I set the goal of getting a book contract by age thirty.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In the middle of my fourth year teaching is when I got my book contract - in 2010. I knew the book would come out in May 2011.
I started writing when I was twenty, and my first book came out seventeen years later.
I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didn't publish my first book until I was 41.
I wrote my first book when I was in my late thirties.
That wasn't a bad price for a first book. My agent upped it as much as possible. I was 27 and had nothing behind me. I was working like a fool to earn a living and pay for my apartment.
When you write your first book aged 25 or so, you have 25 years of experience, albeit much of it juvenile experience. The second book comes after an extra year sitting in bookshops. Pretty soon, you begin to run on empty.
Until I became a nurse, no one had ever asked me to sign a book contract. I had been writing for decades, read thousands of books, and even worked in publishing for 10 years. Who knew that nursing would be my break?
From the very beginning, I envisioned success as selling enough books so I could keep getting published and continue to write what I wanted to without compromising.
I didn't start writing my own books until I was 40.
I sold my very first novel when I was 24 or 25 years old.