Publishing Age

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AuroClair

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I was talking to my friend, and she said it is unusual for people under 30 to be published. Is that really true? I am in my mid/late 20's and I am going to be published here in the next few months.

Thinking about it I really can't put my finger on any authors that were young. But they all started at some point, right?

What do y'all say? What was your publishing age and what is the norm or what you perceive to be the norm?
 

ZachJPayne

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I don't really think age has anything to do with it.

I know he's not exactly well-thought-of, but Christopher Paolini immediately comes to mind. (I liked the Eragon series!). There are probably a few other wunderkinder out there.

Most of us have to start writing in our teens so we can stop sucking by the time we hit 30! But I don't think there's any real correlation to be made between age and being published.
 

Kaitlin Brianna

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If you consider almost any profession, most of the really successful people have been working for a long time to get where they are and therefore are not in their twenties or younger. But there are always exceptions. I'm thirty now (and I swear, it's really not that old!;) ) and it seems like late twenties/early thirties is a pretty common age for people to finally be making real advancements in their careers.

The thing with writing is, unlike many of those other industries, a lot of your pre-success work will never be seen by anyone and you'll be doing some other job to pay the bills.
 

Izz

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We have plenty of examples of members here at AW who were published in their teens and early twenties. While it may not be the norm, it's not uncommon, either.
 

ajoker

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While acquiring the craftsmanship takes time, there is also something to be said for having lived long enough to have something to write about.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I was talking to my friend, and she said it is unusual for people under 30 to be published. Is that really true? I am in my mid/late 20's and I am going to be published here in the next few months.

Thinking about it I really can't put my finger on any authors that were young. But they all started at some point, right?

What do y'all say? What was your publishing age and what is the norm or what you perceive to be the norm?


Your friend must not have access to Google. It isn't even uncommon for teens to be published.
 

triceretops

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Ya, know, I heard this rumor back in the 80s from some very popular writers out of the SFWA. That it was uncommon for writers to achieve publication before they hit 35. I heard and read about it several times. I think it's an old throw-back myth that has somehow survived. I really don't think it applies today, presumably as much as it might have back then. I think the reason was life-wisdom and experience, or some such. What they don't take into consideration are the many teen writers who have put their time in and developed the chops to produce some really good stories/books. Alas, there is your early or prerequisite experience and wisdom bought and paid for by a much younger crowd.

tri
 
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Ken

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... Mary Shelley was all of 21 when Frankenstein was pub'd.
My guess is that over 30 is the average if anything. But just the average.
There are a substantial number of authors who are pub'd in their teens and 20's.
 

MookyMcD

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If you don't think about it in terms of "what 'they' are doing" or "what 'they' are looking for," the numbers/demographics just make sense.

Writers who are older have written longer, written more, edited and revised more, and therefore probably write better than they did when they were younger. They've also lived more, read more, had more experiences and everything else. Not a lot of teenagers know what it's like to bury friends and lovers, go through painful years-long relationships or painful ends to those relationships, worry about their kids, lose a job or have a house foreclosed on or any of the myriad other things that can make up an adult writer's worldview.

I'm not being ageist by saying that. I'm not saying that, by having 40+ years of life experience and decades of writing experience I'm necessarily better than any given 15 year-old. But I can virtually guarantee that 15 year-old will be a better writer when she's thirty years older and has written and edited for an additional thirty years.
 

RedWombat

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Sold my first book to a large house at 29. Small press before that, probably 27-28 or so?

Frankly, I think the age you are when you sell the LAST one is more impressive. Forget selling a book at 17--I'd much rather have an obituary that says "died at age 98, having just handed in her seventy-third manuscript, forthcoming from Random House in June."

That's how I'll know I've kicked some ass. *grin*
 

LJD

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I am about the same age as you and will have my first book (novella) published early next year.

I don't feel like I'm particularly young. In fact, given how long I've been writing, I feel like I'm rather slow.
 

DancingMaenid

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If you consider almost any profession, most of the really successful people have been working for a long time to get where they are and therefore are not in their twenties or younger. But there are always exceptions. I'm thirty now (and I swear, it's really not that old!;) ) and it seems like late twenties/early thirties is a pretty common age for people to finally be making real advancements in their careers.

The thing with writing is, unlike many of those other industries, a lot of your pre-success work will never be seen by anyone and you'll be doing some other job to pay the bills.

I agree with this. I think it takes time to hone the craft and achieve success.

