John Green Statistics – WordsRated (2024)

August 21, 2023 by Dean Talbot

Over 50 million John Green books are available in print worldwide.
His most popular title, The Fault in Our Stars (2012), has sold more than 23 million copies.
Barnes & Noble accidentally shipped 1,500 copies of the title in December 2011 (prior to its release date) to customers that had pre-ordered the book.
Due to this, many recipients pledged not to begin reading the book until its release date and not to discuss it until the day after.
John Green promised to hand-sign every pre-order, which resulted in him signing each copy from the first printing (150,000 books).
Between 2010 and 2019, John Green’s first novel, Looking for Alaska (2005), was the fourth-most banned, challenged, and/or removed book in the US.
After a long period of steadily increasing sales, the title officially became a bestseller in 2012 (7 years after its initial publication).
In 2012, Fox 2000 Pictures purchased the film option rights to The Fault in Our Stars.
Two years later, the film was released, grossing over $307 million worldwide from a budget of $12 million.
Paper Towns (2008) by John Green, was also adapted into a movie in 2015, grossing $85.5 million from a $12 million budget.

John Green books in order

As of 2023, there are 16 John Green book titles.
This includes
- 7 novels
- 6 short stories
- 1 short story collection
- 1 nonfiction title
- 1 interactive novel
John Green has also released multiple gift books in collaboration with other authors and written several book forewords for other authors.
Looking for Alaska was John Green’s first title, released in 2005.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet was John Green’s most recent title, released in 2021.

#	Date published	Title	Type	Page count	Audiobook length
1	March 3, 2005	Looking for Alaska	Novel	221	6h40m
2	January 1, 2006**	The Approximate Cost of Loving Caroline	Short story*	N/A	N/A
3	September 21, 2006	An Abundance of Katherines	Novel	229	6h47m
4	March 1, 2007	The Great American Morp	Short story*	N/A	N/A
5	October 2, 2008	Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances	Novel	352	8h9m
6	October 16, 2008	Paper Towns	Novel	305	8h
7	January 1, 2009**	Thisisnottom	Interactive novel	58	N/A
8	August 1, 2009**	Freak the Geek	Short story*	N/A	N/A
9	April 6, 2010	Will Grayson, Will Grayson	Novel	310	7h51m
10	January 19, 2011	Zombicorns	Short story	72	N/A
11	September 15, 2011	Reasons	Short story*	N/A	N/A
12	January 10, 2012	The Fault in Our Stars	Novel	313	7h11m
13	August 20, 2012	The War for Banks Island	Short story	48	N/A
14	January 1, 2014**	The Space & The Cat and the Mouse	Short story collection	N/A	N/A
15	October 10, 2017	Turtles All the Way Down	Novel	290	7h12m
16	May 18, 2021	The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet	Nonfiction	304	10h42m

John Green and his brother Hank Green started Vlogbrothers in 2007 as a video blog YouTube channel.
As of 2023, the channel has 3.74 million subscribers and 2.1 thousand videos.
Through the channel, they started a charitable movement in 2007 named Project for Awesome, an annual 48-hour event allowing YouTubers to create content and vote for their favorite charities.
In total, the project has raised over $20 million through 13 annual events ($1.54 million on average per event).
In 2023 alone, Project for Awesome raised $3.07 million to be shared between 32 different charitable organizations.
Crash Course was also started by the two brothers in 2012 to be an educational YouTube channel.
The previous year, it was selected to be funded as part of YouTube’s original $100 million channel initiative.
In 2018, Crash Course received additional funding through YouTube’s Learning initiative.
As of 2023, the channel has 14.9 million subscribers and 1.4 thousand videos.
John Green’s popularity on YouTube has greatly contributed towards the success of his book titles.

John Green is a widely recognized author, mainly due to his successful young adult novels.
The popularity of his novels has been attributed to the relativity and emotional depth of his characters, in addition to creating thought-provoking storylines.
In addition to writing, he is also a leading YouTuber due to his channels Vlogbrothers and Crash Course, which he runs alongside his brother Hank Green.

Primarily, John Green writes books within the young adult fiction genre.
His writing style resonates with both young adults and adult readers alike, by including themes such as identity, relationships and mental health.
In particular, his bestsellers Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars have had a tremendous influence on the young adult book genre.

John Green was compelled to write The Fault in Our Stars over a period of about 10 years following his younger experiences working at a children’s hospital.
Although he produced multiple versions of the story, he did not consider any of the versions to be serious until a close friend of his, Esther Erle, passed away due to cancer in 2010.
Returning to the story in a state of loss, he was motivated to finish the project. The book was later dedicated to Esther.