually its 'IAMA guy who screwed his sister' which is interesting but only to a point. Its nice to read about someone who has actually accomplished something at a high level and willing to share. That being said I haven't really noticed any writing questions.

I always find writing painful because while I have tons of ideas the actual skills of grammar and usage bore me to death - and without them Im a blathering moron. I recently read David Foster Wallace's essay on usage (his review on an Dictionary of American Usage) and found it completely fascinating but also very depressing. I just don't give a shit about all that (unless its analyzed by someone like Wallace) but know its vital to being a decent writer. So my question is what do you use for the technical side of writing or do you let your editors do the dirty work?

39
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I don't even have a sister.

I care about the technical side of writing because on some level, it's ALL the technical side: We're in the business of turning these meaningless scratches on a screen into communication, and to do that effectively, we have to use grammar. (That said, I think grammatical innovations like tl;dr are super-helpful and totally brilliant. But you have to understand grammar to create or understand tl;dr)

That said, while I do care a lot about the technical side of things, there are lots of rules I don't understand, and I'm always learning from copyeditors and proofreaders. And you can't let that stuff get in your way too much, you know? You say you find the technical side of writing crushingly boring, but I read your post above and I see ideas clearly communicated, which is the whole business of grammar, so you can't find it THAT difficult, since you do it well.

71
Rx_MoreCowbell•

I completely agree about how its ALL the technical side (which is why I find it so frustrating) - the painful part is that you can't just go from thoughts in your brain to paper with everyone understanding your intent. And its not like any of my ideas are transformative or genius like a Dostoevsky, Nabokov or Kundera. Id just be happy to be a great storyteller like Tobias Wolff or Cheever or simply entertaining like a Fran Lebowitz. Do you use any style manuals or do you have a basic understanding already in your head?

And too bad about a sister - you could of had another AMA, but you're a writer so come up with something creative....?

7
imitokay•

I love when people relate good grammar to clearly communicating ideas. I feel like language, even written, is a lot more fluid than some people (especially grammar nazi's) will give it credit for.

3
bvilleneuve•

I trust your first sentence is sarcastic, and that you don't actually love that? Language is fluid but some people seem to not understand how much one's meaning can be obfuscated by poor grammar, especially as one's sentence construction gets complex.

Even in a short sentence, though, grammar can make all the difference (cf. "Let's eat, Grandpa" and "lets eat grandpa").

1
imitokay•

^^ Pretty obvious we don't want to eat grandpa. Context clues are a bitch!

1
mrminty•

No wat, I just read that essay last night. Consider the Lobster us an awesome book.

1
txmslm•

are you talking about this essay?

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html

1
Rx_MoreCowbell•

Yes - but jesus is that tough format to read his essays in. All the footnotes will kill you reading it that way.

1
txmslm•

Do you have a better link please?

1
Rx_MoreCowbell•

I think thats the best you are going to do - I read it in his book of essays, "Consider the Lobster." So the publishers probably have people scouring the net for copies of it. I do have to say the book is pretty amazing and nearly all the essays are top notch. But it is David Foster Wallace so that goes without saying. And curiously, even though the subject is 'dry' as hell, its the essay that makes you understand his personal psychology the most.

1
ArchAuthor•

OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU. NERDFIGHTERS FOR LIFE! Freak out over, here are my questions.

When's your next book due out?

Any plans on another tour-de-nerdfighting?

When I read your books I always see you as the main character. Or a teenage you anyway. Is this sometimes tiy feel like writing the novels, or have I spent too much time watching B2.0?

Harry Potter or Twilight?

Why Unicorns? I've followed since the beginning of B2.0.

27
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

  1. Next book: Probably Spring of 2012.

  2. I'll tour when my next book comes out, hopefully with Hank (it's harder now with the baby and everything).

  3. My teenage self was very different from the guys I write about, but I think when people have watched a lot of my videos and heard my voice a lot, it's inevitable that they'll invest pieces of me into those characters. (This is troubling in some ways, but it also has its advantages, I think.)

