What can I expect, being 15 and all?

Your age will matter most when it comes to signing contracts. If an agent offers representation and requires an agency agreement, you'll need a parent or legal guardian to sign with you (same with book contracts) until you turn 18.

Some agents may be turned off by your age, but they probably aren't the norm. There are writers who sign with agents at your age and they are wonderful writers. Make sure your query is top notch and let your novel speak for itself.

Hello and welcome to AW! Check out:

How many teens writing YA on here are published?

Teens Writing for Teens

and the TWFT blog

Literary Agent for a Teen

Short version: if your writing is good, it doesn't matter if you're 5, 15, or 55. There are lots of teen authors around here, and a handful of them are published. Feel free to post a chapter or so of your work in our Share Your Work section to get some feedback on your writing.

Short answer: yes, it would be okay.

Longer answer:

When editors and publishers warn against posting material on the internet, they mean material that's open to public view. Simple reasoning: why would readers want to spend money on buying what they can read online for free?

Share Your Work is passworded so it's not open to public view. And, it's a critique forum for work in progress projects, which don't qualify as completed final draft because they're still subject to change.

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Advice for newbies in Share Your Work.

Kitty Pryde said:

Hello and welcome to AW! Check out:

How many teens writing YA on here are published?

Teens Writing for Teens

and the TWFT blog

Literary Agent for a Teen

Short version: if your writing is good, it doesn't matter if you're 5, 15, or 55. There are lots of teen authors around here, and a handful of them are published. Feel free to post a chapter or so of your work in our Share Your Work section to get some feedback on your writing.

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I'll second this. I'm a member of TWFT and a part of the TWFT blog. Come on by the thread! We have cookies.

The quality of your work is so much more important than your age. The vast majority of writers don't get published, but that's not because of their age - it's because they just aren't good enough writers. Stop asking "Am I old enough?" and start asking "Am I good enough?"

My two cents.

Do not stress over it! Trust me it wo't do you any good. I'm also fifteen I started my book last October and only finished in mid July so you're really fast! At times it's good to mention that you're a teen in query letters and sometimes it's not. Just know this, age shouldn't matter as long as the writings good. And I can tell you that from experience. If you ever have questions you could ask me (seeing as I'm in the same boat being 15 and all) or you could get answers from other people on this site. But since you only started your book this summer have you really (and I mean literally) looked over your work? Seems a little fast if you ask me but that's me. All I can say is that you're not alone about the teenage writer thing. And I know exactly what you mean when you say it's frustrating. It took my an entire month to write my query letter and even then the letter was horrible (you can see from my posts). I just joined this site too like maybe 2 weeks ago so I'm not too familiar with it but I can tell you there are many writers here willing to helpy you. Message me if you have questions and I wish you luck. Remember, it won't be easy and don't get discouraged by one rejection (which is what I did, I sort of a whimp that way )

Welcome to AW! A lot of great people here and great info.

pr3ttivacant said:

I've definitely been going back and correcting things in the past few weeks, but all of the feedback I've gotten from everyone who's read it has been.. great.. they've all said it was excellent. It's unbelievable...

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It's great that you've been getting encouragement from the people around you.

I do wonder how likely it is that the first draft of the first novel that you wrote only a few months ago is as excellent as your readers say. Most first novels are bad. Most first drafts are bad. I'd expect that even in a best-case scenario, the first draft of your first novel would need a lot of work.

Are your readers close to you in real life - friends, family, teachers? These people are not well placed to give you critical feedback. They may not have a lot of practice reviewing novels, and their personal relationships with you may make them reluctant to criticise for fear of upsetting you. You can get better, more objective feedback from critique forums, like our own Share Your Work.

Also, stargurl is a great example to follow.

pr3ttivacant said:

I can already tell Thank you so much everyone! I already feel so welcome! So, basically it's the quality of work, not my age. I get it now I've definitely been going back and correcting things in the past few weeks, but all of the feedback I've gotten from everyone who's read it has been.. great.. they've all said it was excellent. It's unbelievable... I'm definitely gonna check out TWFT. Thanks again

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It's always a good idea to get impartial advice and the Share Your Work section of this site is brilliant for that. Try posting the first chapter for feedback, and see what others' think. Relying on friends and family for honest feedback isn't always useful, as they tend to always think it's great. Trust me, I know this from personaly experience. Good luck

SYW password : vista

pr3ttivacant said:

Yeah, I see what you're saying. One question: what's the password?

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The password is vista. It's written below the forum link on the main page when you get in.

No offense pr3ttivacant but you sound like me a few weeks ago. I was positive I had the best query letter and novel then I got to this site and have never been so wrong. I'm not saying that your work is bad but friends and family shouldn't be the ones to tell you that your writing rocks (because that's exactly what happened to me). You need to have someone who is welling to be "brutally honest". I'm not trying to bring you down her I'm just trying to explain the truth of things. Please don't hate me for this . I was and still am in your shoes and I totally understand what you're going through. Hang in there and be patient. I made the worst mistakes from rushing things.

Welcome to AW! I don't think your age matters. I think that your age, if anything, is good for you. I didn't know anything about agents and queries when I was your age. I dreamed about writing. I had a ton of really awful false starts I've since tossed (though I kinda wish I'd kept it all somewhere).

There's so much involved. I never would have imagined all that it takes to get published, and I think the majority of the non-writing population still has no idea what mountains writers much climb to get their books on the shelves.

So, IMO, you're off to a great start!

Go and read Queryshark now
http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

I know exactly how you feel. I'm fourteen at the moment, and won't be fifteen until February. When I was younger - like, eleven and twelve - I had this idea that if I published something when I was as young as that, as long as it was good, it would make headlines and I would be a bestselling author. Every newspaper and news channel would say the exact same thing: Pre-teen writes award winning, controversial novel. I figured that people would pick it up, just because they would be curious about how somebody my age could write. Unfortunately though, I spent a lot more time dreaming than I did writing. If I would have used that time a little more wisely, I would probably be an even better author today.

Wow, I totally forgot where I was going with that... sorry!