A Decade of Freelance

Posted on by scott

Ten years ago today I quit my day job.

Money had been saved, a novel was in the drawer, and my tech job was winding down. So I said, “Hey, I wanna work at home in my pajamas.”

For the first month, however, I got up, put on real clothes, and worked from nine to five. I was afraid of turning into a Howard-Hughes-like guy wandering around with Kleenex boxes on my feet. But after a month I got an agent, and after five I had a two-book deal (paying a whopping $9,000), so I did relax a little.

I’ve been crunching the numbers for that ten years, and here are the results.

Novels published under my own name: 13
Powerpuff Girls choose-your-own adventures (also under my name): 3
Goosebumps ghost-written: 5
Legal thrillers ghost-written: 1
Short stories published: 6
Essays published: 3
Interviews published: 1
Years before I made enough to write only as me: 8

Total ghost-written words: 240,000
Total words published under my own name: 1,015,000

That last statistic just curls my hair. It comes out to 100,000 words a year, which even with the ghost writing is only about 300 words a day. Still, there’s rewriting too, you know. And page proofs. Research. Thinking. Sick days.

And here are some things I realized:

1. Writing part-time is like going out with somebody; writing full-time is like living with them. It’s not just that you write more . . . your whole relationship to writing changes. For example, when writing has moved in and doesn’t pick its socks up off the floor, it’s not cute anymore, just hateful. But on the other hand, you know writing in ways you couldn’t have otherwise.

2. Writing too many books in one year = shingles. And you do not want shingles.

3. I crossed the million-word mark when Specials came out, and that was my first book to make the NY Times bestseller list. So that’s the rule, I guess.

4. Living with another writer totally rocks, even if it means you can’t leave your socks on the floor.

5. It’s worth it to pay for your own author photos, so you can look as silly as you want:


Credit: Samantha Jones, who in all fairness said I should take off the sunglasses

Ah yes, there’s one other thing that happened in that ten years . . .

Yesterday and today I wrote the first 1,427 words of Leviathan, my next trilogy, set in alternative-history airship heaven!* It’s really fun, and I can’t wait to write another million words. (But no shingles, dammit!)

*Book 1 comes out September 2007, so don’t be holding your breath. In the meantime, The Last Days comes out September 2006, and will get me up to 1,090,000 words.

101 thoughts on “A Decade of Freelance”

  2. um…did you just call yourself darling?

    leviathan! a *trilogy*!! woo hoo!! can’t hardly wait!!!!!

    by the way, that is an amazingly huge number of words. the thought of that many words makes me almost lightheaded. wow.

  3. Is Scott trying to boost his confidence? heheh, kidding. Don’t worry, we’ll congratulate you too: Congratulations! 😉
    “set in alternative-history airship heaven” AWESOME, but 2007? 🙁 too long… oh well, I’ll still buy it. I’m getting worried ’cause some good series take a REALLY long time to be published, and with some of them the sequels aren’t coming out until I’m in COLLEGE and I’m worried I won’t read them in college… what with the really big fancy college books and all. heh.
    … wait, you wrote POWERPUFF girls books??? It’s weird finding out when authors write stuff like that, it turns out Diane Duane (Young Wizards Series and some other stuff I haven’t gotten around to reading yet/is out of print and I can’t find, Star Trek included) helped write the script for “Barbie Fairytopia” *shakes head* weird…

  6. justine–i actually kind of guessed it might be you…but it was kind of funny to think scott was calling himself darling. 😉

  7. Wow that’s a lot of information to take it. But congrats to making it to the lifestyle you’re living today. It’s obvious that it took a while to get ready for it and I’m glad that you got into writing.

    As for that new trilogy, wow. Another trilogy. =D Too bad you’re holding out on it until ’07. Ah well, stilled very exctited about it.

  8. Over a million words, that’s…wow! Great job! Leviathan sounds good, waiting is going to be hard. But I’ve got The Last Days to look forward to I suppose.

    I do find it a little bit funny though that you wrote some powerpuff girls books.