  4. Harry Potter.

  5. I don't even remember why I hate unicorns; it's a Hatfield/McCoy thing. And thanks for watching us all these years!

23
thephotoman•

Harry Potter spoilers for those that care

I don't even remember why I hate unicorns; it's a Hatfield/McCoy thing. And thanks for watching us all these years!

Voldemort's existence was sustained for many years by drinking unicorn blood. After this experience, he killed Tonks. Ergo, unicorns killed Tonks.

I believe that was the justification you gave in an earlier video on the subject.

15
kertrats•

Oh my god, I had completely forgotten that Tonks dies... now I'm depressed again...

9
GatewayKeeper•

Funny, tonks and Jane (from Will Grayson, Will Grayson) always were seen in the same light for me.

1
ArchAuthor•

Not a problem. Thank you so much. I met you when you came to Westport, looking forward to meeting you again. Great Thoughts from Places. Do more Question Tuesdays. You guys asked for what you're looking for in future B2.0 Videos. Donated to P4A this year. There's not much more to say. :P

This genuinely made my day.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
CunningAllusionment•

One unicorn can kill hordes of zombies. One unicorn can allow tim currey to destroy the sun and rule in darkness forever. Unicorns can steal the eye of the spent of chaos and deliver it to you in some far-flung shadow.Unicorns are bad-fucking-ass. Don't be a hater.

1
redwall_hp•

NERDFIGHTERS

That rings a bell, as does John Green. I know he wrote a book called "Paper Towns" (which I have not read) and that he wrote one of the motivational emails for NaNoWriMo...

Was he, by any chance, on PotterCast at one point?

2
readingwench•

He was on a Potter Blog ages ago, it may have been PotterCast, with his brother Hank (who he does a video blog with) He's a really interesting author who writes enjoyable but also well written books, so I would recommend reading him for sure (but do it in order, Looking for Alaska first, then An Abundance Of Katherines, then Paper Towns, then Will Greyson Will Greyson which he co-wrote with David Levithan (they each wrote alternating chapters)

2
redwall_hp•

Okay, it must have been him on PotterCast. I may try his stuff when I find some time in my busy fantasy-reading schedule...

1
yarnk•

Greetings! I'm always curious about writers' routines.

  • Do you maintain a schedule, establish daily word targets, etc.?

  • What tools do you use?

  • Where do you write and what's it look like?

Thanks!

25
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

  1. I think a lot of writers lie about their schedules and discipline. (I know I do.) We do this so that people will think that we are, like, extremely disciplined and hard-working and whatever. I try to write every day (except for when I'm traveling, which is quite a lot of the time) for five hours in the morning, but you may notice that it is morning right now, and I am not technically working on my new story. In the afternoon, I do all the running-a-small-business stuff, like book travel and answer email and call my health insurer about their dishonest practices.

  2. I use Pages at the moment, but I've also used Word; I just didn't want to buy it for my new computer. Lots of my friends use this program Scrivener and swear by it, but I'm resistant to change.

  3. I'm in a Starbucks. It looks like all the other Starbucks. I also write in my basement a lot.

72
asbsd•

How does it feel to write in a public place? Does it bother you or did it? Can you concentrate like that?

13
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

It doesn't bother me. I feel super-comfortable there and because writing is pretty isolating, it's actually nice to be around people, particularly people who have no desire to talk to me.

13
elizzybeth•

Do you ever get recognized while writing in a public place? It seems like that could make it difficult to focus.

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
ChildOfThe80s•

Scrivener rocks. Seriously, it's awesome. Keeping track of your research in it is a doddle and you can be as organised/disorganised as you like in it - both work really well.

3
andrewoid•

I downloaded Scrivener. Is it possible for you to share some tips? This is my first download and the tool is far better than anything I've used till now.

I got the beta Windows version.

1
ChildOfThe80s•

The Beta Windows version is a ways short of the mature OS X version that I'm using, but have you checked out the tutorial videos on the site?

2
[deleted]•

I just bought it (well, I was given it for Christmas but my parents couldn't do it without my assistance) and I'm hoping it'll be as awesome as everyone says, and as I suspect it can be. I agree with andrewoid, any tips?

1
Rodman930•

call my health insurer about their dishonest practices.

