The Dos and Don’ts of a John Waters book-signing

A John Waters book release and signing event is a rare and festive literary occasion no matter where it occurs, but it’s especially memorable when it takes place in the author’s hometown of Baltimore.

The latest John Waters book signing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 21, when Baltimore’s famous filth monger appears at Atomic Books on Falls Road to greet fans and celebrate the publication of not one but three softcover books from Picador.

The signing events are always fun because Waters has a great sense of humor, is generous with his time, and will sign other items besides the books on sale, including bare skin, “within reason.” He also has some of the most creative, boisterous and uninhibited fans anywhere. Just don’t bring John Waters-themed items from Etsy or other unauthorized retailers and ask him to sign them – that drives him crazy.

This is the first time Waters has had a signing event at Atomic Books since the paperback version of his 2022 novel “Liarmouth – A Feel Bad Romance” came out in May of 2023. It’s also one of the next times fans will be able to meet Waters in person in Baltimore, without maybe running into him at Eddie’s market on Roland Avenue or at a local night club. (Waters’ next spoken-word performance at Baltimore Soundstage will be on December 23, 2025, and he typically introduces a film during John Waters Night at the Maryland Film Festival, which is in November this year.)

Wednesday’s event also makes Atomic Books the first place anywhere that his new books will be available – six days before the official publication date of May 27.

“We have a special deal” with the publisher, Waters said in a phone interview. “We’re going to jump the pub date…. This will be the first place anybody can get them.”

The books are all screenplays that Waters wrote more than 40 years ago for movies he wanted to make: “Pink Flamingos,” which came out in 1972; “Desperate Living,” which came out in 1977, and “Flamingos Forever,” a never-filmed sequel to Pink Flamingos, written in 1983.

The screenplays have been published twice before, and both times they were collected in one volume. What’s different this time is that each screenplay is being published separately, with new covers painted by artist Wayne Hollowell. “Flamingos Forever” is dedicated: “In Memory of Divine.” Each book costs $15. Another three John Waters screenplays with Wayne Hollowell covers will come out this fall. They were written for “Multiple Maniacs” (1970); “Female Trouble” (1974) and “Hairspray” (1988).

Picador is a division of Macmillan Publishing Group. Another MacMillan division, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, published the hardcover versions of Waters’ last two books, “Mr. Know-It-All – The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder” and “Liarmouth – A Feel Bad Romance,” and the softcover version of “Mr. Know-It-All.” Picador published the softcover version of “Liarmouth.” Baltimore native Lottchen Shivers is handling publicity.

Waters said the screenplays are coming out now because he wanted to keep them in print, and introduce them in a new format. He said the first three screenplays were previously published by Thundermouth Press, which is “kind of over,” and the idea was “to get them back in print in a new way and do them separately” with “a whole new look.” The previous versions are “still technically in print, but Thundermouth Press is kind of no-such-thing anymore,” he said.

For past book releases, Waters has embarked on national tours, with book-signing events and author’s talks from coast to coast. Wednesday’s affair is the only book-signing event that Waters has scheduled for the three screenplays. He said he planned to have a second signing event this summer at a shop in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but it has been cancelled due to the death of the owner. That makes the Atomic Books event even more of a one-of-a-kind occasion.

“This is a very limited book tour,” Waters quipped. “It’s one” stop.

A John Waters reunion

Located at 3620 Falls Road, Atomic Books is an independent retailer that carries all of Waters’ books, films and other goods, including items from his Wacky Wacko fashion and gift collaboration with visual artist and musician Seth Bogart. It’s also the place that receives Waters’ fan mail.

The format for Wednesday’s book-signing will be similar to those of previous Atomic Books events. The doors will open at 7 p.m., but the line starts forming outside the store long before that.

In past years, the line has extended down Falls Road and wrapped around the block to 36^th Street. Waters sits at a table in a space at the back of the store, and fans file though the store to meet him and get their books and other items signed. They can then return to the street or head back into the main store and its in-house bar, Eightbar.

Wednesday evening’s weather forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of showers and a low temperature of 52 degrees in Hampden. The event will end after Waters has greeted the last person in line, which could be late into the night.  

Part of what makes the signing such a spectacle is the fans who come and the energy they bring even as they wait in line. People are in high spirits, and there’s a sense of camaraderie and anticipation as they inch closer and closer to seeing Waters. Many travel a long distance to get there, and some come dressed as characters from John Waters movies. There are a lot of leopard print tops and leather jackets and pink hairdos. In the past, people have brought everything from movie posters to Cha Cha heels to a carton of eggs for him to sign.