  9. Love the living with / dating analogy and all that it implies. A lot of people like to flirt, not so many want to commit. Cheers on a very handsome milestone.

  10. Nah, I think I can hold my breath that long. I mean, I’d be breaking my record a little bit, but I always like to challenge myself just a tad.

    You know, I never noticed it before, but The Risen Empire cover thingy reminds me of the Van Halen logo.

  13. That is absolutely inspiring. Is that your big news, that you have another trilogy coming out? I love airships, by the way… Probably because I like the Final Fantasy series :p.

    I was wondering, do you plan your books before you write them? And if you do, how do you go about doing that? Do you fill notebooks with whatever or do you have an outline? How do you sort out your ideas and make them all come together?

  14. Congrats! And, ooh, I used to love Goosebumps. I’m sure you won’t tell me which ones you wrote, even if I asked nicely. But just give me a yes or no: Did you write The Horror at Camp Jellyjam? Because that is the best one ever.

  15. YESSSS!!!!! New trilogy!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!

    Hurray for one million words!

    ARRRGGGHHH!!!! See, I know you’re contractually obligated not to tell which books you’ve ghostwritten, but DAMMIT! I wanna read them. Especially the Goosebumps books. I used to read those when I was younger. I wanna see how you do it. *le sigh*

    And now that that’s over, let me just say I am SO glad you quit your day job. 😀 I really wanna read some of your earlier stuff….will soon. Hate waiting. *le sigh* (again)

    Shingles. Is that like carpal tunnel? Running off to Wikipedia now…. Good god. That would definitely put a cramp on your writing. Hope you never get it again. 🙂

    That’s a great picture. Hehe!

    “Leviathan. (לִוְיָתָן “Twisted; coiled”, a Biblical sea monster referred to in the Old Testament. It has become synonymous with any large monster or creature. In Modern Hebrew, it simply means “whale”.” (Wikipedia)
    I am intrigued. ME CAN’T WAIT!!! And there is going to be a pink fairy in there somewhere, right? And to quote Sir Tessa, “AIRSHIPS! EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!”

    “I’m getting worried ’cause some good series take a REALLY long time to be published, and with some of them the sequels aren’t coming out until I’m in COLLEGE and I’m worried I won’t read them in college.”

    I’m a sophomore in college, and I still read them. In fact, I started reading “adult” books before I read YA books, but I got bored with them. Sometimes adults just take things way too seriously. And sometimes their attempts at being “literary” get in the way of a decent plot. That’s not to say I haven’t read any good adult books, because I have, and there are many. But for the last two years, I’ve been on a YA kick, and I think it’s going to stay that way for a long while. And dude, I TOTALLY know what you mean about everything taking freakin’ forever to come out. Grrr, and in the meantime, I peruse the YA shelves at Borders, all for naught. But I keep trying, ’cause that’s how I discovered Scott. 🙂

  16. Trilogy! Three books! Excellent!
    May I ask what Leviathan means? Or what your definition of an airship is?

    So, was that the big news? Or is it still coming?

  17. YAY! Congrats! And new books YEEE!! Try to keep that release date, btw, your book will help cushion the blow of my freshman year of college. Seriously though, congradulations, and good work. When you started 10 years ago, did you think you’d ever have a fan-base that is so creepily-obsessed with you that we post around 90 times before you can update?

    On a personal note: One year ago this month, I bought Uglies to read on a plane trip, and although I had already read Secret Hour, Uglies was the book that taught me who Scott Westerfeld was, and that there was no “i” in Westerfeld. 🙂

  18. Woooo numbers! It’s always fascinating to see your life in numbers. … Yep.

    Is the new trilogy still going to be YA? ‘Cause it’d be sad if they were like, adult books. Psh. Haven’t read one of those in ages.. *kicks fully spine-cracked Temeraire under the bed*

    WOO HOO on the million words! If only those were, like.. Dollars. $.$ A million-word-bonus, oh yes.

    And Airships! Squee!

  22. So pretty amazing to hear this news. Also is the itroduction of levaithan your big news or are you still holding out on us???

