It has become quite interesting discovering how many authors were first published as teenagers. This is certainly an encouragement, as for the longest I thought Paolini was the only teenage writer and author. I discovered that there are quite a few others who were published as teens, some of them below:
Catherine Webb
Eze Imade Eribo
S.E. Hinton’s first book was the Outsiders, the second biggest selling book for Young Adults in publishing history- over 8 million in print! Christopher Paolini’s first book was out when he was 19 and has sold over 9 million as well.
This is a growing list, so if you know any more email me and I’ll add them.
–Added November 14 2007 – Thanks Cat- I added Catherine Webb
–Added November 19 2007 – Thanks Mimi- I added Eze Eribo.
–Added November 27 2007 – Thanks Feliza, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is an eccellent example of a teenage author. I had never heard of her until now but she is obviously quite popular
–Added December 3 2007 – Nancy Yi Fan was 12 when her first book came out and hit the bestsellers, but she still certainly deserves to be on this list. She’s got a sequel coming out soon.
–Added December 6 2007 – Flavia Bujor was 13 when she wrote her first book and is already working on a second novel for Hyperion. Thanks Feliza for the info!
–Added February 22, 2008 – I just discovered that the famous Danielle Steel, who has sold over 560 million books, was first published at 19.
