Teenaged Authors vs. Real Authors

Lately, I’ve been noticing a very irritating trend in indie publishing: Teenaged Authors. Usually, you can recognize their books right away, because they:

a) Have truly terrible covers

b) Are nearly illegible

c) Mention their age on every possible section of their Amazon page

I’m not going to call out any specific authors in this post; I don’t want to humiliate any kids. I just want to point out a very important factor that most of these Teenaged Authors forget:

THE BOOK.

In all honesty, that’s all I care about, and I think that’s all that should matter. I care about the book; the writing, the story, the characters. These are the things I will fall in love with.

I will NOT fall in love with something totally irrelevant, like the author’s age.  

Unfortunately, a lot of teens don’t seem to realize this. They use their age as a marketing gimmick. And when this gimmick backfires, they use their age as an excuse for everything from bad reviews to bad behavior.  

So what’s the difference between a Teenaged Author and a Real Author? I'd define it like this: Teenaged Authors are teens who can't get over their age. Real Authors are people of any age who approach publishing professionally. 

Personally, it all comes down to presentation and behavior. I honestly believe teens can become Real Authors—if they take their book seriously, put out a quality product, behave appropriately, and quit the age-obsession.

Yes, it takes a ton of work to do all these things properly; I’m sure it’s very tempting to turn to marketing gimmicks. But, in the end, I’m convinced teens will get more readers if they focus on the most important thing about publishing: The book. Not their age, but just the book.

So the summary of this rant is: I don’t care if you’re 15 or 50. Give me a good book, and I’ll give you my love.  

--Laura