    And one thing i really wanted to know is how much your have made in your career? Seeing as you made $9,000 for just the deal not including sales, appearences, or marketing ect. right? Or do you not really know how much you’ve totaled?

  24. wow….a million words….thta’s amazign. I could never write so much. i’d probably go insane. Congratulations on how much work you have accomplished. Leviathan sounds so interesting..but 2000007777777……nooooooo.
    ugh…i don’t know if i can stay calm that long.

  25. Scott that totally rocks! and that is kinda weird that Specials crossed the million mark and made NYT bestseller list, i mean no surprise that it did, it totally rocked, but like i wonder if one million words was the final push…. i think too much sometimes lol.

    O and about leviathen! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA! im soooo excited, its going to be the best! airships=action and adventure, plus they are totally sweet!

    o and about shingles, my grandfather has a chronic like case of those, and trust me, you dont want them. they hurt like H-E-double hockey stix according to him. But like yea, just for those who dont know what it is, its a condition where all the nerves in your skin are super sensitive and everything hurts to touch *yes, it hurts to where clothes*. well at least that is what happend to my grandpa. but yea.

    againg total congrats to you scott, and good luck in your writing *or is it bad luck to say that….well in that case break a pencil* lol.
    ps. i know its been asked, but like is this the big news? or is there even bigger news coming!?

  26. AIRSHIPS! wOOt! I loved the Airborn/Skybreaker series, by Kenneth Oppel. Best airship books ever. Except for the Laviathon series, I’m sure. But 2007? Nooooooooooooooooo
    oooooooooooooooooooooo. That’s when Harry Potter Seven comes out, too!
    Have you ever seen Farscape? It’s a show about this guy who works for like Nasa, but he travels through a wormhole, and ends up on this kind of living ship named Moya. Her species is Laviathon. Anyway, there are a bunch of aliens, and an evil corporation called the Peace Keepers of all things, and the ship has a baby, and the guy rom Earth falls in love with one of the aliens, they get married and have a baby. Phew. I can breathe again. Anyway, coolest show ever. Except for Gilmore Girls. And CSI. And House. And Firefly.
    Wow, was that 500 words? I could write a book with all my random blog entries! wOOt!

  28. Congrats! I just quit my day job to start on my own writing adventure, and you’re certainly an inspiration 🙂

  30. One million published words! Wow. That’s certainly an impressive statistic (and I can’t help but hear it in my head as Dr Evil’s voice – ‘One Mil-li-on Words!!!’). Congratulations, and the new trilogy sounds wonderful – have fun writing it.

  31. So many…words…wow! That is a lot! So much writing! But it sounds like more fun then a having “real” job. Except “when writing has moved in and doesn’t pick its socks up off the floor”. Haha. The dating analogy is perfect.

    I can’t wait until the new books. September isn’t too far away for Last Days. Maybe I should read some of those powerpuff girls books while I’m waiting 😛

  32. Answering various questions in no particular order is fun:

    No, this was not the big news. The big news is bigger than this. So big that it moves very, very slowly.

    My favorite of my own Goosebumps was “All-Day Nightmare,” an amnesia-based choose-you-own-adventure. What’s not to love?

    By “airships” I mean big bags of hydrogen (or helium) with frames. Like Zeppelins.

    Yes, lots of people write part time and produce amazing work. All I’m saying is that your whole relationship to writing changes when that’s all you do professionally. Having no other identity to fall back on makes a big difference.

    I plan some books more than others. “Uglies” was very outlined, because all those betrayals and reversals have to be organized ahead of time. “Peeps” mirrored the research on parasites I was doing, and so wrote itself. My lame-but-true advice here is: Try lots of different ways of writing, and see what works for you.

    And hey, one of my Powerpuff Girl books is still available used on Amazon:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439332591/sr=8-24/qid=1149551260/ref=sr_1_24/102-4551546-6709705?%5Fencoding=UTF8

  33. on a random note. im having difficuly with the email jiveness.

    when i click to emil Scott, it doesnt work.
    whats his email?

