Today I am speed blogging, which means no lengthy comment from me but just two things that have grabbed my attention today.
First off, praise from Richard and Judy or winning the Nobel Prize – which is the bigger honour? Before you say the Nobel, let me say this, a new survey has revealed that more people have heard of the Richard & Judy Book Club (despite it now being defunct) than the Nobel Prize for Literature. If your aim is to get book sales, you might want to ponder this a while.
Also, a new writer, who is just 16, is making waves in the blogosphere, thanks to her post about whether age matters in publishing. If you are a young author then Steph Bowe has some great advice for you, from not thinking of publication as a race, to when exactly you might want to mention your age. And what does everyone here think, does age matter? Can you be too young or too old? Or is it just plain irrelevant?
What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.
(Publisher, A&C Black)
Claire,
In regards to publishers, I’ve been wondering if they have age preferences like they do for genre. What age period is ideal, if any? Perhaps Claire, you could please shed some more light.
In regards to authors, a person can write and write well at any age. Used as a publication device, for some age probably does matter. For others including myself, such tactics belie trickery, which somehow seems to do authors a disservice in the long run. Actually, I try keeping age in the background as much as possible because, regardless if I’m 10 years old or 90, true talent will show in my writing. If ever I am noticed and become successful, I hope it will be for quality work, as with my poem which won the A&C Black poetry competition earlier this year along with poems of fellow outstanding poets, at http://www.acblack.com/children/article.aspx?id=280 . (I’ve been trying to congratulate them personally, but can’t seem to find any contact info. If any of my fellow winners reads this, please respond to this comment or future ones. I look forward to saying hello.)
It is definitely harder, but I believe writers who put writing first eventually create better literary works than those primarily after fame and money, any way possible. I can’t prove that now, but perhaps time will tell the tale.
Xean
12/8/2010
Does age matter?
When does the emotion develops? When does academic intelligence blossom? The combination of these two blithely attributions bloats, then can we really blissfully say that a maturity has capitulate the terms to be writer?
Some people have academic intelligence but they sometimes lack emotional depth. Some people don't have very good academic skill, but have incredible emotional depth. It is also true to say that some people never actually develop emotional depth or academic skill throughout their lives.
I think that you need both of these personal attributes to write well. The combination of these qualities define a person's perception and expression, which are needed to produce good literature.