Mara Rutherford
It took me a really long time to sell a novel (13 years) so my advice is to keep moving forward. Even if you've finished a novel and are busy querying, start working on the next project. You never know which one will be "the one." My other tip: follow your compass, not your clock. There are no deadlines to getting published. You don't need to be in your twenties or thirties, or even your forties or fifties! It's never too late to start, and you haven't failed until you quit. Every novel I wrote that didn't sell taught me so much as a writer.
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