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My First Novel in Nine Years Has a Cover

2026-06-16 · announcement · John · 4:35 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Sports) · mode: Announcements · tags: self promotion, civic or action cta

John shows Hank the cover of his novel Hollywood, Ending, designed by Cassie Vu, arguing that a cover is advertisement, art and collaboration with a text, and for an author the first artwork made in response to the book; he loves fan works, then plugs the Vlogbrothers grants and The Away End's This American Life feature.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Eight years on a novel about fame and trauma; the Dorothy Parker prop; the premise of Hollywood, Ending and what writing it taught John

  • ★★★ John says he began a novel about fame, trauma and loving our way through them about eight years ago, and today finally gets to show its cover. — 00:00:00 · Hollywood, Ending, celebrity
  • ★ John holds up The Portable Dorothy Parker as not the cover: there is no physical cover yet, only a JPEG. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ The book has two narrators, Kai and Juniper, twenty-something co-stars of a film about Andy Warhol's last year (2025), Andy Warhol Never Gets Old; as it blows up, so do their lives, thrillingly and painfully. — 00:00:00 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ John doesn't know what being a young movie star is like, but knows something about the fame and content-creation machine that turns human experience into content and then movie tickets. — 00:00:29 · celebrity
  • ★★ John says, self-deprecatingly, that his cameo was cut from The Fault in Our Stars because he is such a bad actor. (playful) — 00:00:29 · The Fault in Our Stars (film), The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ John spent the last eight years, off and on, finding his way through the novel; he finally has and is very excited. — 00:00:58 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Writing Hollywood, Ending taught John about acting, Warhol, how to love and why, and reminded him what happens when children's trust and love are misused by their caretakers. — 00:00:58 · Hollywood, Ending

00:01:27 — The cover: what a book cover is, John's luck with covers, the Warhol references, Cassie Vu, and the cover as the first art made in response to a book

  • ★★★ John calls a book cover a weird art form: beautiful yet effective, standing out among covers made to stand out, saying something about the book that deepens on reading; advertisement, art and collaboration at once. — 00:01:27 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ John says he has been lucky with covers (The Fault in Our Stars' became somewhat iconic, his nonfiction covers extraordinary) but never luckier than with Hollywood, Ending. — 00:01:56 · The Fault in Our Stars, Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ The cover references Warhol's 1973 Sunset series and the Warholian theme of repetition, central to the book, and reflects two narrators seeing the same experiences very differently. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John loves the cover's colors and Hollywood sinking into the horizon, and is extremely grateful to Cassie Vu for an extraordinary cover. — 00:02:26
  • ★ Covers can take a long time, but this was basically the first design John saw, and he chose it at once. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ For the author, John says, a cover is the first work of art made in response to his work, the coolest thing that can happen to an author. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ John has never understood authors opposed to fan art or fan fiction: nothing is cooler than someone caring enough about your characters to bring them to new life. — 00:02:55

00:03:20 — Release date and pre-order; Vlogbrothers educational grants open for applications

  • ★★ John finds the cover awesome even in ways that only make sense after reading: literally and figuratively, it contains the book. — 00:03:20 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★★ Hollywood, Ending comes out September 22; John points viewers to pre-order signed copies at hollywoodendingbook.com. — 00:03:20 · Hollywood, Ending · first in: 2026-03-31, I've Been Keeping a Secret…
  • ★★ The Vlogbrothers sponsorship program is open: part of the channel's ad money supports educational online video; past grant recipients include This Glorious Clockwork and Kurzgesagt. — 00:03:20 · Vlogbrothers

00:03:50 — The Away End on This American Life, John's WBEZ memory, the World Cup so far, sign-off

  • ★★★ John asks viewers to apply for a Vlogbrothers grant, or to have creators they watch apply, via the link in the description. — 00:03:50 · Vlogbrothers, doobly-doo
  • ★★ The Away End, the World Cup podcast John makes with his high-school friends, was just featured on This American Life. — 00:03:50 · The Away End
  • ★★ John's This American Life debut at 48 feels great: at 25, recording WBEZ commentaries, he watched the show's staff walk by and wished he were them; now he's cool too. — 00:03:50
  • ★ John says the World Cup has been great so far; he especially enjoyed the US game against Paraguay. — 00:04:19

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Book cover · Hollywood, Ending

Also: People: Andy Warhol

Projects: The Away End

Works: Sunset series · The Fault in Our Stars · The Fault in Our Stars (film) · The Portable Dorothy Parker · This American Life

Organizations: Kurzgesagt · This Glorious Clockwork · United States men's national soccer team · WBEZ

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: celebrity · fan fiction · psychological trauma

Places: Paraguay

Events: FIFA World Cup

Characters: Andy Warhol Never Gets Old · Juniper · Kai

Only in the description or credits: Cassie Vu

Also centred on Book cover: The Best (Recent) Book Covers Including MINE! · How a Book Cover Gets Designed

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