If writing is your passion, and perhaps your desired career path, In The Book have created a fascinating interactive chart for you to explore! The chart features all the ages of New York Times bestselling authors, showing their age when they first published a bestseller. You can filter the chart by gender, genre, decade, and individual authors, letting you see how long it took some of your favorite authors to reach bestseller status.
Among many other interesting statistics, we discovered that new authors are more likely to write a bestselling book, which is very encouraging for new writers trying to get into the industry! There have been many changes over the years, with the number of new authors publishing a bestseller increasing.
The 2000s in particular saw a huge increase, with the number of new authors publishing a bestseller doubling from 28 in the 1990s, to 61 in the 2000s. This is definitely motivating for new authors hoping to start a career in writing or publish their own books, since it’s not just previously established authors making the New York Times bestseller list. We’re expecting this trend will continue to rise! It also shows that bestselling authors from established publishing houses are increasing, despite the rise in self-publishing authors.
We also found out that the average age of authors achieving bestseller status was 48 years old, which is the same for both male and female writers. The age definitely shows that becoming a successful writer is not just an overnight path to fame, but a long journey which requires determination and commitment.
While some authors have repeatedly published New York Times bestsellers, we decided to chart only the very first time authors featured on this list, so we could see how long it would take for fiction writers to make it big. Take a look at the chart to see when your favorite author was first featured!
About Carson Derrow
