Extras in PW

Posted on by scott

The online version of Publisher’s Weekly has a lovely article about the Uglies trilogy and Extras. It contains unexpected revelations about the origins of my ideas for the book.

It also turns out that the series has sold more than a million copies, which is pretty bubbly. Thanks to all of you who made your friends and family read it. No book sells that many copies without word of mouth.

Click here to read it.

Also, my Taiwanese translator thinks you guys are awesome: “I am impressed [by] your readers’ definitions (I spent a lot time to read through all the posts, they made me laugh sometimes). . . . It’s great to know how other readers comprehend and perceive this novel, and certainly it helps me to get more clear ideas about these terms. Many thanks to them.”

125 thoughts on “Extras in PW”

  1. hmmmm…. theme of uglies… well there’s kinda more than one. u could go the easy way out and say it’s “the inner beauty that counts, not outer beauty”. u could say something about how the Rusties (we) destroyed (are destroying) the world and we hav to stop it. u could say something about brains being more important than beauty. u could say something about individuality. or well, lotsa stuff. was that helpful nel??? i hope so.
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀
    😀

  2. one last thing:hey scott-la, the little blurb isnt just gonna say “the thrilling fourth book in the series” is it??? COME ON! ur more creative than that. o well. im gonna buy it anyway.
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛
    😛

  5. sorry for the triple post but…
    i agree with Bri-la. dont let extras say “the thrilling fourth book in the series”. i hated what it said on specials…
    “the final volume in the highly acclaimed Uglies trilogy”

  6. wow. so much happened when in the time span of my writing of a global studies essay. but i’m done now. so…

    HUZZAH!!! only 8 (or nine. depends on who you talk to.) days till EXTRAS!!! i don’t think i’ll be buying the hardcover edition though. i already requested it from my library, and i’m waiting for a paperback copy to release b/c they have the best taglines. i am gonna buy the boxed set of uglies though, since i think that’s just AWESOME.

    and that’s a pretty fexcellent coat you’ve got there, scott.

  7. clarification: i WILL eventually buy Extras, just waiting for the paperback. i’m too cheap to fork over the extra 2 or 3 dollars for hardcover lol.

    also, i want to have the whole series in one format, so if i get the paperbak boxed set i want Extras to match it.

  9. yeah, i’m rereading specials now too. i like it a lot more this time.
    i really dig special shay, when she’s all like, yeah, let’s break into the armory, what the heck? this may be the most fun of her brain-incarnations.
    and i waited for specials, but that was when i was first reading westerfeld bks and i didn’t wait for the release date on that one. so i will be preordering extras in my own special OCD way. but the tagline is ttly lame.

  10. im gonna get extras the day it comes out so half of the books will be paperback and the other half will be hard cover.

    Hint- the first 2 are paperback and the last two will be hardcover.

    and scott…
    should we count extras as a part of the series? i mean uglies is a TRILOGY. would extras make that TRILOGY have four books? or would extras be on its own? if extras is part of the TRILOGY, then it isnt a TRILOGY anymore.

    and i am aware the word trilogy is in capital letters.

    PS is the word trilogy looking weird to you now, because it is looking weird to me.

  11. yeah…tril-o-gy. words are extremely odd things, when u get down to it. and i don’t think it’s part of the trilogy, i think it’s more of a stand-alone. but that’s just me. wow, i am going to such depths to avoid my english essay. focusing now.

  12. I’ve been reading Macbeth and Lord of the Flies for my honors English class and I havn’t had time to re-read the uglies trilogy!!! Think I can finish Lord of the flies and read it in 8 days????

  16. i have a geometry test on monday, so no homework. and the essay’s on All Quiet on the Western Front, and i’m only rewriting it. the teacher dude says it should actually be about the book, not the evilness of war and goverment in general. they ruin all my fun.
    and i actually have to lock myself away from good books to make myself focus on homework. i’m not so big on work ethic.

  17. Dang. A million copies… Congratulations!
    And can’t wait for Extras to come out. Only a few more days, right!

  18. Ur essay beats my essay. We watched a scene from 3 macbeth moveis and i have to compare them. AND i had geometry hw. wow i feel overloaded

  19. ha. i don’t know if i should be sad or happy that my essay trumps all. at least i don’t have homework in any other subjects, for once.

