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Signing 200,000 Autographs

2017-07-11 · Q&A · John · 3:35 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: self promotion, community lore

Still on vacation with 35,000 sheets and nearly 120,000 signed, John answers Nerdfighters' questions about signing 200,000 sheets for Turtles All the Way Down: logistics, Amazon pricing, why he does it, his hand, his rate, Sharpies, votes on colours, and where to buy the signed edition.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Progress so far; binding in Pennsylvania and the August deadline; Amazon's negative-price signature; paper cuts

  • ★★ Still on vacation, John brought 35,000 sheets of paper and has signed very nearly 120,000 sheets. — 00:00:02
  • ★★ John signs every sheet and sends them to Pennsylvania, where they are bound one by one into copies of Turtles All the Way Down. — 00:00:16 · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ Turtles All the Way Down will be published on October 10th, so it has to be printed somewhat in advance. — 00:00:23 · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ John has to finish signing by about August 17th. (hedged) — 00:00:27
  • ★★ Asked whether his signature is worth negative four dollars on Amazon, John thinks it is negative three: the signed edition is currently cheaper there than the unsigned one. (hedged) — 00:00:34 · Amazon, Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ John gets the same royalty either way and has no control over Amazon's discounting. — 00:00:40 · Amazon
  • ★★ Amazon might be onto something: for about a year after The Fault in Our Stars came out, unsigned copies were much rarer than signed ones. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:43 · Amazon, The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★ John has amazingly had no paper cuts yet, though he worries about them a lot. — 00:00:52

00:00:56 — Why 200,000 and why sign at all; his hand and ulnar nerve entrapment

  • ★ Why 200,000? At the time it seemed like enough, but not too much. — 00:00:57
  • ★★★ Not totally sure why he does it, John says one reason is that it is unfair that people far from big cities or unable to attend author events get signed books only by paying a surcharge. (hedged) — 00:01:04
  • ★★★ A selfish reason: for 2,000 days or so of writing this book John rarely knew if his work would make it in or bring him closer; signing, he knows people will like it and each one gets him closer to done. (hedged) — 00:01:14 · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ His hand doesn't hurt: very effective physical therapy for his ulnar nerve entrapment during the Fault in Our Stars signing means he can now sign all day. — 00:01:40 · The Fault in Our Stars

00:01:48 — Machines, consistency, rate, pens and Sharpies, colour votes, spirals, media, rhythm, thoughts and fun

  • ★ John thinks his signature varies wildly; Sarah thinks he spends far too much time looking at it. (hedged) — 00:02:01 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ Signing a thousand takes about two hours, so the whole project will take around 400 hours. (hedged) — 00:02:11
  • ★ Asked to put the pen to work on another book instead of a zillion anonymous tokens, John says the pen does not want to work on another book. (playful) — 00:02:20
  • ★ John signs with Sharpies, lots of them, and is in something of a blue period. — 00:02:25 · Sharpie
  • ★★ John is not sponsored by Sharpie, though he'd happily sell out; he buys his own Sharpies. (playful) — 00:02:30 · Sharpie
  • ★★ Viewers' votes are deciding the colour breakdown of the last hundred thousand signatures. — 00:02:37 · Sharpie
  • ★★ Along with his signature John sometimes draws a spiral, for reasons readers of the book will see. — 00:02:44 · Turtles All the Way Down
  • ★★ While signing John mostly listens to podcasts, and also Pride and Prejudice on audiobook, which is still great. — 00:02:50
  • ★ The chief pleasure of signing is that John doesn't have many thoughts at all. (hedged) — 00:03:11
  • ★★ John honestly still thinks signing is fun. — 00:03:17

00:03:19 — Where to buy the signed edition; a box to Hanklerfish; sign-off

In the description and comments

Humor (significant)

  • Asked why not have a machine mimic his signature, John says some jobs robots just can't do. — 00:01:52

    “creating the same scratch on a page two hundred thousand times.”

  • Asked if Sharpie sponsors him, John says no, he wishes. — 00:02:31

    “I'm ready to sell out for some of that sweet sweet Sharpie money.”

  • Asked to draw turtles all the way down on a copy, John shows a sheet instead. — 00:03:06

    “No, but I did draw signatures all the way down on this one.”

  • A viewer asks where to buy the book. — 00:03:20

    “Somebody knows how to ensure their question gets answered!”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Turtles All the Way Down

Also: People: Sarah Urist Green

Works: Hanklerfish · Pride and Prejudice · The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Amazon

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: ISBN · royalty payment · ulnar nerve entrapment

Places: Pennsylvania

Products: Sharpie

Only in the description or credits: Barnes & Noble · Canada · United States

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