I lol'd.

Also, as a writer, do you hate when people use terms like lol?

3
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I use lol all the time. I think I've even used lol in a book, although I can't remember if I cut the joke. I think language is delightfully malleable, and as long as meaning stays clear, linguistic innovation is great.

tl;dr: lol = good

5
originalone•

As a human being, yes.

1
fistoroboto•

I heard someone say once that in order to be a good writer you have to love people, since you are in essence, creating people. Are you a very social person, and if not, where do you draw the inspiration for your characters and their actions?

2
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I'm introverted, but I do enjoy social encounters. I don't think you have to be a particularly social person to write books, but I do think it helps to spend a lot of time observing people and imagining what it's like to be them. (...said the creeper.)

2
spherecow•

what kind of formatting do you do when you are writing the books? I imagine that nothing other than maybe italicization gets into the final product, but are there formatting tricks that helps writing something that's several hundred pages long? Thanks.

2
[deleted]•

I've heard Scrivener is awesome and I just bought it. Hopefully the word on the street is true.

I also have noticed that you have a peer group of writers (for example, I found out about the vlogbrothers through Scott Westerfeld, another favourite YA author of mine). Have you found that having other writer friends is helpful? Do you have beta readers, and would you exchange work with another writer with which you were friends?

Also, any videos of all of you writing together? Circles made of awesome. When you left New York I mourned your missing out on the ease of future circles, for your sake, although maybe they aren't all I imagine them to be. I just have read a book by most of you.

2
trisight•

  • Do you use any special templates in Word?

  • What formatting guide do you use in terms of margins and what not.

  • Also do you use any particular font sets/sizes?

1
[deleted]•

Not asking for a circlejerk (besides, Reddit tends to opine against Apple) but how do you like Pages?

Except for when I have to collaborate with an MS Office/Word heavy environment (e.g. any office or university), I greatly prefer using Pages to write.

1
[deleted]•

I just picked up Scrivener after having the trial for about 30 seconds. I would definitely give it a shot if I were a full time author!

1
andrewoid•

Greetings! BIG thanks for the program Scrivener, one of my SA friend is also into writing novel and told me to try it out (although I don't write), it was available for Mac at that time.

A quick search revealed that beta version of Scrivener for Windows is available, downloaded it and the tool looks awesome!

Thank you, and really appreciate the sharing on this thread. Immensely helpful to all of us. I'll see if I can get a copy of your book in this part of the world (Asia). :)

1
Assaulton700•

Who The eff is hank?

24
greatperhaps•

Hank is a piece of meat on a stick, dipped in batter and then deep fat fried.

23
thephotoman•

Hank is is a vector used chiefly to describe the shape and orientation of the orbit of one astronomical body around another, such as a planet revolving around a star.

19
GeneratedAnomaly•

I've heard that Hank is a mass of incandescent gas.

12
Nero-•

Nonono, Hank is the guy that sells gas!

1
[deleted]•

He's a guy that sells propane and propane accessories.

12
jakeduhjake•

All the upboats for you, Glen Cocoa. You go, Glen Cocoa.

1
CoughSyrup•

A hank refers to a unit of yarn or twine that is in a coiled form. Hanks come in a fixed length depending on the type of material, so the term hank is sometimes used as a unit of measure. For instance, a hank of linen is 270 meters, and a hank of cotton or silk is 768 meters.

9
bhbluebirds•

Hank is his brother.

1
sauropoda•

I really want to downvote you for killing the joke. But I will not. Have an upvote for getting my attention!

1
orthogonality•

I thought you were dead, Mr. Faulkner.

21
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

He is. Alas! D'you ever hear Faulkner's resignation letter from the post office? Best resignation letter ever:

"As long as I live under the capitalistic system I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp. This, sir, is my resignation."

90
goldentenor•

Kurt Vonnegut worked briefly at SI until being told to write a story about a race horse that had jumped the rail and terrorized the infield at a local track. Vonnegut stared at his desk for what seemed like hours before finally departing the building without a word. Inside his deserted typewriter was this: ''The horse jumped over the fucking fence.''