  34. Hey, cool! Happy Anniversary, man. And some intersting stats about the full-time writing gig too, I gotta say. I’m taking notes.

    And also: alternative-history airship heaven! Sweeeeeeet!

  36. Congrats Scott! i personally like the sunglasses 😀 and this “big news” is taking FOREVER!

    Kate

  38. I’m just coming up to the point where I’m leaving my full-time job to write part-time for money and write the rest of the time for myself. Consider me inspired – thanks, Scott.

  39. Weeeeee! Adding to the Amazon wishlist is fun. 😀 The amnesia idea is interesting for a Goosebumps book. I’ve been screwing around with amnesia themes myself lately. They present some interesting scenarios.

    Always wanted to watch Farscape, ever since I saw an ad for it during my first *COUGH*startrek*COUGH* convention. I was in eighth grade and they played it with that “I’m too Sexy for____” song. But I have never yet gotten to see an episode. Someday….:)

    GUESS WHAT!!!! I’m so excited!!! I went to Borders tonight b/c I had some extra money, and I was looking for Magic or Madness, but the computer said they didn’t have it. So I started browsing as usual, and right as I was preparing to leave, what did I stumble over but two copies of Magic or Madness!!! EEEEEE!!! I haven’t had anything new to read since….I’m pretty sure it was Specials. YAY!!!!

    Wow, all you people quitting your day job. I am in awe of you. Good luck!!

    Wow, that model girl does look a lot like the Specials cover. And that is some crazy getup she’s wearing. Like a combination cape, coat, and Catholic schoolgirl skirt.

    Gah, big news! Well, something to look forward to this summer. 🙂

  40. rebecca…i went to a star trek convention when i was in eighth grade, too….

    🙂

  42. i cant believe i let 40 comments go without saying a word. but yesterday i went to galveston and the beach with exchange students, and when maria tried to take me home we couldnt find my house… so i went to hers. and she lives downtown houston. why is always so much better downtown? just like that one song, the oldie. “downtown, where all the lights are bright, downtown…” yeah. i like dowtown. but sadly, i’m a burbanite. sigh.

    congratsulations scott, one million words! thats truly righteous.

    i think the whole part-time writer and full-time wirter thing is interesting. its kinda like, ‘what do you say when a new acquaintance asks you what you do?’ because if you’re a part-time writer, you’d probably say your other job. although maybe not, i suppose. but if all you do is write, all you can honestly say is “i’m a writer/’ must be agood feeling 🙂 i mean, i write. i write a lot. journal, blog, notes, lists, random notes i leave to strangers in public… but when i’m asked what do i do, i say “student” or “bum” – although, come august, i get to say “exchange student” or “foreign bum” :), which is super exciting. but i think it would just feel good to be able to say “i’m a writer.” and it be completely true in every sense of the word.

    and on a random note, i like 80s music.

  43. oh, and ince author picture you got there, scott. i always secretly wanted to write a book solely so i could use an xray of my skeleton as my meet-the-author photo, and write it with only intials and hide my gender and location so i could be mysterious.

  44. “I was looking for Magic or Madness, but the computer said they didn’t have it. So I started browsing as usual, and right as I was preparing to leave, what did I stumble over but two copies of Magic or Madness!!!”
    Yeah, Borders is mean that way, they never udate their stock so you have to either ask the information desk people (I hate doing that, it ruins the fun of going to a bookstore) or you have to go and search for it in weird places… I have found Clive Cussler books in the Children’s Section before, very weird. (I was looking in the children’s section for the Pendragon books, I got obsessed with them when I was 12 and well, I have to finish the series now… lol)

  45. Hey jane-la, have you ever seen Girl-Interupted? cause that song is kinda a big part of that movie. Well to all, its a very good movie (but for the younger readers, it has some adult themes, so be sure to have parental consent). Anjelina Jolie, Wynona Ryder, and lots more. Its really good. check it out ^.^

  46. are you kdding, i love that movie! at this very aecond its like two feet from me. mhmm. i love it. i even have the same shoes as winona in the movie does. and i’ve read the book, written in vignettes, its also very good.