Besides getting Waters’ autograph, many of his fans want photos of themselves with the author, and he happily obliges. But that takes time. While waiting in line, his fans complement each other on what they’re wearing, chat about their favorite films and books, and trade anecdotes. Some know each other from attending Camp John Waters, his annual adult sleepover for superfans. For them, it’s like a John Waters reunion.

What to expect

For anyone who’s never been to a John Waters book signing, Atomic Books owners Rachel Whang and Benn Ray posted information on social media to give an idea about what they can expect. Here are their answers to some Frequently Asked Questions:

1.The line is for people getting copies of one, or all three, of the screenplays. You’ll receive a ticket for the number of screenplays you’d like to purchase. If you pre-ordered a pick up copy, just have your order number ready.

2. John will personalize most anything else you bring (film memorabilia, Funko Pops, etc.) within reason and he may refuse to sign something at his discretion. We will have signed copies of all of his books, Blu-Rays, etc., and he will personalize those for you along with your screenplays. TO BE CLEAR, you must purchase a screenplay in order to get anything signed/personalized.

3. You will be able to have your photo taken with John, with the setup similar to our previous events.

4. More copies of signed books will be available after the signing in store and on our site.

5. The line starts whenever the first person shows up and starts the line. We don’t control that. You do.

More Do’s and Don’ts

Waters also answered questions about his new books and the Dos and Don’ts of a John Waters book signing in a wide-ranging interview. Here’s what he said about the screenplays, why they’re being released now, what he will and won’t autograph and other points of etiquette for the book signing. His comments have been edited slightly. The bottom line is that it’s up to him to determine what he’ll sign.

Baltimore Fishbowl: Why are these screenplays coming out now?

John Waters: Because we knew that it was technically still in print, but not aggressively, and we just thought that it was time to bring them out in a whole new way.

BF: How did you pick Wayne Hollowell to be the artist for the covers?

JW: I always pick fan art [for book covers] and so I had seen that artist on line. It was my idea to do each one with a cover by him to make them all look the same.

BF: Instead of grouping three screenplays in one volume, as before, you’ve made each one a separate book this time.

JW: People collect books. It’s much more handy, if you want to do one movie, to just pick this one up…We’re doing three now and then three in the fall.

BF: Will more come out after that?

JW: Who knows? That gets more complicated in the Hollywood movies.

BF: Screenplays in book form are relatively rare.

JW: Almost no screenplay books ever come out anymore. This is one of the few, believe me. It’s a genre that has faded from public consumption.

BF: That should help your series stand out.

JW: I agree. And people more than ever quote the lines from it, so I guess it’s good for that too. I’ve seen one person [who] had a tattoo of a page of the “Female Trouble” script on their leg.

BF: In case anybody has a question about what the exact quote was.

JW: Exactly. They can find it, right?

BF: Are you doing other book signings besides the one in Baltimore?

JW: I was going to do one in Provincetown at MAP, but unfortunately my great friend Pauline Fisher, who ran it, just died, so no. This is the only signing, as of now.

BF: Why aren’t you doing other book signings?

JW: Because it’s a screenplay book, you know? It’s not like I have a brand new novel out or something. I think very few publishers would give you a tour for a screenplay reprint book. But certainly I’ll have them at all of my shows.

BF: And they’ll be available at other shops around the country?

JW: They’ll be available in every book store, if they order it.

BF: Are you doing book talks in conjunction with this release, like the one you did for Liarmouth with Marion Winik at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D. C.?

JW: No. I’m not doing that. And they also interfere with my spoken-word bookings. That’s always a little bit of a problem, too. This is a very limited book tour, definitely. It’s one. Now I don’t know what will happen in the fall, if I do something different. It probably depends on how well these do.

BF: Could the publication of this series open the door potentially to more work from your archives coming out in a new form?

JW: You said that, I didn’t. That hasn’t even been discussed. But yes, I guess if you ask that, it’s possible. Eventually, what they could do is all the scripts.

BF: Have you changed any of the dialogue in these new editions?

JW: Once in a while I did. I’m not telling you what.

BF: Did you write an introduction to the screenplays?

 JW: Nope. Even the old introductions are not in it. We just wanted the screenplays. Each one. Here it is.

Book-signing etiquette

BF: Will the setup for this book-signing include precautions for COVID?

