Teen Author Bookshelf: List of Published Teen Authors
My intention here is not to sensationalize these authors for their ages. I’m a little hesitant to even publish this list for that reason, because I know, after the years of hard work the authors put in, they shouldn’t be classified as prodigies, as if they didn’t “earn it” the same way other published authors did. But at the same time, I know the internet is riddled with negativity geared toward teen writers, and a list like this proves a core belief of this blog–that teens have the same capacity to write a kickass novel as any author out there. I hope that message–that all of you have something meaningful to say–is what shines through.
(Note: This list only contains books that are a) written by authors who sold their books while they were twenty years old or younger and b) are published by well-respected publishers. The latter is a pretty archaic way to narrow it down, I know, but I decided that including self-published teen authors would widen the quality scope so much that this list wouldn’t resonate as much as I’d like it to. Apologies to the talented self-published authors whom I may be excluding because of that rule.)
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Kody Keplinger
The Duff, Shut Out, A Midsummer’s Nightmare
Keplinger sold her debut, The Duff, when she was eighteen; the deal was for two books, the latter of which ended up becoming her third novel, A Midsummer’s Nightmare. She sold her second book, Shut Out,the following year, when she was nineteen.
***
Hannah Moskowitz
Break, Invincible Summer, Zombie Tag
Moskowitz sold Break at seventeen; Invincible Summer at eighteen; Zombie Tag at nineteen.
***
Christopher Paolini
Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr
According to Publisher’s Marketplace, Paolini sold the first three books in the series when he was nineteen–not fifteen, despite popular belief. He started writing the first book, Eragon, (now a major motion picture!) at fifteen, but it didn’t sell to a publisher until four years later.
***
Vahini Naidoo
Fall To Pieces
Fall To Pieces sold when Naidoo was seventeen.
***
Kat Zhang
What’s Left of Me, Once We Were, Echoes of Us
Zhang was twenty when she sold, in a three-book deal, her entire Hybrid Chronicles trilogy.
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Stefan Bachmann
The Peculiar, The Whatnot
Bachmann sold both The Peculiar and its sequel, The Whatnot, when he was eighteen.
***
Rachel Coker
Interrupted, Chasing Jupiter
Coker sold her debut, Interrupted, at fifteen; I couldn’t find data on when her sophomore novel, Chasing Jupiter, sold, but it released while she was seventeen when it released.
***
Steph Bowe
Girl Saves Boy
Bowe sold Girl Saves Boy when she was fifteen.
***
Dan Elconin
Never After
Never After sold while Elconin was seventeen.
***
Alexandra Adornetto
The Shadow Thief, The Lampo Circus, Halo, Von Gobstopper’s Arcade, Hades, Heaven
Adornetto has a large repertoire of books: both her debut, The Shadow Thief, and its sequel, The Lampo Circus, released when she was fifteen, while the third and final released when she was sixteen; Halo, Hades, and Heaven in her much more popular Halo series released while she was eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, respectively.
(On a much less professional note: Alex, you are crazy!)
***
Nancy Yi Fan
Swordbird, Sword Quest, Sword Mountain
I’m unsure of the dates they were sold (although I believe she was twelve when her publisher bought her debut, Swordbird), but Fan was thirteen when Swordbird released, fourteen when Sword Quest released, and eighteen when the third and final book in the trilogy, Sword Mountain, released.
***
Ned Vizzini
Teen Angst? Naaah…
Vizzini is popular largely for his novel-turned-major-motion-picture, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, but he sold his debut memoir, Teen Angst? Naaah…, at nineteen years old.
***
Jessica Dunn, Danielle Dunn
Teens Guide To Getting Published
Google Books mentions that the twin sisters were eighth graders when they started writing this book; however, I don’t see any information on their exact age when it sold or was published. (I’ll give you a cookie if you can find it! LOL.)
***
Flavia Bujor
The Prophecy of the Stones
According to Publisher’s Marketplace, Bujor was just thirteen when she sold The Prophecy of the Stones.
***
Jack Heath
The Lab, Remote Control
Heath sold his debut, The Lab, and its sequel, Remote Control, when he was eighteen; they were published when he was nineteen.
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S.E. Hinton
The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton began writing The Outsiders when she was fifteen, and she was eighteen by the time it was published in 1967. In 1983, the book became a major motion picture.
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Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
In The Forests of the Night,Demon In My View, Shattered Mirror, Midnight Predator, Hawksong, Snakecharm
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote her debut novel, In The Forests of the Night, at the age of thirteen; she had just turned fifteen by the time it was published. The next three books in the series, Demon in My View, Shattered Mirror, and Midnight Predator, released when Atwater-Rhodes was sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, respectively. She was nineteen at the time of the release of the first book in her Kiesha’ra series, Hawksong, and was twenty when the second book, Snakecharm, came out.
***
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
We all know Frankenstein, a book that is frequently referred to as the first ever science fiction novel, and guess what? Shelley was nineteen when she wrote it! (She was twenty-one when it released.)
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Cayla Kluver
Legacy, Allegiance, Sacrifice,
According to one of her bios, Kluver self-published her debut, Legacy, at the age of fifteen. Through great reviews and some writing awards, she found an agent and later a contract with Amazon’s first initial trade publishing arm, AmazonEncore. Later, when she was seventeen, all three books in her trilogy were sold to HarlequinTEEN.