Vonnegut comments: ''When the magazine was only a glint in the eyes of Luce Publications, they hired a bunch of sports writers from yokel venues who, it turned out, couldn’t write. So then they hired a bunch of writers who didn’t care or know squat about sports. I was part of that second batch, having gone broke as only the daddy of six kids on Cape Cod can hit the big casino. So I roamed far from my immediate responsibilities at the Cornell Club, then at the Hotel Barclay, where everybody else was an unmarried Cornellian insurance salesman. At Time-Life, we got out an issue of S.I. every week, never knowing when the first real issue would be published. And I quit before that happened, exactly in the manner described.''

Source

38
asoap•

My man crush on Vonnegut just grows stronger and stronger every day.

11
retrojoe•

That is loaded with awesomeness.

5
ThaFuzz•

Of course you would know Faulkner's last words. ...well his words of resignation.

1
fezzesarecool•

Too much punctuation for classic Faulkner if you ask me

0
aplusbi•

What kind of deal do you have with your publisher(s) in terms of copyright? Do you still hold the copyright to your works, and if so, what are the licensing conditions?

19
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Yeah one of the advantages of writing books instead of writing for video games or movies or whatever is that I own the shit I make. It's copyright me; not copyright Blizzard Entertainment. But my publisher has the right to publish the book until such a time as they don't feel it's selling well enough to continue publishing, at which point they will send me a book saying that my book is officially out of print and the copyright has reverted to me.

This is getting very confusing, though, with ebooks and print-on-demand publishing. Publishers are more reluctant than they used to be to declare a book out-of-print because technology makes it possible to make money even if you're only selling three or four copies of a title each year. So these days, there's a lot of fighting it out between publishers and authors (or their agents at least) over what constitutes "in print."

(I am very fortunate that my books are all happily and healthily in print, but I'm aware that pretty much everything goes out of print eventually.)

30
aplusbi•

So if I understand you correctly, the publisher essentially "owns" the copyright until it goes out of print?

12
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I think so, although from what I read above, you know a lot more about copyright than I do.

Here's everything I know about copyright: When I want to quote Emily Dickinson, it's expensive, even though she has been dead forever.

29
aplusbi•

Ha, I don't know that much about copyright, I just pretend to.

That's kind of surprising, although I guess since a lot of her work was first published in 1955 a significant amount of her work is still under copyright (anything published before 1923 in the US is public domain).

7
Pudie•

Blizzard name drop! Do you play WoW? If so race, class, etc?

3
spelunker•

I think it works like that because you're essentially a small business owner. There are indie game developers out there who probably run under a similar model; i.e. they develop a game like Braid and then find someone like EA to publish it.

I would guess jobs like technical writers who make the manuals for Ford probably don't own their stuff, but they're not small business owners and are guaranteed wages and whatnot.

2
nabrok•

What are your thoughts on e-books?

Would you consider self-publishing back catalog, short stories or even a future novel (hiring an editor rather than going through the traditional publisher)?

Are you concerned your publisher may do print runs simply to keep the books in print and therefore keep the rights?

2
MrBound•

Very interested to hear an answer to this. I dream of being a novelist some day, but I find the length of modern copyright statues repellent.

1
all_summer•

Dear everyone on this thread,

Go check out /r/nerdfighters. It's been woefully absent of posts (except for today) and needs some love. I'm not a mod or anything, but it saddens me to see that even though there are so many nerdfighters on reddit, that subreddit is getting neglected.

DFTBA.

19
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

upvoted. :)

4
[deleted]•

[deleted]

2
greengoddess•

What is your favorite book of all time?

Gah. This is killing me. I wonder who you are..

17
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I'm not famous. If you look at the NYT lists any given week, you'll see that you've never heard of the vast majority of the writers there, and that's particularly true of people like me who publish for teens.

I don't really have a single favorite book. Maybe Gatsby? But pretty much everyone in my field is influenced quite a lot by Salinger, and I am no exception.

30
greengoddess•

Do you think it's important for someone to have a degree in literature or english to be a good writer? I love writing, but my course is no way related to it.

