Skip to content

John's untitled novel (2011)

novel · in 61 videos (2011–2026)

John's then-untitled new novel about two teenage cancer survivors obsessed with a reclusive novelist; his original title was The Hectic Glow. It came out as The Fault in Our Stars on January 10, 2012, and went to number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

By: John Green · Includes: The Fault in Our Stars

Videos by year: 2011: 31 · 2012: 12 · 2013: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2026: 2

Threads

Also named in the threads: Hanko de Mayo 2011 edition: Nerdfighters' gifts and videos for Hank's birthday

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Hazel Grace Lancaster (2) · doobly-doo (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2011

  • 2011-03-09 · DANDY LIONS! It's Question Day — announcement: John says his new book comes out in almost exactly one year. — 00:00:54
  • 2011-04-11 · Is My Boyfriend Gay? Is He Cheating? — John says that on Friday (15 April 2011) he is moving to the Netherlands for two months, which he kept meaning to mention to Hank amid everything going on. — 00:00:03
  • 2011-04-20 · Tulipomania — John says he is really in Amsterdam, not before a green screen, for two months finishing his new book; the reason for Amsterdam will become obvious when you read it. — 00:00:03
  • 2011-05-23 · Eating the Unicorn — John says his position changed because his new book is quite spoilable and he doesn't want it spoiled for readers. — 00:02:04
  • 2011-06-10 · Then I Took Off My Bra — announcement: John says he and Hank will go on tour in the United States when his new, as-yet-untitled but soon-to-be-titled book comes out. — 00:02:15
  • 2011-07-01 · Humping the Town — Hank says The Fault in Our Stars has been number one on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble bestseller charts four days running with almost no publicity. — 00:00:29
  • 2011-07-27 · 150,000 Autographs — announcement: John announces Penguin has moved The Fault in Our Stars forward five months, from May 1 to January 10, 2012. — 00:00:17
  • 2011-10-28 · Reading Chapter One of The Fault in Our Stars — announcement: John: Instead of a real video, John reads the first chapter of The Fault in Our Stars as a live-show video, something he has long wanted to do. — 00:00:26
  • 2011-11-21 · Old Man Narrates Young Girl — announcement: John: There will be two audiobooks of The Fault in Our Stars: the real one narrated by Kate Rudd, available everywhere, and John's, only in a physical limited-edition box set from DFTBA. — 00:00:41
  • 2011-12-05 · 5 Worst Typos of History — John shows the finished copy of The Fault in Our Stars that came in the mail, one of the few unsigned copies. — 00:00:03
  • 2011-12-09 · Puppies and The Tour de Nerdfighting 2012 — announcement: John announces that three and a half years later he, Hank and Katherine are going back on tour to celebrate the release of The Fault in Our Stars, in a slightly larger vehicle. — 00:00:00
  • 2011-12-23 · There Will Be NO SPOILERS!!! — John thanks Amazon and every independent bookstore for not shipping their pre-orders after the leak, which lets the January 10 publication date stand. — 00:02:50
  • …and 61 statements more in 2011 — all statements of 2011

2012

  • 2012-01-10 (said on 2012-01-09, implied) · The Fault in Our Stars — announcement: John says The Fault in Our Stars comes out today, January 10, 2012, though he is filming on Monday, January 9, because he is busy tomorrow. — 00:00:00
  • 2012-01-13 (said on 2012-01-10, implied) · TFiOS PARTY! — Hank tells John he is really proud of him and of The Fault in Our Stars: every review has been fantastic, everyone on Amazon loves it, and Hank loves it. — 00:00:42
  • 2012-01-17 · Thoughts from Places: The Tour — John: Then many people arrive, wearing John's face or Doctor Who shirts, bringing book cakes, some with things he wrote tattooed on their bodies; John finds it amazing, beautiful and completely terrifying. — 00:00:43
  • 2012-01-27 · In 'N' Out-Erview — announcement: Hank introduces John as the number one New York Times best-selling author of The Fault in Our Stars. — 00:00:51
    • John: Asked how being number one feels, John calls it ridiculous, says he loves Nerdfighteria and that, much as he'd like credit, it has nothing to do with him. — 00:00:51
  • 2012-01-31 · How It Felt — John says the three weeks were like the internet became IRL: fun, clever, crowded, good to be a nerd, with talk of Sherlock and Doctor Who and singing of songs about particle physics. — 00:00:01
  • 2012-02-03 · An Awful Lot of Touring — Hank wants to look back on the three weeks but can't: asked for a fun tour story he can't think of one; the tour feels like it lasted forever and took no time at all. — 00:01:35
  • 2012-02-14 · Things I Can Do — announcement: John: For readers who have finished The Fault in Our Stars, and only for them, John has created a password-protected blog with his answers to questions, where they can comment and discuss the book. — 00:01:57
  • 2012-03-20 · Sharpie Face Question Tuesday — John says The Fault in Our Stars is currently number 2 on the New York Times bestseller list, behind only Hugo Cabret, a book he really liked. — 00:01:41
  • 2012-03-27 · Wrong but Right: Thoughts from Places Amsterdam — John says the trip supported the publication of the Dutch edition of The Fault in Our Stars; he gave a series of interviews in the hotel library. — 00:01:13
  • 2012-11-13 · I Was a Child Poet. And a Bad One. — announcement: John announces that Amazon.com named The Fault in Our Stars one of the ten best books of 2012 overall, not just for teenagers, right behind Dave Eggers and ahead of Junot Díaz. — 00:00:05
  • 2012-12-04 · Time for AWESOME — John says Time Magazine has just named The Fault in Our Stars first on its list of the top ten novels of 2012, ahead of Hilary Mantel, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz and J.K. Rowling, and he is overwhelmed. — 00:00:00
  • …and 26 statements more in 2012 — all statements of 2012