  47. One month ago today I became a full time writer. I’m going to get shingles, I suppose, since I’m under contract for about 175,000 words this year. Wow, these pajamas are comfy.

    One day, Westerfeld, I will catch up to your million word greatness. Until then, I will simply watch in awe as Specials rocks the bestseller list and you keep coming up with amazing series. :0) Congrats.

    Good running into you the other day.

  48. “rebecca…i went to a star trek convention when i was in eighth grade, too….”
    ahhhhh, another one like me. 😀 I met Garret Wang. I was soooooo starstruck. And I got a picture with him. ahhhhhhhhh. never has a star trek actor looked so hot….

    “come august, i get to say “exchange student” or “foreign bum” :)”
    oooooh, where are you going?

    “Yeah, Borders is mean that way”
    totally. that’s what happened with midnighters 2. computer said no, but there it was on the shelves, and i found it totally by accident as well. i seem to get lucky. 😀

    look at me, not using capitals. i swear, two comments on justine’s blog and i’m already converted.

  49. i really need to read magic or madness, i have never read one of justines books, and i have been meaning too….hmmm i feel a trip to the bookstore coming on! ^.^

  50. Leviathan is the perrrfect name for an airship, by the way. I was just watching this thing on them, on the History channel or somesuch, and they said something about how they hoped one day people could live Up There in one forever and ever. And I thought that was an awesome idea. I’m sure you’ll do it justice and such. Yay!

  51. WOW! Congrats! And I can’t WAIT for the Leviathan trilogy…
    Loving the new look, too.

  53. Hey about michelle-wa’s forum, its really nice, but she is having some problems decorating it, so if anyone knows where she could find codes for forums that would totally rock! thx a bunch

  55. “I have started a forum specifically for Scott and his books.”

    Sweet! I’ve been thinking something like that would be pretty awesome. 😀

    “i really need to read magic or madness”
    You should! It’s awesome. I just finished it about twenty seconds ago (no kidding) and it was awesome!! But I recommend buying both of them at once so as to save yourself the trouble. Bloody cliffhangers. 😛

  56. So i noticed that it went from 22 to 56 comments in less than a day and all i wanted to know is a rough average of how much you’ve made. Or if you didn’t know exactly.

    ALSO i’m dying to know this big news, and i’m so impatient!

  58. Omg hooked on Michelle-wa’s board thing. Congrats Scott! I’ll probably write a million words on your boards, considering my ridicusly long posts. Hehehehe. YAY NEW TRILOGY! Ver Ver happy-making.

  60. Keep the sunglasses! They make you look mysterious.

    Ack, I’ve only had about 100 words of mine published—a poem in a local newspaper’s article about my school’s poetry club. (And they printed the title wrong!) So for now, I’m just hanging around on deviantART.com, hoping that someday I can publish a book of my poetry.

    Ooh, I’m already anticipating that Leviathan series. Have you read Thomas Hobbes’s philosophical work of the same title by any chance? It’s about how humans are inherently immoral and when faced with a choice between doing the right thing and self-preservation, they will chose to live at the expense of others. I haven’t read it myself, but it made for interesting discussion in my Humanities class.

  61. New trilogy…awsomeness! The Last Days seems like it will be just as great as your other books. *Ties Scott to chair* Now write or else! hehehehe just kidding

  62. oooo just read the rest of your comments… so this wasn’t the big news???????? Then what is?????? Is it Midnighters on tv or So Yesterday the movie or something else? I’m dying to know.

  64. aw i love power puff girls
    i acctually own some of their books from when i was little.
    they’re in a box now,
    wonder if i have any of yours…
    i could have been your fan and not even have known it!
    tehe

  65. mr westerfeld, i just want to say, i’m 22 years old and i am not a big sci-fi fan. my interest extends as far as Buffy and the X-Files. but i was in a walden books the other day with my friend and we saw the book “uglies”, picked it up, and read the back, and were both hooked. i finished it in three days and have already ordered pretties and specials off amazon, and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. somehow, your book has touched me very deeply and caught hold of me. i am a writer as well, although i haven’t had any books published yet, just a few poems overflowing with teenaged angst. i just wanted to say, from a struggling writer to someone who made it–thank you for your inspiration.
    – vans.sister at gmail dot com.

