Play “washed-up has-been or bright young thing”!

[lagilman]

I find this slightly worrying and at the same time deeply reassuring.

(James Patterson and John Irving both had their break-out novel at my age, and Janet Evonavich was slightly older.  And none of them were on their first - or second - book.)

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh dear God they almost stop counting before they reach my age. Only Rosamunde Pilcher lies beyond me. I guess this means the chances of that break-out book actually coming are indeed as slim as they seem, from hereabouts? Hey-ho.

[lagilman]

Wasn't there the woman who had her first book come out and make it reasonably big when she was in her 70's? And I'm pretty sure there were mystery writers who broke from the pack after 65....

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh hell aye: Mary Wesley, who didn't publish (adult fiction, at least - she had a couple of kids' books out before) until she was 71. And she was very big for a while in the UK (helped by a splendid TV adaptation of The Camomile Lawn) and I love her work. But she's not on The List, and I wasn't going to mention her because I didn't know if she'd made it to the US at all.

[janetl.livejournal.com]

Omigod - Nora Roberts.

[lagilman]

And that is the color and density of a romance writer's carer, circa 1980's and on....

I'd die if I tried to keep up that pace.

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

Only one other person older than me. Sigh. I'm not imagining it.

[sorek.livejournal.com]

I'm convinced James Paterson tapping into parallel universes is the reason he's able to write all the books he does.

[lagilman]

He's tapping co-writers and junior writers, is how he's doing it.

And I, for one, salute his ability to turn himself into a franchise. it may not be art, but it's sure as hell a living.