JW: Yes, it will be the same thing. I will be behind Plexiglass, sitting on a stool. There are two stools on the other side of the Plexiglass, like a jail visiting room. You sit down, you talk to me [through the Plexiglass], then you turn around on the stool [for those who want a photo]. I’m still seated and they take the picture.

BF: What’s required to get in line?

JW: To get in the line, you have to buy at least one of the screenplay books. If you have that, I’ll sign another book or, you know, whatever you’ve got. I have the right of refusal.

BF: The right of refusal?

JW: I turn down the place I hate the most: Etsy. Little crafts that have pirated my items in the name of folk art.

BF: You balk at signing certain items?

JW: Oh yes. All the pirated versions of my films, definitely. I stop stuff on eBay every day of my life. We heavily police it. So does Warner Brothers. I have my own marketing deals. I have many product lines. You can’t just put out tee shirts with pictures from my movies on them, in small, medium and large, and expect me to allow it.

BF: So there’s no point bringing them on Wednesday?

JW: All pirated stuff I won’t sign.

BF: Anything else you won’t sign?

JW: Well, it depends…I can’t give what they would be, because then it would be asking for trouble. But, yes, I reserve the right to reject signing things…I’ve always said I’d sign mastectomy scars, but I have not signed bottom surgery.

BF: But fans can bring other items for you to sign, like Cha Cha heels or eggs or a Funko Pop figure of you.

JW: Within reason. Not 50 posters.

BF: What about your fashion line of John Waters tote bags, apparel, bath mats and other items? Atomic Books frequently seems to be out of your John Waters c*m rags, which are euphemistically called hand towels.

JW: The c*m rags sell. That’s from my new line with Wacky Wacko and Seth Bogart. The c*m rags sell out faster than anything I have ever put out in my life, as far as rags.

BF: If somebody brings you a c*m rag, will you sign it?

JW: If it’s my c*m rag, and if it’s not used.

BF: New, not filthy. That’s what I meant.

JW: No one has asked me to sign any used c*m rags yet. I guess I will hold off on that decision, depending on the person. That would be an unsafe autograph.

‘Nothing’s rude’

BF: This time you have three books at once. What’s the etiquette on that? Are people supposed to buy all three?

JW: They can. But they only have to buy one to get in the line.

BF: Is it rude not to buy all three?

JW: No. No. Nothing’s rude, if you buy any of the product. It’s lovely. No, it’s not rude to buy only one.

BF: How would you advise people what to buy?

JW: It’s not up to me. Whichever one you like the best. Or whichever one maybe you didn’t see. Maybe you like the painting on the cover of one better. Or the ones where you have a favorite line and you want to find it. That’s completely up to the buyer.

BF: The book for “Female Trouble” is different because it has a painting of Lobstora on the cover.

JW: That’s in the fall.

BF: What about inscriptions on a book?

JW: It will be personalized if you wait in line with the one book. You can’t get in line with a signed book in the store and have me personalize it without buying one of the screenplays.

BF: Are there any inscriptions you won’t write?

JW: When people say ‘I hate you,’ ‘f*ck you,’ or something like that, I say no, because that’s not something I would write.

BF: One of your fans wants the inscription: “I hate the Supreme Court.”

JW: Well, that’s fine. That’s a line in the movie (“Desperate Living”). That’s fine because Mink said it. That line gets a lot of play these days.

BF: What’s the highest number of people who have come to one of your book signings?

JW: I have no idea. I have been doing it for 50 years. I remember one Valentine’s Day at Amoeba Records in San Francisco that was really packed and really insane. That’s where someone was waiting in line nude, which made me laugh.  

BF: What’s the craziest thing someone has asked you to sign?

JW: Well, there’s d*ck, I guess. Or an ass, you know. But a d*ck, you can’t sign if it’s soft. It would be hard to sign it. Truman Capote said the famous thing about that. Someone asked, ‘would you sign my d*ck?’ and he said, ‘Well, maybe I could initial it.’

BF: You’ve signed a fan’s arm or thigh.

JW: Now they want to be tattooed [in the spot where he signs flesh], and I would say let me do it on a card so the tattoo-er can put it in the computer and make it better. But then I saw those cards on eBay, so that people could take my signature and put it on anything, so I don’t do that anymore.

BF: If fans miss the chance to get your autograph on Wednesday, will Atomic Books have signed copies after the event?

JW: I assume, let’s put it that way. But maybe not, because I go away for the summer. Whatever I sign is going to last for the summer and that might not last the whole time. So get them while I’m here.

BF: It doesn’t cost any extra to get items signed?