  66. i was looking at some of the old entries,
    its so crazy because some of them have like only 6 or 3 comments
    now there are MILLIONS!
    just thought that was interesting…
    anyways…
    yeah accutally thats it…-_-

  67. “you wrote power puff girl stuff???” okay, good, so I’m not the ONLY one that thinks that’s weird…
    “Hm – maybe the big news is that the Midnighters TV show is airing this fall! That would be so happy-making!” YES, VERY happy-making, verrrrrrrry happy making indeed… *evil laugh* heheheh

  68. omg i hope that that is the big news! that would be soooo awsome making! its june now tell us what the news is scott! come on!

  69. “Hm – maybe the big news is that the Midnighters TV show is airing this fall! That would be so happy-making!”
    Yes, that would, seeing as there is NOTHING GOOD ON TV anymore. Well, except Lost. But Lost to me is kind of a curiousity more than something I would weave through traffic to get home in time for. Not that I would ever weave through traffic. 😀

  70. wow i realized that both of my favourite authors have written stores for goosebumps. which is ood, because i reallt dont like them. i guess i just like that style of writing 🙂

    and powerpuff girls? scott you never seemed like a powerpuff girl…i mean…powerpuff boy. i used to watch that show in…well a long time ago. (i liked the blue girl) it was good, except their voices were REALLY annoying.

  71. hmmm, i think it’s a little wierd, but tis k scott.
    i bet all writers are “eveolving” and stuff so maybe the power puff girl stuff was just a stage or something…
    and ,
    “its june now tell us what the news is scott!”
    i agree!!! tell you publisher or the person who won’t let u tell us that officially sevral ppl around the globe now hate him, lol
    can’t you just accidentaly let is slip and then say that you were sleew typing? (is sleeptyping possible??)n ]
    lol
    well, we’ll keep waiting

  73. i saw specials at waldenbooks yesterday…. i had ten dollars, and it was 15.95 🙁 🙁 if only it were in paperback…grrr. now i have to wait for my library to get a copy. humph. tis frusturating.

  74. scott! i posted something crucial in the midnighters section! i cant post it here cause it will be off topic!

    but anyway, to stay on topic, i never knew you wrote goosebumps. thats really surprising cause i read goosebumps all the time when i was little. did u work with RL stine??? cause that is so cool!

    :]

  75. Jane-la have you joined the forum yet? you totally should if you havent. In fact, anyone who hasnt signed up yet really should cause its alot of fun! ^.^

  83. Kell-wa: I did manage one tiny post on the forum, but as you guys know I’m working on Leviathan at the moment. So I’m not as posty, emaily, etc. But here’s a few answers:

    Alex: Yes, the new trilogy will be YA.

    Rob: Authors make about $1.50 per hardback, and about 60 cents per paperback. As far as how much I’ve made, it’s impossible to say. Because publishers pay you about a year after the books are sold (to make sure they’re not returned) and a majority of my books came out less than a year ago. But questions like this need a whole post.

    Anna: Yes! I wrote PowerPuff Girls! (They paid good money, by the way.)

    All: News. Soon.

  84. OMG OMG!!!! SCOTT, YOU’RE GOING TO BE IN SAN ANTONIO!!!!! I JUST READ YOUR APPEARANCES LIST!!! IT’S TLA!!! CAN ANYONE GET IN?!?!?!?! WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GO?!?!?!?!?!

    *GASP* I’m shaking. 😀 Oh my god, this made my day. My week. WILL JUSTINE BE THERE TOO?!?!?! AAHHHHH!!!!! MUCHO EXCITEMONDO!!!!
    Sorry for the freakout. But I’ve never gotten to meet another author before, not in my entire life, and now my favorite, possibly two of my favorites, right in my hometown!!!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!!

