Young Writers Society

I'm 15 and just started writing a novel. I feel like my plot is really good, but it is the first book I'm writing, so it probably won't get published. Then again, my older cousin wrote a very successful book(I won't name it for privacy reasons), so could he get me some inside help or something?

My friend is also writing a book, and she's sixteen. How hard is it for young writers to get published?

Also, how can I tell my parents I'm writing? They tend to overreact and act condescending towards things like this.

Thanks!

I had similar questions and posted a similar thread here where I was given some really good information by RachaelElg. If you want to know how difficult it is to get a book published, check it out: topic80529.html

It's good you're trying to think ahead and find out what your options are, but you won't be looking for a publisher or agent until your book is finished. Here's something important that I learned, if you've written your first novel and it's around 110,000 to 120,000 words long, agents and publishers won't even look at it. This is something you should know ahead of time so you can plan out your story and not hit that limit. The most you could probably get away with is around 80,000 to 100,000 for novels, and 40,000 to 60,000 for young adult novels. Once you're first book is published I assume you can get away with any word count you want for the following books if it's a series.

My parents are often very supportive of what I do, so being able to write something isn't that difficult for me in that respect. However, I can understand where they might be coming from. Writers are well-known for being starving artists and usually don't start getting a livable income out of their books until at least the third or fourth book they get published. Your parents probably want you to focus on finding a well-paying career in the future.

But, there's nothing stopping you from writing on the side. Take me for example: I'm currently on my last semester in college trying to develop my skills in 3D modelling and animation to industry standards, but I don't see myself working in the 3D media industry for more than 10 or 20 years. What I really want to do when I'm older is settle down and have a comfortable life just writing for a living. In order to do that I need to start writing now in my spare time and make my main focus getting a job and saving my money towards my goal. No matter what you might think you're parents can't dictate how you will live your life 10-15 years from now, your future is what you make of it. Life doesn't end once you finish school, you don't have to be one of those people who spend their lives as accountants in a boring marketing firm. But for the time being, keep writing in your spare time but at the same time start looking into alternative career choices to make your parents happy, if nothing else. You can always quit your job once your books start selling like hotcakes anyway.

I hope this helps.

Well, this is the important bit really: It's not so much how old (or young) you are, but rather how good your writing is. That's how it works, once you sent a query letter to an agent (which is probably the best way to go considering that some of the publishing houses won't take un-agented work) they won't know your age, if you don't include them in your query letter that is. Everything will be judged on your writing. Because, for all they know you could be 60 or 11. But they don't care. Because it's the writing that's important.

That's basically it. Your age doesn't really matter, it's your writing. If you're fifteen and write better than Stephen King and Shakespeare, they will see absolutely no reason to not publish it. Having said that, writing is something that needs to be practiced, so, it goes without saying that, with time and practice, you get experience and better writing.

So, if your writing is good enough, by all means they will publish it.

And as for the second question, I don't know. It's really down to your parents and you.

Hope this helps!

Thanks guys .

Are you sure about the word count? I'm not barely aquarter into my plot right now and it's 13,000 words.

I've heard several things about wordcount, and I would agree that past a certain point it would be very hard for a first-time author, of any age, to get published.

See, most of a book's cost come from printing. If your book is over a certain amount of pages, the financial risk associated with your novel is high. Unless you have a pre-established following that will read these larger books, or the publisher is feeling particularly nice and likes your novel enough to take the gamble (unlikely), then a long book will end up as a very bad risk for them that may not pan out.

Now, I have heard that the word count for novels is getting slightly longer, with the recent rise of long books, but the point still stands. A first-time author with no proven following would have a harder time getting these longer novels approved because the publisher simply doesn't know if the investment is worth the risk.