14
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

No. Vonnegut was a chemical engineer or whatever. William Carlos Williams was a doctor. I think it's important to read and to understand how writers use text to create stories, but I don't think your college major matters that much.

36
greengoddess•

Thank you very much! and I would buy all your books if you tell us who you are :)

6
GotTheHotsForMyAunt•

Upvote for mentioning my favorite poet!

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

2
hitlersshit•

I'm going to have to disagree with you and agree with the OP. Teen/children authors are surprisingly unknown outside of the school environment. Avi, Madeleine L'Engle and Katherine Paterson are all examples of people who are huge within schools but virtually unknown to the general public. I had only heard of the OP through vlogbrothers, and have never encountered anything about him in newspapers.

1
nirreskeya•

Gatsby

Good answer. I feel like there's this backlash against it because it became so popular, but it just really is that good.

I'd like to ask you how you feel about other authors I enjoy, but with your cover blown it's probably best to not discuss your contemporaries.

2
Talwyn•

So when I saw the name, I thought you sounded familiar. And then I remembered that I think I got a pep talk from you through NaNoWriMo. Lo and behold, I did! I loved it, and while I won't say it was the sole reason that I crossed the finish line, you can make it up and say that it did. :)

Now I've got a few questions about that and your role in NaNo in general...

  1. Did you contact them, or did they contact you about doing a pep talk?

  2. How long did it take you to write that pep talk?

  3. Are you a Wrimo? As in, do you participate in NaNoWriMo?

  4. If so, how did you do?

  5. How much caffeine do you drink in a normal day of writing? I want to compare... :)

Thank you very much!

17
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Re. NaNoWriMo: Congratulations on winning!

  1. They contacted me. I'd made a video a couple years before about NaNoWriMo that they liked.

  2. I don't know how long it took me, because it was right after my son was born and I was pretty much constantly delirious with fatigue.

  3. I've attempted NaNoWriMo before, but I've never come even close to finishing. I'm just a slow writer, and there's no getting around it.

  4. Caffeine: I never drank caffeine until my kid was born. Now I have a couple cups of coffee per day. The first time I drank coffee, I turned to my wife after a few minutes and said, "Whoa. This stuff really works." But I think my tolerance is increasing, unfortunately.

14
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
Shinhan•

Doubt its easy for him to not worry about his writing making sense.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

16
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Well I didn't have a life in publishing before 2001, although I've heard lots of stories about how good things were back then. My sales have been steady in the last two years, but I'm in an unusual position because I have a personal connection to a lot of my readers. I'm also in an unusual position because I've been consistently supported by my publisher with good bookstore placement and that kind of thing.

That said, I do think you're absolutely right that publishers are reluctant to make long-term investments in literary authors. Those investments used to pay off pretty regularly, but these days the business is so blockbuster-driven (and I am not, sadly, an author of blockbusters either) that there's less interest in writers who can deliver solid but unspectacular sales.

I think the reasons for this are complicated, but it boils down to this: Per unit, blockbusters are a lot more profitable.

That said, I think electronic publishing and the Internet offers non-blockbuster types huge opportunities, and publishers are rightly concerned about it.

17
Rimacrob•

I can assure you, you have some of the best placement consistently (more than JK Rowling, even at some times) at least around where I live.

1
[deleted]•

How do you have a personal connection to your readers exactly? You do a lot of reading tours?

1
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I do a lot of reading tours, but I'm in touch with my readers mostly via youtube, where I have for the last four years maintained a popular vlog with my brother, Hank. (see inside jokes immediately below.)

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

2
[deleted]•

Having an novelist on reddit that is named FlamingBagOfPoo makes me grin like an idiot for some reason other than me being an idiot.

14
Shinhan•

Tried selling your book as eBook?

1
TwitchD•

Be nice if we could have some way to verify the authenticity of your claim. Not to be rude or anything, just seems like anyone could say that they wer an X, then google the answers to questions about Xs.

Also, assuming you are who you say you are: What do you think of eBooks (Kindle, Nook, etc.)? Do you think that the publishing buisness is going to e able to adapt to them without having to make drastic overhauls?

