Editing Go Ask Alice (section)

==Production==
The manuscript that later became ''Go Ask Alice'' was initially prepared for publication by [[Beatrice Sparks]], a [[Mormons|Mormon]] youth counselor then in her early 50s, who had previously done various forms of writing. Sparks had reportedly noted that the general public at that time lacked knowledge about youth drug abuse, and she likely had both educational and moral motives for publishing the book.<ref name=katsoulis /><ref name=goldberg/><ref name=nilsenhouse>{{cite journal |last=Nilsen |first=Alleen Pace |date=October 1979 |title=The House That Alice Built |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/29873595/Go-Ask-Alice-Lit-Crit-The-House-That-Alice-Built |journal=School Library Journal |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=109–112 |access-date=2016-12-26 |via=Scribd.com }}</ref> Sparks later claimed that the book was based on a real diary she received from a real teenage girl,<ref name=nilsenhouse /> although this claim was never substantiated<ref name=katsoulis /> and the girl has never been identified<ref name=mikkelson /><ref name="Esq"/> (see [[#Authorship|Authorship and veracity controversies]]). In the 1982 Avon paperback version of ''Go Ask Alice'' the Library of Congress lists the book as "fiction."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson: 9781637740422 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691586/unmask-alice-by-rick-emerson/ |access-date=2023-02-28 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

With the help of [[Art Linkletter]], a popular [[talk show]] host for whom Sparks had worked as a [[ghostwriter]], the manuscript was passed on to Linkletter's literary agent, who sold it to Prentice Hall.<ref name=nilsenhouse /><ref name="Esq"/> Linkletter, who had become a prominent anti-drug crusader after the 1969 suicide of his daughter [[Diane Linkletter|Diane]],<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Johnson |first=Ted |date=2010-05-27 |title=Art Linkletter's War on Drugs |url=https://variety.com/2010/biz/opinion/art-linkletters-war-on-drugs-39200/ |url-status=live |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |location=New York City |publisher=Variety.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107142420/http://variety.com/2010/biz/opinion/art-linkletters-war-on-drugs-39200/ |archive-date=2017-01-07 |access-date=2017-01-07 }}</ref> also helped publicize the book.<ref name=pwadvances>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Prentice-Hall has built up large advances... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yr9EAQAAIAAJ&q=art+linkletter+go+ask+alice |magazine=Publishers Weekly |edition=bound volume |location=New York City |publisher=R.R. Bowker |date=1971 |access-date=2017-01-07 |volume=200, part 1 |page=34  }}</ref><ref name=boettner>{{cite news |last=Boettner |first=Jack |date=1975-05-15 |title='Alice' Called Obscene: Mother Fights for School Ban on Book |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/164466097/ |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |page=R Part II – 3 |access-date=2016-12-26 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref><ref name=clarke>{{cite news |last=Clarke |first=John |date=1978-02-18 |title=The Alice Affair |newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]]| location=[[Toronto]] |page=8 |via=Proquest  }}</ref> Even before its publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' had racked up large advance orders of 18,000 copies.<ref name=pwadvances />