While some writers' "first" novels really are the first books they ever wrote, it's probably more common for people to write for several years before having a novel published. Their early work just isn't published or doesn't get much attention unless they achieve a lot of fame.
 

Jim Riley

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I can keep up with most five year olds, as long as they haven't learned their ABC's yet. So far, that's about the only advantage I have on them.
 

Bushrat

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Depends on when you start, obviously. I didn't start writing books until I was in my late 30s, and I'll be 44 when my first book comes out next year :)
 

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I suspect it might take a few years to perfect your writing chops. Seems like literary prodigies are rarer than musical or math ones, for instance. Of course, people vary in the rate at which they improve. A lot depends on the amount of reading and writing one does as well as basic talent for picking these things up quickly.

Another issue might be life experience and knowledge. Older folks have a certain amount of perspective about people (since they've possibly already been several people in their lives) and of course know more about how the world works and about how people respond to different things. This might allow them to portray a wider variety of people and emotions realistically.

But there are always exceptions, and it probably depends on one's target audience too. Someone in their earlier 20s might be closer to the target demographic for contemporary YA fiction. A lot has changed since I was in high school in the 80s, and it's not just technology, but attitudes. I teach at a college, but it's still hard to keep up with all the trends and changes in how people think :)

There are plenty of people who published their first stories, even their first books in their 20s, though. Then there are people like me who always liked to write when they were younger but was too consumed by school, grad school, relationships, career stuff etc. to do it more than as sporadic hobby, and who was intimidated by the whole concept of publishing anything until fairly recently. I'm riding the other end of the bell curve here, and recently got that sinking feeling, because someone mentioned things that writers do that "give away" to publishers that they're older.

I don't actually do any of those things (like leave 2 spaces after a sentences), but the underlying message was that being older is something you must hide if you want to get published. No idea why. It's not like my ability to have babies is relevant here, and it's my characters who would be dolled up and put on promotional posters in skimpy clothes, not me.
 
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aus10phile

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I'm assuming you mean publishing books... not publishing articles or short stories.

I don't think 20s is the norm, but not unheard of either. I'm pretty sure Nicholas Sparks was in his 20s when he published The Notebook.
 

AuroClair

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IIiiinteresting. Very interesting.

Ultimately it doesn't matter when, just that you took a step in the right direction and found fulfillment.
At least, I would hope people here would feel good feels from writing. <3
 

ajoker

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I don't actually do any of those things (like leave 2 spaces after a sentences), but the underlying message was that being older is something you must hide if you want to get published. No idea why. It's not like my ability to have babies is relevant here, and it's my characters who would be dolled up and put on promotional posters in skimpy clothes, not me.

Not to go off topic, but are we not supposed to leave 2 spaces after a sentence anymore? I had no idea.
 

Putputt

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Huh. I can think of many authors who were published in their 20s. On AW alone I can think of quite a few such authors, two of whom are being pubbed by the big 5.

I think there might be fewer authors pubbed in their 20s, but, especially with the YA boom, there are more and more authors who are being pubbed before they hit 30.
 

Becky Black

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I would expect if one made a chart of this (I'll do it! I love Excel. ;)) then the first publication age would probably cluster around the 30s and 40s. But really it's a "so what?" question. Some people might be published when they are a teenager, some might only be published in their 80s.
 

Chris P

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I agree the age is irrelevant. There are AW members who've been quite successful in their late teens, as well as those in their 60s. I didn't start writing to be published until my 30s, with my first short story published at 37. had I gotten serious in my teens, there is no reason I couldn't have been published in my early 20s (assuming I would require the same amount of time from start to publication).
 

Chris P

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Not to go off topic, but are we not supposed to leave 2 spaces after a sentence anymore? I had no idea.

This started changing with the internet, and the only reason I've read is that one space looks better on screen, especially with the fonts people like to use for postings. I made the switch about ten years ago, and now one space is habit.
 

EMaree

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Reminds me of the "will publishers be less likely to want me now I'm over [x age]" debate that pops up occasionally. Good books get published. Age is irrelevant.

My statistics: vanity pubbed a book when I was 13. Vanity pubbing is bad and I feel terrible that myself and my parents got conned into it, but then I sold various foreign rights and was translated and trade published in Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Portuguese and Italian.

For various reasons I recommend young writers don't try for publication until they're over 16, but I learned a lot of useful things during that time.
 
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