Is it ever too late to start writing with the goal of publishing?I received that question in an email. I didn't answer right away because my inclination was to say, "It's never too late." because I firmly believe that it's never too late to do something if you really are passionate about it.
Instead, I did a little research to add to what I already knew to be true to go along with my personal opinion.
OLD AUTHORS GET PUBLISHED
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett had an article that addresses this question. Published in
The Writer's Toolbox,
Writing Into Your Seventies and Beyond, answers this question beautifully.
She cites May Sarton, one of the examples I was going to give, who wrote and had published dozens of books—poetry, fiction, children’s books, and nonfiction into her early eighties.
DeMarco-Barrett goes on to give a dozen other successful, older authors as examples and posits that the writings of many older authors grow richer with age. I agree with that assessment. As long as the brain functions well, there's no end date for an author.
ALWAYS WRITING, FINALLY PUBLISHED
In case you haven't heard of PEGGY ROWE, a New York Times bestselling author and the mother of Mike Rowe, TV star, podcaster, and proponent of blue-collar careers, read on.
Mrs. Rowe wrote all of her life. She typed up her slice-of-life personality pieces and secured the pages on her fridge with magnets.
She'd tried to get her work published but received only rejections. That didn't stop her from writing. Through her son Mike, she had a publishing offer which was rescinded when she turned in what she'd written. Her son had 10,000 copies of her manuscript printed, talked about it on his podcast, and the print run sold out in a few days.
That made the publisher who'd rejected her work take a second look. She was offered another contract. To make a long story short, this 80-something first-time author has hit the New York Times bestsellers' list with each book she's published.
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| Have you always written? Is it your passion? |
HARRY BERNSTEIN published his first book at 98.
LORNA PAGE was 93.
Read the article,
It's Never Too Late To Begin Writing, that cites several examples from the distant past and from the last few years about older authors.
One thing you should know about these older authors mentioned above is that they were all published by traditional print-based publishing houses, not self-published.
I'll be the first to admit that these 90-something authors wrote beautifully and had an enormous amount of luck in getting "discovered" by editors/agents. In today's world, it still very hard to accomplish that feat whether young or old.
SELF-PUBLISHING
How many self-published first-time authors are over the age of 60? I have no idea. To my knowledge, no one has conducted a study of that. I'll take a guess and say a great many. I was over 40 when I received my first publishing contract. At that time, I knew dozens of authors just like me who had been rejected time and time again. Many of those never made the jump to publication.
Then the Kindle happened, and, suddenly, all those authors who'd wanted to be published had a way to make it happen without a New York publishing house or an agent.
I personally know of at least a dozen who jumped at the chance to get their books into print. They've done quite well because their books were excellent, well-written novels. They just didn't fit the pigeion-holes required by agents and New York editors.
BOTTOM LINE
I stand by my first impulsive answer to the question: "Is it ever too late to start a writing career?" My answer? "No. It's not."
You can write fiction or nonfiction about almost anything and find an audience if you write well and produce a book with good production values. You just have to possess the desire to put words on paper to show others the story you have in your head and be willing to learn the publishing end of it or delegate those aspects like editing, proofreading, format, cover art, etc. to others.
I'm not saying New York will sign you to a contract and acclaim you as the next genius novelist.
I am saying if you produce a good book, you can find an audience.
In today's world, if traditional publishers say no, you have alternatives, or you can choose indie self-publishing from the beginning.
TAKEAWAY TRUTH
You can absolutely have a successful, fulfilling writing career even if you're not young. It's never too late. You'll never know until you try.
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