Demystifying Publishing: Publishing A Book After 30
For some, publishing is an explosive process of one race after another. For most, it’s a slow, steady race in itself, with checkpoints at all different lengths of time.
With the number of young authors and social media influencers publishing books, it can be easy to fall into the trap of feeling left behind. Like you’re taking too long or that perhaps you aren’t as talented as everyone else getting an agent on their first-ever book.
Not only are you not behind, but you’re taking the path most traveled. The average author in the United States is 42 years old with those over 40 making up 52% of the author population.
I’m not here to say at what age is best to be published or to pursue publication. When I was eighteen, I sent out my first snail mail query. Just one. And I cried happy tears when I received a form rejection by mail because it felt like this was something I could do. If I could get a negative response, I could get a positive one.
Of course, life happened, and I didn’t actually pursue writing or querying again until a few years later. Now, I enjoy helping others through the process and seeing both friends and clients succeed through their chosen publishing route.
I have seen some rise within mere months after beginning their writing and querying journey. But I’ve seen more who are quietly pushing through the trenches, book after book.
Don’t believe me? Or is your mean writer brain trying to tell you that you’re an exception, and that your writing is just awful?
Alright. Let’s take a look at some statistics.
Average Age of an Author
No matter where you look, the average age of an author falls somewhere after 40. Over half of published authors in the U.S. are over 40 and around 30% fall right between the ages of 30 and 40. Less than 20% of published authors are between the ages of 20 and 30. The average debut author is about 36 years old.
Some of the most famous authors who have published after 30 include Jane Austen (36), Toni Morrison (39), George Elliot (40) and Maya Angelou (41).
Is Publishing a Book Hard?
If numbers won’t reassure you, maybe some words from other authors will.
Maria Tureaud, author of The Last Hope in Hopetown, was nice enough to share her journey with me.
“I don’t think anyone wants to hear this, but I first started querying in 2007,” Tureaud shared. “I waffled through my first [three] books, but didn’t quite know what the next steps were. Now, I’ve been very candid about my journey in the past, so I will be here. I didn’t start writing, in earnest, until I emigrated from Ireland to the United States.”
Tureaud, like many of us, started writing at an early age, but didn’t pursue writing seriously until she was twenty-two. After moving from Ireland, she was inspired to pursue her writing.
“I cut my teeth in the query trenches in 2007 with an Adult market Historical Fiction and the rest was history,” she said. “Manuscript after manuscript after manuscript. Until finally, my debut, The Last Hope in Hopetown, a Middle Grade Paranormal Mystery, was signed by my agent in 2020. Luckily, she likes all my writing, so we’ve been preparing my very long backlist for the submission gauntlet.”
I always say that perseverance and resilience are the key to success and Tureaud embodies that whole-heartedly. This isn’t to say that you can’t get discouraged, though. When I asked if she ever felt like giving up, Tureaud eagerly agreed.
“I didn’t write, or think about writing, for 18 months. But the bug—and writing is a bug—bit again, and I was back at it once more.””
“Any time yet another manuscript had to be shelved,” she said. “This is going to sound wild, but my mother went to a psychic once, and the psychic (not knowing anything about my mom, or the extended family), told her that she had a “daughter who wrote.” The psychic told my mom that said daughter “would be fine,” and “would reach her goals.” Since I’m the writer in the house, we both presumed that was about me, so, in my darkest hours, I thought of those words, ate ice cream, and shook it off to start anew. That being said, I did give up once. It was after my son was born and I was suffering from PPD. I didn’t write, or think about writing, for 18 months. But the bug—and writing is a bug—bit again, and I was back at it once more.”
Not everyone has a psychic’s words to encourage them on, but everyone has something—a reason they write, a reason they want or need to succeed. Find your psychic and hold on tight. (Figuratively, not literally.)
Tureaud isn’t the only one who had a long journey or suffered doubts. I also reached out to Sarah M. Anderson, author of 31 Harlequin books, 15 books with small presses and self-published novels with over 1.2 million books sold worldwide.
“This is publishing!” Anderson exclaimed. “I feel like giving up about once a week! Publishing is a business where you put your heart on the line. It can be brutal. I’ve lost out on offers of representation for reasons that would curl your hair and all you can do is call your fellow support authors (everyone should have at least one support author…) and sob. But I didn’t [stop] because I’m a writer. The stories in my head can’t stop, won’t stop, and writing makes me happy.”
If there is one thing all authors can agree on, it’s our love for writing. There is something about it that speaks to our soul, that soothes us and excites us a way nothing else does.
Some writers start young while others start much later. Anderson was always writing snippets, but she didn’t write her first book until the age of 32.
“It was over 500 pages long and, simply put, absolutely AWFUL,” Anderson admitted. “I, of course, was convinced that Oprah was going to make me famous, so yeah, I was still working through a little leftover sleep deprivation.”
Oh, to get a call from Oprah. Or now to be part of Reese Witherspoon’s book club!
How to Keep Motivated Through the Publishing Process
So what do you do if you don’t have a psychic prediction motivating you? How do you keep pushing on? We like to believe that our love and passion for writing will carry us through. For some, that may be the case.
“Some days it’s hard,” Tureaud shared. “I get wrapped in toxic positivity; telling myself all those positive things people always say… but sometimes taking a break is the only way to move forward. It’s so important to refill the creative well with rest.”
Anderson had additional advice. “Chocolate. On bad days, wine… Also, I’m a Taurus and we are notoriously stubborn and frankly, I’m not fit for anything else. This is it for me. So I keep trying to get back in the game! I’ve gone through phases where I took breaks because I wasn’t in a good place to sit down and face the enormity of My Career In Publishing (Or Lack Thereof).”
Taking a step back when the path to publishing gets overwhelming is crucial.
Advice to Aspiring Authors from Published Authors
“We’ve made it through the ‘should’ phase of our lives,” Anderson said for aspiring authors over 30. “We ‘should’ get married, have 2.4 kids, have a perfect home, and of course we should have the perfect body and face, should, should, should—and we’re starting to care less about what other people think and are starting to focus on who we think we want. So if being an author, however you measure that, is what you want, I know that you’re going to find ways to make that work and you won’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Never give up, never surrender!”
Can You Become a Writer After 30?
In short, yes! Not only can you publish at almost any age, but you’re more likely to publish after 30 than before. Don’t let your age make you doubt yourself and don’t let yourself feel like you’re running out of time. As we’ve seen, every writer has a different path to publishing, whether that be traditional, self-publishing or some mix of the two.
We all want to be the exception; the writer who hits their break immediately and shoots to success. But the reality is that most people are the rule. And you don’t need to dismiss or punish yourself for that.
More about these authors:
Sarah M. Anderson has published 31 books with Harlequin books and another 15 books through small presses and self-publishing, having sold over 1.2 million books worldwide. She won the 2012 RT Editor’s Choice for A Man of Privilege, the 2016 Rita for Best Short Contemporary for The Nanny Plan, and the 2020 Booksellers Best Award for Seduction on His Terms. Her most recent book was The Last Friend You’ll Ever Have in audio from Scribd. Writing YA as Sally Sultzman, my short story The Book That Wasn’t was released by Cast of Wonders, a YA podcast, as a part of episode 508 in their 2022 Banned Books week.
Maria Tureaud is a copy editor for MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group and author of The Last Hope in Hopetown.