[1] A special tenth anniversary edition, which includes the "author's preferred text" and 12,000 additional words, was published in June 2011 by William Morrow.

In March 2017, The Folio Society published a special collector's edition of American Gods, with many corrections to the author's preferred text version.

With nowhere to go, Shadow takes a job as a bodyguard for a mysterious con man, Mr. Wednesday, and travels with him across the United States.

Shadow learns that Wednesday is an incarnation of Odin the All-Father, and that he is recruiting American manifestations of the Old Gods, whose powers have waned as their believers have decreased in number, to participate in a battle against the New Gods – manifestations of what humanity now worships, such as technology, media, pop-culture, and modern means of transport.

Shadow meets many of Wednesday's allies, including Mr. Nancy, Easter, Whiskey Jack, and John Chapman.

On the way to the Wisconsin community of Lakeside, Shadow picks up the hitchhiker Samantha Black Crow and drops her off at her house.

While retrieving Wednesday's body, Shadow is surprised to discover his old prison cellmate and mentor, Low Key Lyesmith, is working as a driver for the New Gods.

Shadow is bound by his contract with Wednesday to hold his vigil by re-enacting Odin's time hanging from a "World Tree" while pierced by a spear for nine days.

Shadow arrives at Rock City and confronts Loki, now gravely wounded, and the ghost of Odin, who reveal their plans.

Shadow travels to the site of the battle and explains that both sides have nothing to gain and everything to lose, with Odin and Loki as the only true winners.

Shadow then performs a small piece of real magic, pulling a golden coin from nowhere like Mad Sweeney did when they first met.

"[9] Gaiman has discussed the origin point for American Gods as a novel, citing his experience as an immigrant in America in 1992, where he began to form the vague idea of the book in his mind.

While Gaiman says that he did not read the book by Terry Pratchett, he thought they shared a worldview due to their same geographic origins and, more importantly, their daily phone conversations.

[11] According to Gaiman, American Gods is not based on Diana Wynne Jones's 1975 novel Eight Days of Luke, "although they bear an odd relationship, like second cousins once removed or something."

[14] The fifteenth word of American Gods is "fuck", which is to help inform readers of a nervous disposition that they can stop reading there, or at least by the end of the extremely peculiar sex scene that closes Chapter 1.

As of 2021,[update] Gaiman sporadically adds to the weblog, describing the writing, revising, publishing, or promoting of his current projects; but tends to use social media like Tumblr[17] or Twitter[18] for more personal details or reader questions.

On 28 February 2008, Gaiman announced on his journal that for one month the complete text of American Gods would be available to the public on his publisher's website.

[22] In 2014, when the television show adaptation was announced, author Abraham Riesman criticized the move as being a "bad idea", highlighting the aspects of the book that did not age well or were offensive to some cultures.

A special tenth anniversary edition, which includes the "author's preferred text" and 12,000 additional words, was published in June 2011 by William Morrow.

[2] The tenth anniversary edition marked the first time the author's preferred text had been available in wide release outside the UK.

A full cast audiobook version of the tenth anniversary edition, including the author's preferred text and 12,000 additional words, was released in 2011.

[28] In March 2017, The Folio Society published a special collector's edition of American Gods, with many corrections to the author's preferred text version.

In an interview with MTV News published on 22 June 2011, Gaiman said that he had plans for a direct sequel to American Gods.

"The Monarch of the Glen", a novella first published in the 2003 anthology Legends II, takes place in Scotland two years after American Gods.

[34] In the introduction for Trigger Warnings Gaiman said that he had one final standalone story that would take Shadow to London before he returns to the US and the start of American Gods 2.