  86. Thanks for that little piece of info Scott. As to why i was asking i’m almost in my senior year in high school and still trying to decide what i like best. So far i have Engineering, Art, Writing, and Sports.
    I was thinking though that i could be an engineer and still do art and writing, but if i do engineering i’m not sure if i’ll ever get really serious about writing which i want to do. So i started with the payment schedule…hahaha. I don’t think i’m good enough to go professional in golf but close. By art i meant architecture, but i’m not sure if i like better than engineering. Ugh chosing careers is confusing and difficult.

  88. rob, i feel ya. i just graduated and torn between the following:

    film
    international studies
    writing
    nuerology
    forensic studies

    aaahhh… thank god for general ed. give me some time to think it over. right now film is winning…but who knows.

    i’ve been neglecting the posts. my friends just flew out from california to visit me until the 17th, so i’ve been a little preoccupied, i’ve been missing them like crazy and its just so good to see them i dont get on the computer much. but i Will check out the forum, promise.

  89. When you get to college be an undecided major for a bit. That’s what I’m doing 🙂
    Although I’m leaning towards Engish. Or Art History. Or maybe Psychology?

    Okay – you can see why I am currently undecided.

  90. scott–we absolutely and 100% forgive the infrequent postings and such. (*i* do, anyway.) just write leviathan!! i don’t know that i’ve ever been so excited for a book with a release date so far away. there are many other books/authors that i like quite a bit, but it really makes a difference that you take the time to answer a question if i have it, either here on the blog or by email, or to encourage/participate in the sometimes on sometimes *way* off topic conversations we have.

    so, in one word…

    thanks.

    🙂

  91. “so, in one word… thanks.”
    Yeah, ditto. Not a lot of people would spend so much time. 🙂

    I think I am the only person in the universe who has not changed my major. I am still a writing and rhetoric major. 🙂 I can’t decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. And it’s only now, after a year of college, that I’ve even started having second thoughts. I love film and layout design, and I’ve just recently gotten into graphic design. Argh! So many choices. It just seems so hard to make it as a writer that sometimes I wonder if I ought to do something else professionally, at least for a while. But for now, at least, I’m sticking to writing.

  92. Scott you made my day wiht your single post.And it was on my page 🙂 But don’t feel the need to post! GO WRITE! If don’t hear form you for a year but then get an amazing new trilogy (which it will be) no one iwll complain. Well we’d miss you. Ack all you poor people deciding careers/what ot study. Well actually I have 5 years till I graduate but I’m trying to decide anyway. Becuase I like to plan ahead.

  94. dear scott!!!

    well ur contact me thing wont work on my computer idk y! but i am a realllly huge fan!!!!!!! and i would like to mail some stuff? is there any other way to?

    well i am uglies trilog’s biggest fan!! at leat one of them!!!! 🙂

    well c yea
    love u

  95. Hey, Steph: Just click CONTACT replace the “AT” in the email address with an @ sign. The reason it pops up that way is to fool spambots.

  98. Ooh! So much excitement! The Big News is soon?! YAY!
    And the appearances pasge said something about being in Seattle in October? Wow. I want to go to this school librarians thingie. But I’m guessing I wouldn’t be able to get in. Sad. It actually sounds sorta cool…

    “Just click CONTACT replace the “AT” in the email address with an @ sign. The reason it pops up that way is to fool spambots.”
    – So THATS why the email thing looks like that. I always wondered…

  99. 100 comments 🙂 I’m gonna join that forum thing. Scott: In all your days did you ever think you would have an entire forum dedicated to you?

  100. Congrats on the ten year mark! I only just started in this wacky world of YA writing five years ago and have done all right so far, but the idea of dropping everything and doing it full time fills me with fears of living in shacks and eating top ramen for the next decade. Good to see it can work out so well, albeit after a lot of time and effort and words.

    Incidentally, my editor and I both love your books, and we’ve both been praising them up and down to our writer and editor friends. I’m almost at the end of Midnighters 2 and expect to be up insanely late as I must know what happens. I’m glad I found your blog!

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