How old is too old to write a novel? Are you too old if you’re 75?
Margaret posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:
Do you think it is a waste of time and energy for a person seventy-five years old to work toward a career (maybe short) in the writing/publishing business? What is the general response of a publisher when receiving a manuscript from a person this age?
Randy sez: Helen Hooven Santmyer was 88 years old when her best-selling novel, AND LADIES OF THE CLUB…, was published. She died at the age of 90.
A mere youth of 75 who wants to write a novel should write a novel.
As for what publishers will think, their opinions will vary all over the board. You’ll find a few publishers who think that anyone over 50 is a lost cause. You’ll find a few publishers who think that a 75-year-old author sounds like a pretty darned good publicity angle. You only have to find one publisher to get published.
In fact, publishers are no longer absolutely necessary. Don’t get me wrong — it’s great to be published by a traditional, royalty-paying publisher who pays you an advance, handles the editing and artwork and typesetting and distribution, and does a bit of marketing for you. I’ve worked with royalty-paying publishers for my entire writing career. For 498 of the past 500 years, publishers were a practical necessity if you wanted to make money as a novelist.
But in the last two years, plenty of authors have found that they can do better publishing their own work as e-books. When I say “do better,” I mean, “earn boatloads more money.” For details on that, go read the last ten blog entries of Joe Konrath. If you can read all ten of Joe’s latest blog posts and still NOT believe that we’re entering the Golden Age for Authors, then you have no pulse.
So Margaret, write that novel. Make it the best piece of work you can write. Then take your best shot at getting it published.
What have you got to lose?
If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.
Margaret, As someone who was old enough to draw Social Security long before I began writing and who is about to have his third novel published, I echo Randy’s sentiment: don’t let age hinder you. Go for it.
Okay, now I just feel silly. When I saw this blog title I was apprehensive about opening it, afraid of what it might say. I’m 52. Time to stop worrying about that side of it I guess. Great post Randy.
Thanks,
Kerry
Margaret, I’m right behind you (a mere seventy-one) – but I have five novels loosely connected by the thread of war rattling in my brain. I wish I could retire and just write, but I’m still juggling a day job as well. I figure I have about ten years to manage a writing career.
BTW, Harvest House will be releasing my devotional gift book, As Grandma Says, early this year. Quick, someone pat me on the back before I break my arm trying to do it myself. Happy New Year!
Oh, and as my grandmother used to say “you’ll never learn any younger.” You won’t do it any younger, either. So do it now.
Yes, Great grandmother
I signed my first contract for four books right after my 73rd birthday. My editor and publisher took a chance, liked what happened and offered me another 5 book contract last fall. I’ll be 75 in June and will have 5 novels and 2 novellas behind me and four novels ahead. The best way to fail is not to try. Go for it. We have lots of experience rattling around in our brains and younger readers can benefit.
You are never too old. A traditional publishing route may work. I decided to form my own publishing company and hire a printer to get my paper back in the system. In one month I earned back my investment. I’ve just begun to tap into my potential market. I’ll load it as an e-book this month to gain a broader reach. If you have a story to tell, there is nothing to stop you with the tools we now have available as writers. Write your book and enjoy the ride.
This 61 year-old Granny thanks you for this post. I’m working on a short story. My first!
Hi Margaret,
I would like to offer another perspective, being an avid reader myself.
All this time, when I read a book, it NEVER bothers me how old the author’s age is. As a matter of fact, if he/she is too old/too young, it’s just give an additional inspirational points.
I think it would be a great loss to the world if all the authors do not write just because they’re too old.
Just write, you never know how long your career may be, but know this, any reader who love your book will be grateful to know you write it, regardless of your age.
I know I’ll do as a reader and I think in the end, it’s the reader’s perspective that counts, not the publishers:)
When does creativity decline due to age? Maybe never. Emmanuel Kant wrote his most important work when he was 74. Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote his most famous poem, Crossing the Bar, at 83. J.R.R. Tolkein wrote his first novel for adults, The Lord of the Rings, when he was 62. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was still writing court decisions when he was 90. Verdi composed Falstaff when he was 80, and Ava Maria when he was 85. Titian pained Battle of Lepanto when he was 98.
Creativity and the ability to work don’t always belong to the young. The first president of Stanford, David Starr Jordan, said the years between 60 and 70 were the most productive of his life. Gladstone was Britain’s prime minister at age 83. At age 40, Henry Ford was bankrupt and unemployed. Not until she was 61 did Clara Barton found the Red Cross, and she was its president until she was 83. Then she began the National First Aid Society, and remained its leader until she was 91. Patrick O’Brian was 55 when Master and Commander was published, and he then wrote 19 more novels in the Aubrye-Maturin series. Sure, we may slow a bit as we get older, but the age at which we can no longer create and work isn’t predetermined. We should plan to keep going until we simply can’t.
Well, here I go again. This subject has got me to thinking (and I hate that). I teach novel writing at the University of Washington extension school. Many of my students are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, even late 70s. They are an incredibly sharp and motivated group, with a lot of energy and ambition. As far as I can tell, their age hasn’t impaired their creativity in the slightest. They are as talented as my students who are in their 20s and 30s and 40s. I think that barring clinical mental problems such as dementia, nothing about getting old stifles creativity.
Age has nothing to do with writing.
Why don’t you check out Doris Lessing? The Golden Note Book, her break-through work, was written in 1962, when she was 43. By 1984, at 65, she published two novels. They were declined by her UK publisher, maybe on grounds of age. But another UK publisher took it upon himself to get them published. And today, Doris is the 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Sorry, I stated the year in error. It was not in 1997 that Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was in 2007. The error is highly regretted.
So, you see, in spite of the fact she was advancing in age, she kept on writing, undaunted. She kept on moving!If age had been an impediment, or if she had allowed it to be an impediment, she would never have climbed to the top rungs of the literary ladder.
Age is, therefore, no barrier!
Thanks to all who left a comment. I’m 74 and have 3 or 4 children’s stories (middle grade) playing around in my head. Also bouncing around among the stories is a voice that wants me to understand that I’m just too old. This blog has both inspired and motivated me to honor the stories I have to tell.
Most Interesting, at this time of covid19 lockdown, in many areas of the country. The Stay at Home mandate, is almost a call to arms to many of us, who have put our hopes, dreams, (and time) on the platter. No better time than now. If now “now”, then when?, as they say.
I am 68, and been saddled with many chronic conditions, surgeries, etc., confined to “home-bound”, status for years at a time. While focus on disability has been my old clarion cry, who is to say, the inbred, hardwired desire, to get those stories out has not rescinded.
And, they never will.
So, today New Year 2021, this example of ‘elderly writers,’ still remains, I believe, to call us forth; some literally from our beds, to see what we still have to do, granted with some remediation. For some of us, it may be about All we can do, depending on our impediments.
After reading this, I certainly intend to try. That instead of finding reasons, why I cannot; to look for reasons to, “why not?!” I have taken the classes, have the books, the resources, the computers, the electronic