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Penguin Books

publisher · in 72 videos (2007–2026)

Its people helped John sign an entire print run, and Penguin UK ran a Fault in Our Stars fundraiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Includes: Dutton Books

Videos by year: 2007: 2 · 2008: 1 · 2011: 26 · 2012: 11 · 2013: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2026: 3

Also known as: Penguin

Threads

Also named in the threads: Brotherhood 2.0 Book Club: each brother reads a book the other assigns (2007) · Paper Towns: writing, revision and publication (2007) · John points viewers to pre-order The Fault in Our Stars (2011) · An Evening of Awesome at Carnegie Hall (2013)

Often together

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

The Fault in Our Stars (8) · An Abundance of Katherines (3) · Looking for Alaska (novel) (3) · Paper Towns (3) · New York City (2) · doobly-doo (2) · Sarah Urist Green (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2007

  • 2007-02-13 · Brotherhood 2.0: February 13, 2007 — John: For reasons John does not understand, Penguin got him the couple's Valentine's special at his Washington, D.C. hotel: two entrees, two appetizers and two desserts ('Sorry, Weight Watchers'). (playful) — 00:00:13
    • John goes from airport to airport by airplane, which is unfortunate because 'airplanes hate snow'; he is now in the Chicago airport. (playful) — 00:00:40
    • John has spent 12 of the last 40 hours inside airports. — 00:01:03
  • 2007-09-06 · September 6th: The Book Club Returns — announcement: John announces the next Brotherhood 2.0 book club book is his own Paper Towns, which Penguin won't publish until September of next year (2008). — 00:02:56

2008

2011

  • 2011-01-21 · Looking for Alaska Five Years After the Printz Award — John: When Penguin bought it, the book wasn't about a boy who memorizes famous last words; much of what readers like, from the Great Perhaps to the labyrinth, came out of the revisions. — 00:01:34
  • 2011-03-28 · Participatory Geometry — announcement: John says he just learned his new book is definitely coming out in March, not in two days but the next March, and he should settle on a title soon. — 00:01:20
  • 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
  • 2011-05-18 · The Education Continuum WARNER CHILCOTTED — John says that in the last 24 hours he finished the big revision of his novel. — 00:00:04
  • 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
  • 2011-10-19 · Question Wed — THE COVER OF THE FAULT IN OUR STARS! — announcement: John: Excited by the fan-designed covers for The Fault in Our Stars, Penguin will let Nerdfighteria design the new cover of An Abundance of Katherines; one submission becomes the actual cover, maybe forever. — 00:01:02
  • 2011-10-21 · Signing Psychosis, BlizzCon, TFiOS, Awesome Adventures, and URLatron — Hank says the fan-cover project convinced a publishing company, for the first time in history, to put a book in bookstores with a cover designed by its fans. — 00:01:27
  • 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
  • 2011-11-25 · Chapter TWO of The Fault in Our Stars — announcement: John reads Chapter 2 of his new book The Fault in Our Stars aloud, thanking his publisher Penguin for allowing it. — 00:00:07
  • 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 52 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
  • 2012-01-27 · 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
  • 2012-03-20 · 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
  • 2012-06-05 · The Dangling Rope of Terror: It's Question Tuesday — announcement: John: Asked what happened to the An Abundance of Katherines cover contest, John says it is part of why he is going to New York: on Thursday (7 June 2012) he announces the winner and reveals the cover. — 00:00:31
  • 2012-06-12 · Chris Colfer, John Green, Mob Wives, and Jeffrey Eugenides: Thoughts from Places Book Expo — announcement: John was at BEA for interviews and signings and to reveal the new An Abundance of Katherines cover, designed by a 17-year-old longtime nerdfighter who then left for her prom. — 00:00:29
  • 2012-08-28 · In Which the Candle Dies — announcement: John shows the new box set, designed by Karen Kavett, with hardcovers of Looking for Alaska without the candle, the new Paper Towns design and Nerdfighter Sarah Turbin's Katherines design. — 00:00:29
  • 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
  • 2012-11-20 · Great at Being Terrible: The Florence Foster Jenkins Story — announcement: John: To celebrate the first anniversary of The Fault in Our Stars, Penguin has rented Carnegie Hall for the brothers to have an evening of awesome of reading, talking and music. — 00:01:33
  • 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 3 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
    • Hank, inviting John back on stage, thanks everyone for an evening of awesome, Carnegie Hall, everyone at Penguin, friends and family, and closes with 'don't forget to be awesome'. — 02:41:58
  • 2013-02-05 · Headless Statues and Elton John's Piano: Seeing Sights in London (Thoughts from Places) — John visited the Penguin offices, which have a 'very schmancy' display for The Fault in Our Stars and a view Churchill once had in WWII, then the Guardian. — 00:00:29
  • 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
  • 2013-10-29 · Perspective — John: Two weeks later John went back to Booklist, and within six months handed his mentor Ilene Cooper 40 single-spaced pages of what became Looking for Alaska. — 00:02:38
  • …and 1 statement more in 2013 — all statements of 2013