2013

  • 2013-01-15 · An Evening of Awesome at Carnegie Hall — John says none of those books addressed what he saw at the hospital, which left him feeling only nihilism; then he became friends with Esther Earl and became a father. — 00:53:28
    • John says Henry's birth showed him he'll be Henry's dad as long as either lives; that love is in this sense stronger than death was very important to TFIOS. — 00:53:48
    • John says Esther, a Nerdfighter reader very sick with cancer when they met in 2009, taught him what Augustus learns: the real hero's journey goes from strength to weakness. — 00:54:11
    • John says the realization that Esther's short life was still a good, rich and full life was central to The Fault in Our Stars. — 00:55:41
  • 2013-02-19 · Doing Things, On the Importance of — John's novel The Fault in Our Stars returned to number one on the New York Times bestseller list, 56 weeks after it came out. — 00:00:00
  • 2013-04-23 · DOCTOR GREEN — John says The Fault in Our Stars, fifteen months after publication, is back at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, passing Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, now No. 2. — 00:02:22

2014

  • 2014-01-21 · Are Poor Countries Doomed? — John says the Brazilian edition of The Fault in Our Stars, whose title he butchers in Portuguese, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Brazil, more than in Germany or the UK. — 00:03:16
  • 2014-02-18 · 18 Great Books You Probably Haven't Read — announcement: John reports that The Fault in Our Stars is number one on the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists this week (week of 17 February 2014), which he calls bananas. — 00:00:01

2016

2017

  • 2017-11-21 · Two Love Stories — John: On the January 2012 Fault in Our Stars tour, at a hotel ballroom outside Washington, DC, Nerdfighters Sara and Luis met before the show, hit it off and later began dating. — 00:00:11

2019

  • 2019-04-23 · untitled — John: The Fault in Our Stars was very nearly titled 'The Sequel' or 'The Sequels'; in April 2011 emails Julie told John, politely, that it was not a good title. — 00:01:27

2022

2023

2024

  • 2024-11-13 · Some New Things… — John recalls the 2012 Fault in Our Stars tour: 32 consecutive nights at Holiday Inn Expresses, including a very nice one on a river outside Bend, Oregon; Hank doubts it was near Bend. — 00:53:22

2025

  • 2025-04-15 · Chatting with ... a U.S. Senator? — John explains the title writes against Shakespeare's line that the fault is not in our stars: there is much fault in our stars, bad luck and structural injustice. — 00:19:38
  • 2025-06-03 · My Lies — John says that before The Fault in Our Stars he confidently said on the channel his next book would be about kids on a desert island; he wrote most of it, but it had no reason for being, so he wrote the book that became The Fault in Our Stars. — 00:01:21
  • 2025-10-07 · Luck vs. Work vs. Skill vs. Privilege — John was especially lucky with The Fault in Our Stars: Nerdfighteria and his publisher backed it, adults were reading YA, Time called it the best book of the year, and the movie did well. — 00:03:16

2026

  • 2026-07-07 · On the Death of the Author — John: In The Fault in Our Stars John invented Peter Van Houten, an author who meets a dying young reader, knowing readers knew the book was partly inspired by his meeting Esther Earl. — 00:04:25
  • 2026-09-22 · I Want You to Know Nothing About This — John recalls that when The Fault in Our Stars came out 14 years ago, a few hundred people got it a month early, and he was devastated, expecting the plot to leak online. — 00:03:14
    • Instead those early readers chose not to share the book, many waited until release day (2012) to read it, and it stayed unspoiled: one of the most generous acts of collective reading John has seen. — 00:03:43