Adam Selzer's first novel was How To Get Suspended and Influence People, a 2007 Random House novel which was included on the Chicago Public Schools 2007 Summer Reading List.^[1] It was also nominated for a Cybils 2007 Young Adult Fiction award,^[2] and, in 2009, made national news after attempts were made to have it removed from an Idaho library;^[3][4] it was included in the American Library Association's Banned Books Week packet in 2010.^[5] In 2013, his 2011 novel Sparks (published under the name "SJ Adams") was named a Stonewall Honor book,^[6] as well as being placed on the ALA's "Rainbow List."^[7] His Smart Aleck's Guide to American History (Random House 2009) was nominated for a YALSA award for nonfiction by the American Library Association in 2011,^[8] and his novel for younger readers, I Put a Spell On You: From the Files of Chrissie Woodward, Spelling Bee Detective (which was based on Watergate) was nominated for a Great Lakes Book Award^[9] and short-listed for an Edgar award nomination. It became a notable choice for classroom reading.^[10] A 2009 short film he co-wrote, At Last, Okemah!, won awards at multiple festivals.^[11][12]

In 2009, Adam's editor at Random House asked him to write a book based on "I Thought She Was a Goth," a song he had written a decade earlier. The resulting book, I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It was released in January 2010.^[13] to acclaim from trade reviewers, who described it as "smart," "original," "hilarious," and "a scathing parody (of the paranormal romance genre)".^[14] Film rights were optioned by Disney Channel Original Movies^[15] A follow-up (to both that book and I Put a Spell On You) entitled Extraordinary* was released by Delacorte in 2011,^[16] the same day as he published Sparks with Flux under the name SJ Adams.^[17]

His first nonfiction book for Random House was The Smart Aleck's Guide to American History,^[18] and was selected as a Junior Library Guild selection. Critics frequently compared the humor to that of The Daily Show and Mark Twain.^[18][19]

Most of his books (and many of his songs) take place in Cornersville Trace, a fictional suburb of Des Moines.^[20]

In addition to his book work, Adam works as a historian, tour guide and ghost investigator in Chicago. In 2009, his first adult nonfiction title with a major publisher, Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps, told stories of his life and work as a ghost tour guide and as a skeptic in the ghost-hunting field. He stepped down from his position with Weird Chicago Tours after the Halloween season in 2009.^[21] In 2011, he returned to tour guide work for the Chicago Hauntings tour company and continued with them until 2015.

In 2017 he released the first comprehensive biography of Chicago multi-murderer HH Holmes.

Novels edit

• How to Get Suspended and Influence People, Delacorte Press, 2007 ISBN 978-0-385-73369-4
• Pirates of the Retail Wasteland, Delacorte Press, 2008 ISBN 978-0-385-73482-0
• I Put a Spell On You, Delacorte Press, 2008 ISBN 978-0-385-90498-8
• I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It, Delacorte Press 2010 ISBN 978-0-385-73503-2
• Andrew North Blows Up the World, Delacorte Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-375-89375-9
• Extraordinary: The True Story of My Fairy Godparent, Who Almost Killed Me, and Certainly Never Made Me a Princess Delacorte Press 2011 ISBN 978-0385736497
• Sparks, Flux 2011 (writing as S.J. Adams) ISBN 0738726761
• Play Me Backward Simon & Schuster 2014 ISBN 9781481401029
• Just Kill Me Simon & Schuster 2016 ISBN 978-1-4814-3494-2

Nonfiction edit

• The Smart Aleck's Guide to American History, Delacorte Press 2009 ISBN 978-0-385-73650-3
• Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps: True Tales of an Accidental Ghost Hunter, Llewellyn Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-7387-1557-5
• Weird Chicago: The Book (with Troy Taylor and Ken Melvoin-Berg), Whitechapel Press, 2008 ISBN 978-1-892523-59-4
• Fatal Drop: True Tales of the Chicago Gallows White Chapel Press January, 2009 (under the name William Griffith)
• Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Chicago History Globe Pequot Press 2012
• The Ghosts of Chicago Llewellyn Press September 2013
• The Ghosts of Lincoln Llewellyn Press 2015
• Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the US Film Industry Columbia University Press 2015 ISBN 9780231174497
• Mysterious Chicago Skyhorse Publishing 2016
• HH Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil Skyhorse Publishing 2017
• Graceland Cemetery: Chicago Stories, Symbols, and Secrets^[22]

Ebook Releases edit

• Chicago Unbelievable Presents: The Murder Castle of H.H. Holmes (mini ebook) (editor), Whitechapel Press, 2008^[23]
• Bobcat Nation: Life among the Dylan Fans A Goon Attack Press (ebook) October, 2004 [ASIN B004GKMP5I]
• The Smart Aleck's Guide to Grave Robbing [Open etc.] 2011)
• The Smart Aleck's Guide to Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth [Open etc.] 2011
• The Resurrection Mary Files Llewellyn Press 2013
• Devil Babies: Hull House and Beyond Llewellyn Press 2013
• Inside the Murder Castle Llewellyn Press 2013
• Just Kill Me 2016

Screenplays edit

• At Last, Okemah! (short film) Lost Tree Lane 2009

• Adam Selzer's Website
• Chicago Unbelievable Blog