Debut Fiction - Does Age Matter?

In an industry where "hypervisibility" is key to success, the answer is yes

I’m not usually a data set kind of writer. That said, from time to time something piques my curiosity, and into the numbers I’ll dive. What sent me on this little research mission was a recent article about debut novelists and where they come from, featured on Jane Friedman’s HOT SHEET newsletter (which really should be required reading for industry professionals and writers/authors alike).

In her analysis, Jane found that 20.5% of debut novelists whose book deals got reported between April and August 2024 had no obvious industry connections. She was touting this as good news for debut novelists—and I’m not disagreeing. It is. But given that I know a few things about this industry, the first question that surfaced for me was: How old are these debut novelists?

I posed the question to Jane on Facebook and she responded that age is tough to determine, but that she did observe writers in their 40s, 50s, and beyond securing deals. Her takeaway was less, “Look at how young these folks are,” and more, “Look at how long they’ve been putting in the work.”

True enough. Hard work and all that. And, the age question MUST be taken into consideration, proven out by the results of what I found below. The reason I care about this is because I’m a publisher of fiction (She Writes Press and SparkPress’s lists are around 60% fiction). Many (probably most) of the novelists we publish are debut. Many (probably most) have written beautiful books that have been roundly rejected by the Big Five, major publishers, and what Jane called “prestigious publishers.” And many (probably most) of our authors are 50+. Also, I come out of traditional publishing, where I witnessed ageism firsthand. I’m also interested in this idea of “connections,” which I made a big deal about in my TEDx talk because I observe—then and now—that connections are just part of it. Writers who get traditional publishing deals also (mostly) have a certain “something.” Call it star quality, call it connections, call it mediagenicism, call it an “it” factor. And yes, go ahead and call it their (relative) youth.

As timing would have it, this stuff was already forefront in my mind when I caught an interview on “The Daily” podcast last week featuring Sally Rooney (age 33). Maybe if I hadn’t caught this episode I wouldn’t have been so driven to discover the age of the 26 debut fiction authors who Jane references as not having any connections (and therefore give aspiring writers hope). But, Rooney said this:

I think that there's a huge level of visibility that is accorded to young women, specifically. And that's something that I grapple with, the unfairness of that and my having benefited from the unfairness of that, but also the other side of it, which is the difficulty of hypervisibility.

I want to say that I loved the interview, and I found Rooney to be quite down to earth, different than what I had expected. But The New York Times is guilty of playing up her appeal, her mediagenicism, and her youth with what I would argue is an unnecessarily sexy headshot:

Thanks to Rooney (and with that “privilege” of youth in mind, I revisited Jane’s list of literary agencies reporting (below in red) and dug in to try to figure out the authors’ ages. Jane’s article, to be clear, was focused on those authors who had no connections. She acknowledged the small sampling as well—just 26 deals by agencies reporting to Publishers Marketplace. But, since I was curious to know how old these writers are, I reached beyond the 26 deals to see what I could ascertain about as many authors as I could find whose deals were reported by these agencies from April-August. I base their ages on when they graduated, or what info they share in various online profiles (primary their websites or LinkedIn). Some are a necessary approximate, and others I admit I did confirm based on their headshots (but I promise you decision-makers are looking at images to corroborate their notions about a given author’s marketability). I also note when an author’s age was not able to be determined.

Janklow & Nesbit

• Dominion, by Addie Citchens: Around 44 years old

• Henry by Caroline Wray: Around 29 years old

• Salome by Leslie Baird: Zero online presence

• A Real Animal by Emeline Atwood: Around  28-29 years old

• The Obsessed by Lizzie: Translator (not finding anything, but she’s a translator so hard one to verify)

• Best Woman by Rose Dommu: Creator of the Substack newsletter Mall Goth: Under 40

• The Talent by Daniel D’Addario: Variety chief correspondent: Around 35 years old 

• The Bella Vista by Emma Ruth Rundle: 40 years old

• Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu: Around 26 years old

• And I’ll Take Out Your Eyes by Allan Martin Nava Sosa: Under 40 but only info is based on photos

United Talent Agency

• GOMA by Peter Gikandi: Around 40 years old

• We Call Them Witches by India-Rose Bower: Looks to be under 30

ª Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild: Looks to be under 30

• Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino: Late 20s or early 30s

• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke: Looks to be under 30

• Maggie by Katie Yee: Recipient of fellowships: Looks to be under 30

• The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Hoit Pager: Around 30

• A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan: Around 40

• Sonia and Mila by Fran Fabriczki: 40s

• Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond: Journalist, editor, and author 40+

• Room 706 by Ellie Levenson: 46 years old

• Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan: 30s

• Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox: Late 30s

• Boy from the North Country by Sam Sussman: Early 30s

• There Are Reasons For This by Nini Berndt: 30s

• A Family Matter by Claire Lynch: Probably late 30s, but could be early 40s

• Among Friends by Hal Ebbott: 30s

• A World of Our Making by Lori Inglis Hall: Around 40 years old

• Body of Water by Adam Godfrey: Around 40 years old

• Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands: Around 40 years old

• This Was Funnier in China by Jesse Appell: Early/mid-30s

Trellis Literary Management

• The Summer Club by Lina Patton: Early/mid-30s

• She Made Herself a Monster by Anna Kovetcheva: Early/mid-30s

• Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor: 35

• Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran: Late 20s/early 30s

• You’ll Never Forget Me by Isha Raya: 20s

• The Extremites! by Samantha Kimmey: Mid-30s

• Please Don’t Touch the Body and Encounter by Emily Doyle: Early 30s

• Maya & Natasha by Elyse Durham: Late 30s but could be 40

• Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou: Late 30s

• Extinction Capital of the World by Mariah Rigg: Late 20s

• These Memories Do Not Belong to Us by Yiming Ma: Mid-30s

• House Longe Has Gone Astray by Tolani Akinola: Mid-30s

• The Edge of Water by Olufunke Grace Bankole: 30s

• Waterline by Aram Mrjoian: mid-30s

Creative Artists Agency

• Head of Household by Oliver Munday: 30s

• The Nimbus by Robert P. Baird: 40+

• The Duffels by Brian Schaefer: 30s

• Broken Coven by Julia Bianco: probably 20s, could be early 30s

• He’s the Devil by Tobi Coventry: mid-30s

• Happy Wife by Meredith Lavender and Kendall Shores: Lavender is 40+; cannot determine Shores

• Let Me Try Again by Matthew Davis: late 20s

If you skimmed through this list, your eyes are not deceiving you. There is not an age listed that starts with 5, or even 6, never mind a 7.

And look, I’ve given props to so-called “prestigious” publishers in the past for publishing older authors. Lessons in Chemistry, famously, was written by Bonnie Garmus, who turned 65 just before the book debuted. And lots of established 50+ authors are getting publishing deals. But this is a story about debut fiction getting traditional deals, and I would argue that making it past the gate requires a mix of the following: hard work; talent; and (by and large) being under 50. Are there exceptions? Of course. But if this sampling shows us anything, it’s that there’s good reason for authors of a certain age to feel a little cynical about their chances.

She Writes Press and other hybrids are not perfect options, nor are they right for every author, but I will assert as I have in the past that it’s freeing to make decisions based on the quality of an author’s writing alone, and not to be burdened by what the marketing department requires—star quality, that “it” factor, or that that potential hypervisibility that acquiring editors are hoping for when they sign debut fiction authors. This is the reality of the modern publishing world. I’m not here to condemn or celebrate, simply to lay it out with a bit more nuance—and numbers. But if you raise your eyebrows at the information above, I don’t blame you.