How to Publish a Book as a Teenager
You’ve got a way with words from the moment you learned how to write and read. You’re the best storyteller in your class, or even in your whole high school. As a teenager, you begin to fantasize writing about your first-ever novel—and possibly share and sell hard copies of it to your friends. But really, you don’t know how to publish a book as a teenager.
To create and publish a novel as a teenager is a monumental step in your personal growth as an artist and human being. More than just wanting the bragging rights of possibly being one of the youngest authors to publish a novel, you have to love literature so much that you can’t wait until after adolescence to get a book published.
How to create and publish a novel as a teenager? As with the numerous step-by-step guides, this read will help you start a publishing career even as a teenager.
Read voraciously.
If you want to become a teenage author, it would be rather hypocritical of you to expect people to read your work when you don’t even read anyone else’s. As babies, you grew into the world around you by mimicking what the adults were doing. Consume all sorts of books, even the so-called bad ones, if only to see where they went wrong. Insight, like inspiration, can be from anywhere.
Get your name and work out there.
This is the period in your budding career that you need the exposure. There are plenty of publication opportunities for young writers. Look into guest-posting. It will do so much for your personal brand recall when you’ve got a byline on a popular blog with a large following. Similarly, be on the lookout for prestigious literary journals and magazines when they announce a call for submissions, or join writing contests—anything that remotely sounds like “teenage writers wanted” is worth your while. As they say, the journey is more important than the destination. Even if you won’t make it, you would have still learned.
Familiarize yourself with the tools of the trade.
How to publish a book as a teenager? It’s time to get technical. Getting the hang of design software will help you execute your book cover and inner page layout. As a millennial and digital native, this will feel like second skin to you. Of course, there are professionals for that, but when you’re undertaking such a grown-up venture as publishing your own book, wouldn’t it be nice to partake in every process? On the practical plus side, it saves your parents’ money.
When you’re satisfied with your creation, release your e-book on user-generated storytelling sites like Wattpad, right on the heels of famous published authors, like Margaret Atwood, Paulo Coelho, and RL Stine.
Go the self-publishing route.
In an ideal world, every teen writer who sends a query letter to traditional teenage publishing companies would receive a response by way of a book deal. However, in figuring out how to become a teenage author, you’ll find you can actually do things your way.
Do you yearn for a physical copy of your book that people pay for? There are self-publishers for teenage authors that assist you in production, distribution, and marketing. Submit your manuscript and get a good deal! They will polish and package it perfectly until they can promote your self-published book as a teen author. Self-publishing might even be better than traditional publishing in terms of royalties, as you’ll take home a more sizeable cut.
Don’t overthink it.
Are you already preempting a future as a “has-been” should you succeed as a teen author? Snap out of that mindset! It’s challenging enough finding out how to get a book published if you are a kid and sourcing which publishing companies there are for kid authors out there. The last thing you need is a poisonous attitude. As a matter of fact, a handful of famous teenage authors whose publication history started early transitioned seamlessly into adult novelists. Hannah Moskowitz, Gordon Korman, anyone? While their youth was used as marketing gimmick, it wasn’t the defining factor in landing the book deal. Age can sometimes be just a number. With talent and hard work, you’re en route to young adult fiction victory.
We hope you go from, “I wish I knew how to how to publish a book as a teenager” to “I self-published my first book!”
