<p>you all are very smart and talented here.. has somebody written - and publushed - a book? especially during the teenage years?
i am halfway through the first draft of mine and realize i may actually finish it someday. and while i realize it is almost impossible to get a book published - especially at 16 - it still remains seen as a dream. so i was wondering if anybody did and if they had any useful advice?</p>
<p>take a walk inside a barnes & nobles</p>
<p>look at the section where your book would be</p>
<p>take a picture and paste it on your mirror</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>keep the dream alive!! that's so awesome of you! we all wish you good luck. my advice, other than that, is to find a grammar nazi to go over your drafts for correction. preferrably an encouraging english teacher. =)</p>
<p>I done it:</p>
<p>Pimpology 101.</p>
<p>A girl at my school coauthored a book with another student, and was featured on several popular TV shows. Needless to say, they are going to Brown and Harvard.</p>
<p>I know that Christopher Paolini got his book Eragon published as a teenager, but this has a lot to do with the fact that his parents own a small publishing company. They first published his book on their own, started campaigning through bookstores, and eventually a big name publisher found Eragon...or so that's what I've been told.</p>
<p>Yeah. There've been several published teen writers, but most of them had connections. To be honest, most of their stuff isn't very good, either. </p>
<p>Anyway, about publishing. Read, read, read. Then do some writing. Read more. If you want to know more about the actual process, check out some websites:
<a href="http://www.writers.net%5B/url%5D">www.writers.net</a>
<a href="http://www.agentquery.com%5B/url%5D">www.agentquery.com</a></p>
<p>thanks everybody for the encouragement! I am going to keep writing (and hoping!)!!
it is nice to know that - though very hard - it is possible :)</p>
<p>I have published a book of poetry and am working on the fourth draft of my first novel. And no i won't tell you my pen name!</p>
<p>I've been trying to collect myself enough to write something longer than 20 pages on a single subject for a while now. The subscription to Writer's Digest does an admirable job of reminding me of what I'm not accomplishing. Still, summer's not over yet. ;)</p>
<p>I had a friend who was published at 13. The only problem, however, I find with very young authors (12-15) is that their language might not be up to standards with adults yet and the content of their books seems very immature at times.</p>
<p>I agree, oasis. I've been generally unimpressed with most young authors that I've read. They gain recognition not through the quality of their writing, but through the novelty associated with their age--which unfortunately doesn't mitigate the fact that the actual books, well, pretty much suck.</p>
<p>filmxoxo, are your friends the ones who wrote the manual for parents with teens written by teens?</p>
<p>is getting published free?</p>
<p>Some1UKnow: If it's a reputable publisher, you should be getting paid.</p>
<p>I haven't had a book published but I have had other types of writings published I also want to get a song published.I hope you eventually publish your book so I can read.</p>
<p>There are many online publishers who will print your book, albeit not all of them are for free. Online publishers like Authorhouse will print your book at a cost to yourself. I'm not sure who will print your book and give you money, but either way, I think you must really impress them with your manuscript in order for them to be interested in spending their money to print your book.</p>
<p>oasis, any traditional publisher pays its authors commission*. What you refer to is self-publishing (or "vanity publishing")--a less satisfying option, in my admittedly elitist opinion.</p>
<p>*More precisely, an advance payment followed by royalties for each copy sold.</p>
<p>Adding to my post above, I sincerely doubt that any college would be impressed with a self-published book, unless it had reached unbelievable success through self-promotion. A service rendered for payment will always be inferior to an accomplishment reached through pure talent and determination.</p>
<p>Yeah, so my post was deleted . . . Please mods, tell us why this happens.</p>
<p>Oh I see now! At first I thought this thread was referring to online publications. I definately agree with you on the point that online publications are not worth much; basically, if one has the funds necessary, one can essentially just print a book of jibberish and have it on Amazon and such through their "marketing campaigns". Getting a traditional publisher to print your book is much more impressive, and of course they'll pay you commission as well. </p>
<p>Traditional publishers seek talent and ingenuity in the submitted works, rather than whether the author has money or not.</p>