Youth Invasion...coming to a publishing house near you

[kristin_briana]

About a year ago, while surfing the internet and procrastinating various important activities, I ran into this blog post by agent Jennifer Jackson.

"I have noticed a marked increase in the amount of queries coming from minors, that is authors under the age of 18, over the last few months. I believe the youngest so far was 12...

"I do not know what is

Comments

[kristin_briana]

"I'm not sure if you meant that they're trying to work up to this point or if they want this straight out of school, but I can tell you that they probably won't be able to do this with the first novel they sell, and probably not even the second novel."

Definitely not. I do think a lot of teens have slightly unrealistic expectations about becoming the next J. K. Rowling as a teen author. Probably not the most realistic goals to have. :) Still, I'm just so impressed by teens who know what they want to do with their lives and start working toward it NOW, before they've even graduated high school.

[seeyouupside]

I love this post!

I think its really interesting that now -- especially now for some reason -- I am seeing a bigger increase in those teens (*and* adults) who want to get published "right now." I don't know if its because I never noticed it before and wasn't really involved in the writing scene (save for fanfiction.net and fictionpress.com and dreaming of writing a novel and making $3 billion LOL) or if because of the recession people are realizing they ought to do what they love.

There was recently an article in the New York Times (I believe it was the beginning of this school year) that said that our generation is the generation to follow their dreams and work with their passions. Our parents' generation was more about working hard and supporting their families and doing whatever that took. Its so neat to see the difference.

The girl wrote Opal Mentha actually went to my friend's school and was his freshman year orientation leader! Its so interesting how things all connect. (That same year or the year after, I met Megan

[paulwoodlin]

Lots of my writer friends started writing early. They just didn't start submitting until they graduated. I think Sylvia Plath started writing as a teen and publishing as a college student, maybe a little earlier. Some old guard SF writers started writing, and publishing, during their college years.

Anyone remember "Almost Famous"? That sees to be on topic.