October 2011
95 posts
September 2011
82 posts
November 3rd
Dear Tumblypoos,
I just learned from my publisher that all copies of The Fault in Our Stars must be signed by November 3rd, or else some copies of the first printing will be unsigned.
This is less time than I thought, and I have a lot of books left to sign. Essentially, every single day between now and November 3rd, I need to sign more copies than I’ve signed in my most productive day so far.
This is the place where I insert a freaking out gif.
So, okay, I’m going back to signing, but I wanted to let you know why you might not see much tumblring or tweeting around here, and why my vlogbrothers videos may seem a bit….rushed.
DFTBA,
John
Since you know more about book distribution than I do, what do you think the chances are that the hanklerfished books will be mixed in with the other books and distributed evenly about? I realize that i have a 5% chance to get a hanklerfished book, but if they all end up in together in one section of the country than I'm probably out of luck. (I do intend to go book store hopping in search of one the day it comes out....)
There was apparently a two-hour meeting at Penguin recently discussing this very topic. (Imagine all these people wearing suits, saying things like, “The geographic distribution of the Hanklerfishes is extremely important to the author.”)
Basically, they ended up deciding that the best way to do it is for me to mix the Hanklerfished copies into each of the 30 or 40 boxes I send to the bindery. This will ensure that the Hanklerfishes will be distributed widely, although there may still be clumps in certain places.
Not a very important question, but more curiosity than anything. Why does none of the main characters in your published novels have any siblings? I know that one of your areas of knowledge include conjoined twins, and you have a brother. Also Thank you for signing TFiOs.
Hazel is an only child, too!
I do this to taunt my brother.
What do you think of colleges and high schools creating their own Nerdfighter clubs? The University of Oklahoma is working on getting a Nerdfighter club official :)
I think it is wildly amazing. It’s astonishing to see all these nerdfighter groups sprout up IRL and to see nerdfighters around the world having gatherings of 10 or 50 or 100 people from Montreal to Utrecht to Boston. It’s just…yeah. Amazing.
I love that you are signing the pre ordered copies of A Fault In Our Stars and I really wanted to buy one, but I realize how much signing you will be doing and I didn't want to add any extra work.
I get this a lot, so I’ll answer it here:
You are really nice. Like, I really appreciate that there are so many people who are genuinely trying to save my ulnar nerve from irritation. However! I am going to sign the books regardless of whether you buy them. The only way I could sign all the preorders was to sign the entire first printing (it’s just the way book warehousing works), so I’m signing every copy that is going into every bookstore. (The preorders are a tiny fraction of the 150,000 books I’m signing.)
In short, you will not be adding to my workload. (But I appreciate your generosity!)
Hello! I just preordered tfios and was wondering if you have an infogaphic that could help me predict what colour signature i'm getting... like a pie chart? Thank you! ps. This year I spent all my birthday money on all of your books <3
Alas, I do not. The percentage breakdown was available at yourpants, but yourpants have been disastrously and massively hacked for quite awhile now. We are working on a solution, but all the solutions are both very expensive and very time-consuming. I would love to see a pie chart of the color breakdown, though!
did you intentionally name the boy with eye cancer Isaac because it sounds like eye-sick?
hahahahahhahahahahaha no I’d never thought of that. I was thinking of this guy. (This is not about The Fault in Our Stars, for those of you who don’t know, but it is not a spoiler.)
I just watched the recent Swindon Town video, and you said that heavy drinking and such during schooling is shameful to you, but yet there was a lot of drinking in Looking For Alaska. Explain? (I also just recently finished LFA; It was amazing. Thank you for the good read. )
Novels are not in the business of modeling appropriate behavior.
This is a really important question. How can you ignore it? Do you believe in free will, and have you read "Not Guilty" by Robert Blatchford?
I have 7,000 questions in my inbox. If I answer 1% of them, I’ll spend two hours a day answering questions and then still leave 99% unanswered. I’m sorry! Yes I believe in free will*; no, I have not read “Not Guilty.”
* I mean, obviously contingent upon certain definitions of “I” and “believe” and “free” and “will.”
