It's never too young to start writing (and self publishing)

Or perhaps I should title this post '15 year old self-published author makes it big.'

Behold the story of Christopher Paolini at http://www.alagaesia.com/ . You all might have seen the movie posters and trailers for 'Eragon,' the latest fantasy movie to come from a children's book. Everyone knows that once you've got your book made into a movie, you've really hit it big time.

Now, young home-schooled Christopher (what is it about these home-schooled kids that make them geniuses?) began writing Eragon when he was 15. It took him 1 year to write the 1st draft, and another year to revise it. His family then decided to self-publish the book. A 3rd year was spent with editing, typesetting and designing.

And then the whole family spent another year promoting the book themselves. Beginning with talks at the local library and high school, they traveled across the U.S. Then Christopher's hard work paid off. The stepson of author Carl Hiaasen read the book and brought Eragon to the attention of his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. It was then traditionally published and there are currently 1 million copies in print.

Naturally, the movie script followed.

So learnings from this:

1. It's never too young to start
2. Even if it was initially tough, you might hit it big one day
3. Self publishing is not a tabboo. Just keep at it.

Speaking of which, I've got 3 stories already for Dark City 2, including one from the eminent Tunku Halim and two others from good writer friends. Keep them coming in :)