Do you think, as a 14 year old, I could pursue my dream of being a writer, and be successful?

April Henry Hey Tabitha, I do answer all my emails, GoodReads questions, etc, but I'm also super busy so it can take up to a week.

Yes, your dream is fully possible, however it will be a lot of work. Sometimes people don't want to do all that work. First of all, right now you should concentrate on writing. The youngest I have ever seen someone get an agent (the person who sells your book to a publisher) is 16, and that was very unusual.

Once you have a finished book, you need to work on editing it yourself to get it as perfect as you can. You might ask other budding writers to give you feedback. You should read books about writing to get ideas on how to write better.

Once you are 16 or older, you can start looking for an agent. Agents don't make any money until they sell your book, so they will only take books and clients they think are a perfect fit for them. My first book didn't get an agent. My second book got me an agent and a bunch of nice rejection letters. My third book did not even get nice rejection letters. My fourth book sold in two days in a two book deal. That's actually fairly common.

So I could have given up at any time, but I kept trying and kept working making my writing better. That's what it takes to get published.

And to make it the only way you make money takes even longer. So I would go to college in something that interests you and write on the side until you make enough money you can quit your day job - if you want to.

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