JW: Oh, no.

Forever Flamingos

BF: “Flamingos Forever,” the sequel to “Pink Flamingos,” picks up the story of Divine after he leaves Baltimore and moves to Boise, Idaho. The Atomic Books website calls it “a dark-comedy screenplay about a drag queen trying to retain her title of ‘Filthiest Person in the World.’” “Pink Flamingos” is part of the prestigious National Film Registry of the U. S. Library of Congress. You wrote “Flamingos Forever” in 1983. Why was it never filmed?

JW: Because no one would give us the money.

BF: Why?

JW: Because it was expensive. It would have been an NC-17 and just as rude. And it would be way too expensive for it to have been a midnight movie, that’s why.

BF: You wrote it during the seven-year period between “Polyester” and “Hairspray.”

JW: I spent a long time trying to make it and I should have given up quickly. If something doesn’t happen right away, it doesn’t usually happen forever…I tried to raise money for it for way too long.

BF: You wrote “Forever Flamingos” assuming that Edith Massey and Divine would reprise their roles from “Pink Flamingos.” But Edith Massey died in 1984 and Divine died in 1988, ending any chance they would be in a sequel.

JW: When I wrote it, they were going to be in it. Divine was not that eager to do it, because it had more dog sh*t stuff in it, but he would have. And Edie would have.

BF: Was that part of why it wasn’t made, that it would be hard to replace them?

JW: It was already…over. Divine died right after “Hairspray”…Around the time I was making “Hairspray,” I was hardly thinking of making the sequel to “Pink Flamingos.” I was going in the opposite direction.

BF: Could “Forever Flamingos” be filmed today? Could publishing the screenplay help it get filmed today?

JW: I don’t know. I couldn’t get my last two movies made, so God knows…If I couldn’t get the last two made, this would be harder.

BF: Meaning “Fruitcake”…

JW: And “Liarmouth,” yes. Both of those fell through. I would not go back on the marketplace trying to get this one done. That’s masochism.

BF: How did you choose these three screenplays to come out first?

JW: It was just the way they came out in real life…I know the selling point was “Flamingos Forever” because nobody knew what it was. And you had to have Pink Flamingos [along with] the sequel, I thought.

Remaking “Female Trouble”

BF: Why haven’t more of your movies been remade? What movie of yours has the best chance of getting remade?

JW: I hope none of them. Well, “Desperate Living” has the least. They remade “Hairspray” many times.

BF: Other than Hairspray.

JW: “Cry-Baby” is now a hit in London, the musical, when it was a failure on Broadway. I’m hoping that comes back on Broadway. So that would be the next thing I think that could happen. There has been talk again of “Pink Flamingos” being an opera. And there has been always talk back and forth of “Serial Mom” being a TV show. It never seems to happen, but there’s always calls about it, let’s say that.

BF: Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang told IndieWire.com last month that he “would love” to remake “Female Trouble,” and he praised you as “probably my favorite director ever” in remarks about movies of yours that are preserved in the Criterion Closet.

JW: He said that, yes. Some of the reactions [to his idea] were not too good. I love him. I think it’s great. I was really flattered, everything he said about me. So who knows? I like two of the remakes of “Hairspray,” so I’m not saying I’m against it. We’ll see. Probably, if I said yes, it would be for a financial reason because nobody’s going to…why would you want to remake the one that is…Usually, they should remake the ones that didn’t work, not the ones that are the most liked.

BF: The online reaction to Bowen Yang’s idea of remaking “Female Trouble” seemed overwhelmingly negative, with commenters asking how anyone could do better than the original.

JW: I didn’t say that.

BF: No, but the comments were uniformly against Yang’s idea.

JW: I was flattered he said that, let’s put it that way. I met him in Provincetown and I think he’s great. I’m all for him. So I was very flattered he said that and [brought up] the Criterion Closet and all that stuff.

BF: You’ve said “Serial Mom” is your best movie, but that could be an argument against remaking it. If it’s your best, how could it be improved?

JW: No, it wouldn’t be remade as a movie. It would be remade as a TV show that was episodic, where maybe she did a kill every four weeks and it built to that every other week.

‘Never say never’

BF: Do you have plans to publish scripts of other unfilmed works of yours, such as your screenplay for “Fruitcake”?

JW: Who knows? Yeah, I have plenty of them. “Glamourpuss.” I’ve got a whole bunch of them. I sort of told the plots a little bit in Mr. Know-It-All. Maybe, maybe. I never say never.