15
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Hopefully my answers not being stupid will verify my claim, but I can have my Mom call you, I guess? :)

As for Kindles (and to a much lesser extent the nook; I mean the nook is primarily like a belated and desperate attempt by B&N to save itself as a company): I think they're great. I think it's great if there's a way to read on a screen that I still get paid for. And frankly, the royalties are pretty similar whether you buy a hardcover or a kindle book, because big agencies were able to negotiate better royalty splits for ebooks.

There's also a lot of interesting creative potential in ereaders, although no one has done much with it yet. You've got a searchable text with the ability to support nontextual content; that could really reshape the way we imagine what it means to read a book in all kinds of exciting (or terrifying, depending on your perspective) ways.

41
TwitchD•

Your mother already calls me enough. >.>

But in all seriousness, thanks for the reply: Follow-Up question:

Do you see yourself publishing material with those new content possibilities in mind? This assumes you are going to continue publishing, of course.

28
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Yeah I'd love to do that stuff, but it's expensive. The great thing about writing, from a business point of view, is that there's no start-up cost. If you're going to incorporate music or video or animation or whatever, the cost structure of the enterprise changes completely, and then you need to partner closely with a publisher, and then they want more of your money, etc. etc.

I don't think there's a financial model that works for it yet. (Like, you could make an awesome text-based multimedia app that sells for $1.99, but there's no way to make such things even remotely profitable at $1.99 a unit.)

Publishing is a really small business when compared to other media--video games, movies, even online video. It's a prestigious business in some ways, but it has always been a niche gig.

23
TwitchD•

Could you see yourself writing for other markets then? For example, I am godawfully sick of terribly written video game plots. Do you think that would be an area you could expand to? Or do you feel that the way you write is limited to the written word? And in that same vein, do you think that the written word is becoming obsolete? I have this inclination to believe that as games (and other mediums) become more powerful the written word will actually be the most limited form of communication.

9
Megatron_McLargeHuge•

Is the literary world taking to the Kindle (etc.)? It's certainly useful for technical material and a good substitute for carrying around textbooks, but it's less obvious that people who read one book at a time straight through and like the feel of paper will adopt it.

A decent number of programmers made a good living selling their own iPhone apps, and the only thing that brought that market back in a more corporate direction is that teams can build more impressive games than individuals. Since books are still individual creations, it seems like the market is ready to change, and authors could sell their books for $5-8 and keep 50%+ instead of getting $2 or less in royalties. Do you think that's likely to happen (maybe in SF first) or is the promotional infrastructure the publishers offer really critical for sales?

As with music, I'd be much more willing to just buy something for $5 instead of pirate or borrow it when it costs $20.

2
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

Right, but unlike with music, the $5 price point is a real problem for publishers and authors, not because books are expensive to create (although they are; editors do important work and need to be compensated for it) but because unlike music and games, the audience is relatively small. A book is hugely successful if it sells 100,000 copies; a movie that sells 100,000 tickets is a massive failure. So you have fewer units to pay for the expenses of the creation of the book.

(To anticipate some people's responses: Printing is not a meaningful expense; most of the meaningful expenses are labor.)

$10 seems like a good price to me because publishers think it's way too low and readers think it's somewhat too high.

10
wcalvert•

I don't know if you are at liberty to discuss how you get paid for your ebook sales, but I find it interesting (and I was in an e-argument yesterday about it).

Amazon gives publishers 35% of the sales price (or 70% if you price your book below $10 and give it a list price that is 20% lower than anywhere else).

Did you negotiate a split with your publisher, or do you get a flat rate per electronic sale?

2
Megatron_McLargeHuge•

The point of charging $5 would be to cut out most of the middle men, and give almost everything to the author. Online vendors won't be able to sustain more than 20-30% cuts unless they have monopolies like iTunes. If you have an established reputation and don't need access to bookstores and tours, it should be possible to sell directly to your fans. I imagine it will take someone like Steven King to do it first, and a little wider adoption of the Kindle, but I think the traditional publishing model will fall faster and harder than the music model.

1
[deleted]•

Thanks for doing this AMA, this is very interesting!

  • What's your writing pace like, how many words/pages a day during your five writing hours?

