#1s. (WHAT?!)

When you are secretly Abnegation (which I am beginning to figure out that I am), it can be difficult to publicly celebrate when good things happen because you're like "OMG, am I talking about this too much? Am I making other people uncomfortable? Do they think I'm a pompous jackass?" etc. For this reason I usually choose to celebrate privately, via happy dance in my apartment or delicious dessert or something. But this is a public event, made possible by readers and booksellers and librarians and teachers and family and friends, plus my agent and the fabulous people at HarperCollins, so I think it really requires public celebration.

This week, INSURGENT hit the New York Times bestseller list at #1!

And at the same time, but on a different list (the paperback list), DIVERGENT held strong at #1!

Okay, that doesn't make as much sense, but I LOVE IT ANYWAY. (link)

In case I don't say it enough (and how could I, really?): THANK YOU to everyone who worked on the book, and to everyone who read it (or is reading it) or told someone about it or possibly foisted it upon friends against their will. You are fantastic.

And now to put on gray and put my hair up. (Or not.)

WHERE IS THE CAKE?!

Author out.

Four is Free!

Yesterday (ish-- I'm not sure exactly when) we reached 35,000 Insurgent pre-orders! (I think my reaction was "...holy bananas!" which is one of those expressions that just popped out of my mouth once and then I started using it all the time, much to the annoyance of the people around me.) This is fantastic. When I first heard the official goal, there was a large part of me that was like "pssh. That will NEVER happen." And then suddenly, it did.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but this is because of readers. No marketing campaign or publicity stunt or book tour can possibly match the power of the reader. (Not that those things aren't great, or that they are useless, but I'm just saying, readers are the key.) I hear it all the time: "My friend forced me to read this even though I wasn't sure about it." "My teacher told our class to read this." "My librarian recommended this to me." "My mom played the audiobook in the car." So many stories about readers sharing their enthusiasm. So I know that we're at this number mostly because of you, and I'm so freaking grateful.

I wrote this "Free Four" scene for you, my darling book pushers. It was hard for me to pick just the right one. I thought about the Ferris wheel scene, and I thought about the fear landscape scene, and both of those would have been good options. But I really wanted to choose something that would change our (I say "our" because it changed mine, too) perceptions about the story, and show how limited Tris's perspective really is, though she is a reliable and observant narrator. And the knife-throwing scene was perfect for that--once I started writing, I discovered all kinds of things about Four that I didn't know, and I knew this scene was The One.

You can read it here. 

Yes, it's on Facebook, but I tried logging out of my facebook account to see if I could access it anyway, and I could, so I don't think you need to be on facebook to read it. It does not contain any Insurgent spoilers, but it does spoil some Divergent things, so if you haven't read Divergent you may want to hold off until you're done.

I've been getting a few questions about it, and I'm going to go ahead and answer them here:

Is the scene going to be available for download? No, I don't think so. Bummer, I know, but it's there online for you to read whenever you'd like. I think that link above works for mobile devices, too.

Are you going to write more? Here's the thing: I took about a week out of writing book 3 to get this scene done. Right now I MUST finish book 3, and I can't spare another week. Some authors are superhuman/mutants and can write two things at once, but I am just a lame-o regular human being and I have to do one thing at a time.

Yeah, I get that, but what about in the future? I can't see the future, so I try not to rule anything out. The best I can do is tell you that right now, I don't have any plans to keep writing Four!Divergent (Fourvergent? Difourgent?).

 I can't read it! It's not working! Try turning off your pop-up blocker or browser security temporarily. If it still doesn't work, try a different browser. If you're on your phone, try accessing it from your computer. If none of those things help, you have reached the limit of my technological knowhow and will have to seek help elsewhere. Alas. I am a nerd but not that kind.

I think that's all for now. I really hope you guys enjoy the scene-- you earned it.

<3,

V

11 Weeks, and a Finished Draft

It is official (actually, it's been official for two weeks now, but I've been working on Insurgent like a madwoman and haven't gotten to talk about it): Divergent's run on the New York Times bestseller list was eleven weeks long. It was an incredible run for me, particularly because hitting the list in the first place was a dream I never quite dared to have, and staying there for more than five minutes was straight up INSANITY.

Sometimes it takes a long time for these things to set in, for me, so I'm sure I reacted with substantially less screaming and jumping up and down than I should have, but the truth is, I never really believed it. I still barely believe that the book is on shelves, for goodness' sake. But it set in a little bit recently, when I saw the cover proofs for Insurgent and there it was, New York Times Bestselling Author Veronica Roth. It sort of stole the air from my lungs.

(No, you can't see the cover proofs yet...but SOON! I promise.)

Anyway: I just wanted to thank every reader/bookseller/librarian/teacher who recommended Divergent to a family member or a friend or a student or a teacher or a customer, and every person at the HC who worked on it or supported it. Word of mouth is by far the most powerful book-spreading tool, and your mouths are responsible for this wonderful thing I get to carry around for the rest of my life. So thank you.

In other news, I finished the revised draft of Insurgent at 1AM on Sunday (well, I guess that's technically Monday). But there is still work to do! If I could get a book right in just ONE round of revisions, I would be like some kind of writer mutant, and I would be checking myself for flippers or gills or something. There will be other rounds of edits. Plus a line editing round. Plus a copyediting round. Plus page proofs. Plus...well, let's just say it takes longer than you'd think.

Still, I'm really happy with the way it turned out and the fact that it's done. And excited, though prematurely, for everyone to read it!

Have a good week, everyone.

ARC Giveaway!

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us here in the US. I, for one, am looking forward to the sweet potatoes, and the cranberry "sauce" that comes from a can. And I would describe that as jelly, not sauce.

Sometimes my family participates in that "go around the table and say what you're thankful for" thing, and I have a lot to be thankful for. One of those things is you guys-- who are excited about the book and make me feel like I'm not sending my blog posts into Nowhere and always show up to get excited about things like book-deal-getting and contract-signing and foreign-rights-selling and all that wonderful stuff. You guys mean a lot to me.

So, in order to express my gratitude: I'm giving away 3 ARCs.

!!!

And I rarely use exclamation points, so you know this is exciting when I whip out THREE of them! Look, another one! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!

(I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU TO READ! AHHHH!)

Look, here they are!

And I am going to put little post-its in the ARCs of my favorite scenes and fun facts about the writing process and the songs that sometimes go with certain parts, because I always find that interesting and I suspect you might, too.

And all you have to do...is tell me you want one.

In the comments. Oh, and leave your e-mail address in the comments so I can contact you easily, please!

I will choose randomly.

This contest is open...to everyone.

Everywhere.

Even if you have no idea what this whole Thanksgiving thing involving cranberry jelly is all about, because you don't live around here.

It closes in a week, on December 1st. And if you don't get one, don't worry! I'm going to be doing a smattering of small giveaways throughout the next few months. YAY.

(Yes, that's me making a cheesy little heart with my hands. Shhh.)