Does an Author’s Age Matter?
Last weekend I had the fun privilege of having a reunion
with some friends from college. Way back in the good ole days, we went on a
mission trip together during our time at Taylor University.
As we were reminiscing on Facebook about the trip, we realized that four of us live in Michigan within driving distance of one another. So we arranged a dinner in Frankenmuth and brought along our spouses.
Most of us hadn’t seen one another since college, and so we were super excited to catch up on each others’ lives in person. The several hours we spent together flew by.
One really fun thing to discover was that two of my college
friends are also big-time readers of Christian fiction (and had read some of my
books!). So of course we spent part of the evening talking about books.
At one point in our conversation, my dear friend Allison brought up an interesting point. She said she noticed that most Christian fiction authors are middle-aged women. She was somewhat curious about that phenomenon.
As I thought about most of the authors I know, I realized she was right. The large majority are women about my age. Obviously there are some who are older and those who are much younger. But a huge number fall into that middle range. Is this trend random chance? Discrimination by publishers against younger writers? Or are there simply more middle-aged women who take up writing?
Allison and I chatted about it a little bit, and I came up
with a few explanations:
1. Life experience adds richness and depth to an author’s work. Everyone knows that when the pot simmers on the back burner for a while, the flavor is stronger.
That’s not to say young writers can’t have fantastic stories or that older writers will be better simply because of age. It just means when all the other elements are there (craft, practice, etc.), that life experience can be the seasoning that makes one story stand out from another.
2. Middle-aged authors are in a period of life that allows more time and energy to devote to writing. Now again, that’s not true of every middle-aged person. But in my case, before I had kids, I was writing and getting close to publication.
Once I started having babies, I put aside my writing for close to seven years and didn’t type a single word. As my children became more independent, I found that I wasn’t so brain-dead anymore and actually wanted (needed) a creative outlet.
3. It takes time and hard work to become a successful author. In other professions, a young college graduate wouldn’t expect to enter a new job and have the same pay, same responsibilities, and same office size as someone who’s been at the company for several decades.
The same is true in the writing world. Young writers should count overnight success as the rare exception, not the rule. Instead, writers have to start slow and build their readership over time, using perseverance, diligence, and business savvy.
So that’s what I think! How about you? What do you think about the age of an author? Does it matter to you? Why or why not?