  20. Lord of The Flies has got to be the most irritating book I’ve ever read. We just got done reading in in my Honors Lit. class.
    *bashes head in with a spiky baseball bat*
    I hate school assigned books! They’re always boring, and it sucks more because you’re being tested on it! ERRGH!

    I absolutely despise homework.I have a huge biology project due on Tuesday, and I’d rather go jump into a pool of that fun silver goo of doom that Shay and Tally used to destroy the Armory than work on it. I hate projects. Especially when they’re pointless, and especially when your teacher insists that you work on them over the weekend instead of in class.
    WEEKENDS ARE MINE! They’re my mental health days! *GROWLS*

  21. ugh homework! i just finished my social studies project. it was actually pretty fun. i made candy bar wrappers (and cardboard candy bars) to represent the 3 branches of government. i know ttly lame assignment but i think my is pretty cool. 😀 🙂 😛 🙁

  22. actually, not all school assigned books are bad. last year i had to read the outsiders. i love that book!

    well maybe all high school assigned books are bad. i wouldnt know. im only in 8th grade

  26. hey can you plz help me Mr.Scott i really need help for this book report due this wendsday (sept. 26) and today is the 23rd and this is kind f a major grade but nobody knew about it and my friend was just like ‘natalia you have to do this its not due next month its due this month!’ and i need to know why you write(?) and what you usually write about(how people can change i think), plus genres you prefer(i think that one is fiction or realistic fiction?).
    ANYBODY HELP!!!!!!!!!! please!
    thank you!

    ps scott, I love your books when i read uglies for the first time i couldnt put it down and since i am a REALLY fast reader i finished it in about 1 hour!

  27. wow, look at all the people complaining about their homwork now!

    well yeah my global studies teacher is phenomenally evil (i love adding “phenomenally” in front of other words)—last friday she had us write an essay in class in 55 minutes, which is bad enough b/c i always erase and re-erase what i write, so it always takes me forever (that’s why i like computers–DELETE BUTTON!). but surprisingly, i finished with about 10 minutes left, and was actually feeling better about it than i had been going into it, since the essay question focused on everything that we’d been learning, not just a specific piece, so i was able to use all the information i’d studied the day before.

    well this past friday (2 days ago) we all got them back. here are some carefully selected quotes of hers:
    “[the essays] were all HORRIBLE. the number of them that were actually halfway decent, i could count on one hand”
    “if you write like this on the regents, you’ll fail”
    “yes, i AM mean, aren’t i?”

    and i promise you, i didn’t even make any of those up.

    so now we have to redo them for monday, but luckily i finished it last night.

  29. wow, that is one evil teacher. my annoying english teacher just assigns stuff and starts stuff and then totally forgets about it, which really gets to me.
    and luckily my essay’s almost done.
    and i think that school-assigned bad is a combo of horrible selection and dragging it out painfully with notes and tests and stuff to crush any enjoyment at all. the only remotely interesting thing we’ve read in the last two years was animal farm. i’d say the worst was hatchet.

    and i really touched a nerve with the homework thing, eh?

  30. natalia–try the Scott Facts page–it gives some basic info about when/where he was born, faves, stuff like that. the link to it is kinda near the top of this blog page. see the small pics of the book covers? you’re almost there. go right below them, where it says “Faves.” click on the one that says “Scott Facts.”

    and for more specific questions, i suggest emailing scott directly.

    if you’re actually still here.

  31. and i love how some teachers’ll be like, u should be done with your project already, i gave you lots of time. u haven’t had homework all week. and it’s like, yeah, but we’ve still had homework in every other subject!
    it really gets to me when teachers get convinced that thier class is the only/most important subject you have. get real.

  32. yeah, that’s how my G.S. teacher is! i hate that, b/c while they think you’ve had all this time, you’ve actually had 3 tests to study for, 2 essays due, plus regular homework!

    and Natalia, would you happen to be the “nel” from #48? i’m probably totally wrong, but i noticed that that person was also asking about the books (rather desperately, and your first name starts with “N” and last name starts with “L” so i was just wondering.

    and i wrote my comment on my global studies teacher before i saw yours, so that’s why i din’t mention you. that’s why it didn’t mesh with your “point.”