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

2015

  • 2015-05-12 · Becoming Someone Else — ask: John: In a P.S., John says Penguin UK has a Fault in Our Stars-themed project raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust and asks UK and Ireland viewers to check it out. — 00:03:31

Also named in: On Writing, Looking for Alaska Turning 10, and Winning the Project for Awesome

2016

2017

  • 2017-07-18 · Accio Decade Hallows — John: Fourth: in January 2006, engaged and walking in New York with his parents to register for wedding presents, John got a call that Looking for Alaska had won the Printz Award; his dad photographed the moment. — 00:01:24
  • 2017-11-24 · The Bizarro History of Black Friday: (AND 2017 CENSUS!) — announcement: Hank: DFTBA has 500 signed copies of Turtles All the Way Down from Penguin, sold with a tuatara pin and a turtle sticker pack. — 00:02:17

2019

  • 2019-01-15 · On Burning Resentment — John: From just after his 24th birthday John spent most nights and weekends on the novel that became Looking for Alaska: Booklist by day, review reading after work, then writing until 11 or midnight. — 00:00:00
  • 2019-03-12 · Going Home with Alaska and Miles — John says he wrote the book because he wanted to go home to the fall of 1993, smoking under the bridge with people he loved, loving peers ferociously and without fear. — 00:01:27
  • 2019-04-23 · untitled — John's friend Keir came up with the title Looking for Alaska because John's ideas, 'White Flowers and Warm Malt Liquor' and 'Famous Last Words', were so bad. — 00:00:29
    • 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
  • 2019-11-01 · On Looking Up to Your Little Brother — John: Watching it took John back to writing the first draft of Looking for Alaska alone in a small furnished Chicago apartment, recovering from what would now be called a mental health crisis. (hedged) — 00:01:41
    • John says he wrote every night trying to work out how to live with guilt that can't be excused and how catastrophic it is to romanticize or essentialize people you claim to love. — 00:02:10

2020

  • 2020-04-07 · I am an artist. — John: While revising the novel that became Looking for Alaska, John told Sarah he was trying to be a writer; she replied that he was writing, so he was a writer. — 00:01:05
  • 2020-11-03 · Alaska for Looking — John: Writing Alaska, John was obsessed with symmetry: the first part of the book had to have exactly as many days as the second. — 00:01:56
  • …and 1 statement more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

2021

  • 2021-04-02 · John's World Record — Hank: Signing an entire print run was not a thing before John decided it could be; it was hard, but John and the people at Penguin made it happen. — 00:03:00
  • 2021-09-14 · I do this every. single. tuesday. — John wrote parts of Looking for Alaska on lunch breaks, weekends and in book margins, writing six weeks every night and then not at all for two weeks to play FIFA 2002. — 00:01:15

2022

2023

  • 2023-01-10 · Introducing: The Format — John notes The Fault in Our Stars came out 11 years ago today (10 January 2012) and calls it a strange 11 years. — 00:00:00
  • 2023-03-07 · What's the Deal with Paperback Publishing? — John: Looking for Alaska sold about 6,000 copies in its first year, made it to paperback, and 18 years later is still in print. — 00:01:56
  • 2023-04-18 · goodbye to my friend — John got better, returned to work, reviewed hundreds more books, and wrote Looking for Alaska under the guidance of Bill's wife Ilene Cooper; it won the Printz Award. — 00:01:36
  • 2023-10-17 · My Next Book — John: This takes John back to 2001 and 2002, when at 23 he wrote exactly what he wanted, which became Looking for Alaska. — 00:03:16
  • 2023-11-07 · NaFaDoYBIMSCoM — John completed a draft of The Fault in Our Stars in mid-December 2010 after attempting NaFaDoYBIMSCoM. — 00:02:14

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

  • 2026-02-24 · Risk Is a Privilege — John: On luck, John says a different Printz committee in 2005 might have chosen another book over Looking for Alaska, and his career would look very different. (hedged) — 00:01:27
  • 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