  • Do you ever actually tot up your wordcount (including fiction) to see how much you make per word? I'm kind of anal like that, and it gives me great satisfaction to say, hey look, on THIS project I got a professional rate!.

  • How do you work on your creativity? Do you do exercises, meditation, journaling, etc? Or does it all just flow out your fingertips when you sit down to write (you bastard)?

  • You spoke earlier about writer factories... do you think it is the wave of the future?

  • And finally, what's in store for you in 2011? What's one new year resolution you think all writers should make?

15
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

1./2. My writing pace: It's a little hard to calculate because about 90% of the words I write do not end up in a finished book, so it's safe to assume that in a 70,000 word book, I wrote at least 500,000 words, but do you count bad words? I dunno. Anyway, I'm usually happy if I write 1,000 words in a day, but if I try not to focus too much on word count.

  1. I've never run the numbers on a novel, but I thought a lot about per-word pay when I was writing a lot for magazines and stuff.

  2. I don't do particular exercises. I know a lot of successful writers who do, but I just go back and read what I wrote the day before and then try to start writing again.

  3. If I knew what the future of publishing was going to look like, I'd get out of the writing novels business and into the publishing business.

  4. I've gotta rewrite my next story. as for resolutions we should all make: Everyone should read the first page of Robert Penn Warren's first draft of All the King's Men, which he ended up deleting. It's the best deleted page I've ever read, and I reread it often to remind myself that if Robert Penn Warren could delete that, I can cut anything unnecessary out of my books.

19
HotLunch•

Robert Penn Warren's first draft of All the King's Men

I can't find this anywhere. Could you post a picture of the page?

12
diehipsterscum•

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6610929/AKM%20Appendix.pdf

12
ProfessorMembrane•

Wow. I knew in the back of my mind I was only asked to read the first page but I just kept going. It shows a real level of self confidence to be able to cut something like that. That says, "This is no fluke. I can do that again but better." Inspiring.

1
AdlerIrene•

I'm speechless. But still saying (well, typing) something. Thanks for the link!

1
[deleted]•

Thank you! :) It's great to have such insight into other writers' processes.

I'm looking up Robert Penn Wright's draft right now..

7
walterdonnydude•

were you able to find it? link anyone?

9
diehipsterscum•

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6610929/AKM%20Appendix.pdf

1
kayina•

How did you figure out the process, people, etc, to become published?

Do you think that submitting to online publishers or doing it yourself via pubit is a good option?

14
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

EDIT: Edited to be more honest now that I am no longer anonymous.

  1. I got a temp job at a magazine called Booklist, and my editor there, Ilene Cooper, was a published author. I worked very closely with Ilene as I wrote and rewrote Looking for Alaska, and then when she felt that it was finished enough to send to publishers, we sent it directly to publishers. I got a call a few months later from someone who wanted to publish the book contingent upon many edits, which is how I spent the next two years. This path to publication was a lot more common back in 2003; now it's basically impossible to sell a book without an agent, even if you have the kind of primo connections that I had.

  2. It's a good option if you have some way to sell a book that does not require bookstores or marketing. Some of the stigma of self-publishing is going away as people like Cory Doctorow experiment with nontraditional publishing models, but the fact is that the vast majority of readers still get their books in bookstores, and it's very hard to get distribution if you're self-publishing.

28
kayina•

How did you find out which companies to submit to and the information to do so?

Did you copyright your book or whatever the equivalent of that is, before sending out manuscripts, or are people generally not going to steal your work when you submit to a legitimate publisher?

I switched to ereader and ever since I've been exclusively reading on my blackberry and I have been buying way more books than I usually do, which is why I was asking about writing for this niche. Are your books sold in digital format and if so, how do sales compare to hard copies?

8
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

EDIT: Edited to be more honest now that I am not trying to hide my identity.

  1. My editor at the magazine, Ilene, had worked with a lot of different publishing houses, and she had ideas for which publishers would likely be most sympathetic to the kind of novel I'd written. (And she was right. She basically functioned like an agent, except without the money.)