  34. i hate homework. the only homework i like is when the teachers say “read for at least 20 minutes tonight” yepyepyep. yeah. wer doing a big social studies project right now two. i HATE social studies. its my worst subject. i mean, i still get an A on it, but not as high of an A as on everything else. yepyepyep.

    luckily, i have a REALLY nice language/social studies teacher this year. unlike last year. gives us half an hour a day just to do whatever we want while she reads a random something. yepyepyep. it is so funny how my last year teacher was always talking about how mean and strict the 7th grade teachers are.pphhf! she gave me a lunch detention for gluing something down to a project while she was telling us about her last nite’s salsa lesson and how great her parking spot was. SALSA?! PARKING SPOT!? uuggghhh.

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😛

  36. I read the Outsiders in 7th grade too, and I have to say that it’s the only school-assigned book I could read without wanting to burn it.

    Teacher just annoy me in general. They’re always assuming that we have these huge expanses of time in which to do homework, when most of us really don’t! And there should be some sort of personality test they have to pass before getting a job to make sure that they’re not overly evil. My 7th grade Algebra teacher was probably the only teacher I was ever truly afraid of, and she ended up on the news for harrassing several students.
    Boy, do I love my county’s educational employment system.

    And what really gets me is those pointless subjects, like science and social studies. Okay, maybe they’re not pointless, but I hate them to death! We shouldn’t be required to take classes that don’t relate to the job we hope to get in the future. I hope to own a fashion boutique. If I want to know what type of trees are found in the arctic tundra or what the five themes of geography are, I’ll use Google, thank you very much. No one will even remember any of that junk in 10 years, unless they become a scientist or geologist or whatever.
    Okay, I’m rambling. Haha.
    😛

  39. cough cough i second request for fourth midnighters book oh please please author-folk they’re the best of the books and ending so sad and plz plz plz come on open-ended trilogy cough

  40. and i know!!! dude, i haven’t gotten my insideadog t-shirt yet either!!!! i’m starting to get worried…

  41. well since i haven’t recieved an answer i’m assuming that you both aren’t the same person, but nevertheless, i’m gonna push it again:

    nel, are you the same person as Natalia L?

    sorry i just get really persistant and annoying when people don’t answer my questions. seriously. one of you just say no already! lol

    wonderful school system you’ve got there, huh, teira?

    the best school-assigned book that i’ve ever read was Freak the Mighty in 7th, but i’d already read it in 5th but i loved it all over again.

    the worst would have to be A Day No Pigs Would Die in eighth, i mean it’s already such a controversial book–not to mention BORING, why make us read it. it’s so gory, too…eew.

    seriously i hope none of you all ever have to read it, it’s pure torture. scream and run maniacally from anyone who tells you otherwise!

  42. *cough cough* 4TH MIDNIGHTERS BOOK *cough cough* if you dont, i’ll sue! no im just kiddn. i say that two everything. even when the cafeteria took away the chocolate milk. i walked up to her and said “if you dont bring chocolate milk back, i’ll sue!” yepyepyep. but what i CAN do is form an angry mob.

    all in favor of forming an angry mob if Scott-la doesn’t rite a 4th Midnighters say I.

    I!

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😛

  43. best school assigned book…hhmm…Running Out Of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix. yepyepyep. not the best book in the world, but better than the rest i had to read. my sister LOVES Freak the Mighty. she says i have to read it, but i havent gotten around to it yet.

    Taylor-wa…how many stars? 5 tops.

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😛

  44. yeah, we did a day no pigs shall die too–well, the class did. i can honesty say i didn’t read a word of it. not sure why, i just guessed a lot and read other ppl’s notes. it was almost as boring as the Pigman, which we read before. though that was okay, it was just my comatose-dull english teacher

    *cough cough 4th midnighters again cough*

    i really can’t think of best book. animal farm maybe? i dunno. i can think of good books i read for school progects, but not good assigned books.

  48. ok, about 2 times a year my school has a book fair. every year we have to watch a stupid movie about the books in the fair. i wasnt really paying attention when a video describes this book about this girl lives in a society where you have this opperation to turn pretty. and she finds a friend who doesnt want to be a pretty. this video goes on and on and on about this book tha sounds really cool! i go to the book fair and buy that book and its sequal. and that is how i found out about the uglies trilogy.

  49. and then i read more books by scott, and the only teen novel by scott i havent read is so yesterday. i cant find it anywhere! can someone give me an idea on where to find it?

  50. library, borders, didnt have it at barns and noble when i went tho. maybe they just didnt have it then. most school librarys only have UGLIES and Midnighters. amazon. borrow it?

    -Lizzy-wa OUT! 😛

Comments are closed.