Oliver Schnusenberg

Oliver Schnusenberg asked Andy Weir:

I'm a huge fan of The Martian!!!! Given that your book had previously been published online and became somewhat of a cult phenom (I read this in EW's feature of you a couple of weeks ago), was there anything that was "lost in translation" when it was finally published in its current form? Thanks! I can't wait until your next one!

Andy Weir There were no plot changes between the self-published and print versions. The editing process was pretty smooth. Mostly they had me rewrite sections that were a little too scientific. Also there were a lot of places where there was insufficient scene setting, floating dialog, etc. So basically the editing came down to wordsmithing, not plot.

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Zanda Escu

Zanda Escu asked Andy Weir:

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

Beth

Beth asked Andy Weir:

One of the things I loved about your book was the way Mark handled life-threatening situations with humor. I've heard humor mentioned as a survival technique -- the idea that people who can keep their sense of humor in the face of risk are more likely to survive than those who get overwhelmed by the frightening reality of their situation. I'm curious -- how did this aspect of Mark's characterization come about?

Ken Cressman

Ken Cressman asked Andy Weir:

You self-published The Martian. I am the author of two self-published books myself. How did you go about promoting the book that it became so well-known and popular?

All answers from Andy Weir…

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