  2. No, I didn't, and I strongly feel it's unnecessary to do so.

  3. My books are sold digitally (but not on the ipad, much to my consternation). I have a really internet-savvy audience, but even so my ebook sales represent about 5% of my total sales.

19
kayina•

Thanks for the info. I was entertaining the idea of writing trashy paperback romance novels to the e-book market but wasn't certain how profitable that would be.

Is it easier to get things published after "establishing" yourself with your first book, or do you still send manuscripts to different publishers?

How much, would you say, of your published work was edited and changed from the original?

3
[deleted]•

Why not on the iPad? Seems like there's a story there. Your publishers won't sign up with Apple?

2
readingwench•

Whats happened to me with e-readers is that I now buy any book I really really want to read digitally, but because I am so in love with actual physical copies, I wait until the store is having a sale and then get the hard copy

1
32100•

They may not be available in iBooks, Apple's ebook app, but if they are available on the Kindle they can be read on the iPad using the Kindle app.

1
aplusbi•

In the US, all original works are copyrighted by default, so manuscripts are copyrighted in the US. Proving that you are the author is a different story, however.

2
nirreskeya•

...one was nice enough to write me back and tell me that while it sucked, they thought it could be better. (That person is still my editor.)

Describe the editing process. Lots of back and forth? How drastic were the changes made by your editor? Did you feel at the time it improved the book? If not, do you feel so now? Did that process change how you wrote later?

Edit: You answered most of this here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/etmyn/iama_new_york_times_bestselling_novelist_ama/c1avsco

1
ArchAuthor•

By the way, thank you. Your books have profoundly moved me and my views on the world, made me a more optimistic and romantic person. Katherines has the proud distinction of being one of if not my favorite books. That's all.

14
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

aww thanks!

12
[deleted]•

I want to second this.

Katherines was a book that really changed how I view myself and basically everything around me. It was revolutionary, in my opinion. And I thank you so much for it.

Also, as a Nerdfighter, I do think you should do a B2.0/Nerdfighteria themed AMA sometime. I'd be all over that shit.

DFTBA. Thank you.

7
srb846•

I gave An Abundance of Katherines to a friend of mine in grad school. The wild pig hunt was the first time in a long time he laughed aloud at a book.

I met you in Lancaster, PA during the Nerdfighter Tour. I brought you the Amish friendship bread.

Thanks for all that you do!

6
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

I remember that bread. It was so delicious! The whole rest of the tour people only gave us candy, but all we wanted after a long night was something with sustenance. Thanks, and I hope I see you again on tour someday. (Don't feel obligated to bring bread. But really, do bring bread.)

8
srb846•

I figured you must have enjoyed it, since you sang a song about! And I will definitely try to come to any Nerdfighter tour that I can make it to. It was a really fun time!

Day = Made

3
[deleted]•

I follow you on twitter, and based on your back-and-forths with Maureen Johnson, I always imagine you, her, and all those other NY YA authors constantly sitting around in not quite trendy cafes, roaring with laughter at your uber clever literary jokes. Is this the case? How often would you get together with other YA authors, whether just one on one or in a larger group? Are you a close group, or do you see each other as potential competition?

9
thesoundandthefuryOPJohn Green•

  1. Thanks for following me on twitter.

  2. The jokes are not clever at all, but when we hang out, there is quite a lot of laughter. (It's important to note that I no longer live in New York, so I only see Maureen occasionally.)

  3. It's not competitive, at least it doesn't feel that way to me. I think we all genuinely want more readers reading more books, so we're not concerned with trying to poach from each other; we think there's plenty of room for everyone (and in fact for many more writers) if we can just find a way to get more people excited about books.

11
[deleted]•

I LOVE your answer 3 :) I'm 21, so technically a little old for the YA category, but I so support younger people reading, and I love the attitude you, and it would seem most other YA authors, have.

You're fantastic!! Thanks so much for doing this AMA!!

2
thephotoman•

I have a Nook and no shame. I'll read whatever I want, and that does still skew towards YA stuff.

1
zombiebatman•

I don't think anyone's too old for YA. They're what I relate to and what I find interesting. I'm 20, and I find most adult geared books kind of boring.

1
codered1322•

wow 1.1 million followers.

1