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Jake Marcionette
Just Jake
Now a New York Times bestseller, Just Jake, Marcionette’s debut, as well as its two sequels, were published when he was thirteen.
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Beth Reekles
The Kissing Booth
After garnering nineteen million Wattpad reads, The Kissing Booth and its two sequels sold to Random House when Reekles was seventeen.
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Anne Frank
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank started writing what would later become her memoir at thirteen and continued it for the next two and a half years. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was published posthumously.
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Isamu Fukui
Truancy, Origins
Fukui had just turned eighteen when his debut, Truancy, was published; he was nineteen during the release of its prequel, Origins.
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Susan Hill
The Enclosure
Hill, whose 1983 gothic The Woman in Black was recently made into a major motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe, wrote (published?) her debut, The Enclosure, at age fifteen.
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Marni Bates
Bates’ was hired to write her autobiography, Marni: My True Story of Stress, Hair-Pulling, and Other Obsessions, at age eighteen; it was published when she was nineteen.
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Isabel Kaplan
Hancock Park
Kaplan sold her debut, Hancock Park, when she was sixteen.
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Jessica Bukhart
Take the Reins, Chasing Blue, Behind the Bit, Triple Fault
At the age of twenty, Bukhart signed a deal for the first four books in her Canterwood Crest series (seen above.)
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Alex and Brent Harris
The duo wrote their debut, Do Hard Things, when they were eighteen.
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Gordon Korman
This Can’t Be Happening at McDougal Hall, Go Jump in the Pool, Beware the Fish, The War with Mr. Wizzle
At age fourteen, Korman’s debut, This Can’t Be Happening at McDougal Hall, released from Scholastic. The next three books in the series, Go Jump in the Pool, Beware the Fish, and The War with Mr. Wizzle, released when he was fifteen, sixteen, and eighteen, respectively.
***
Abigail Gibbs
Dinner with a Vampire, Autumn Rose
Gibbs sold both books in her The Dark Heroine series–Dinner with a Vampire and Autumn Rose–at the age of seventeen.
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Lindsay Cummings
The Murder Complex
Cummings sold her debut, The Murder Complex, and its as-of-yet untitled sequel when she was twenty years old. The Murder Complex releases from HarperCollins on June 10th, 2014.
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Stephanie Diaz
Extraction
Diaz sold her Extraction trilogy at the age of nineteen. The first book, Extraction, releases from St. Martin’s on July 22nd, 2014.
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Katherine Ewell
Dear Killer
Ewell sold Dear Killer when she was seventeen. It releases from HarperCollins April 1, 2014.
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Stephanie Savell
Paper Hearts
Savell was nineteen when she sold Paper Hearts, which will release from Medallion Press on April 15th, 2014.
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Amy Zhang
Falling Into Place
Zhang’s book deal for Falling Into Place was announced when she was seventeen. It will release on September 9th, 2014.
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Maya Van Wagenen
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for the Modern Geek
Having sold the book at fifteen, Van Wagenen’s debut, Popular, releases from Penguin on April 15th.
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Karen Bao
Dove Arising
At the age of nineteen, Bao sold her sci-fi trilogy to Viking Children’s, already with a blurb from Christopher Paolini. The first book is set to release August 19th, 2014.
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Irina Denezhkina
Give Me
At the age of nineteen, Denezhkina sold her debut, Give Me, to Simon & Schuster.
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Malala Yousafzai
The incredible memoir by “the 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the face because stood up to the Taliban and advocated for education, beginning with her once-anonymous blog that received international attention.” (via Publisher’s Marketplace.)
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Samantha Shannon
The Bone Season, The Mime Order
Shannon sold her debut, The Bone Season series, in a 7-book deal at the age of 19. Film rights were later optioned, and the first book hit the NYT bestseller list upon its release.
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Rachael Wing
Star-Crossed, Love Struck
Wing sold her debut, Star-Crossed, to Scholastic at the age of 14[?], and it released when she was 16. Its sequel, Love Struck, came out the next year.
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Lucy Saxon
Take Back the Skies
Saxon sold her debut, Take Back the Skies, along with the rest of her series at the age of seventeen. Take Back the Skies is set to release from Bloomsbury on June 3rd, 2014.
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Francesca Zappia
Made You Up
*Cover not yet revealed.*
Zappia sold her debut, Made You Up, to HarperCollins at the age of twenty.
***
There are also a handful of other authors who published books as teens a good deal while ago–Daisy Ashford, Thomas Chatterton, Ford Madox Brown, and more.
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42 comments on “Teen Author Bookshelf: List of Published Teen Authors”
Leave a reply to John Hansen Cancel reply
Teens Can Write, Too! 
Great post! Just the sort of inspiration I needed today, hehe!
Woot!
It’s funny. I never encountered the negativity you seem to have come across, except from family and friends. But I think that’s because I never looked for writing advice for teens. I didn’t realise there WAS writing advice for teens. I hadn’t yet come out into the world of the internet and I didn’t realise I wasn’t the only one who wrote novels at the age of twelve… so I just looked for the general advice. I behaved, to all intents and purposes, like I was an adult writer. It never even occurred to me that there might be advice directed at people my own age.
I think that’s for the best. At the time, I didn’t really understand much about publishing and I thought advice directed at teen writers would help. Well, it didn’t.
Ehehe, no… it’s either patronising or discouraging and neither of those are helpful!
Cayla Kluver’s Legacy Tril was picked up by Harlequin Teen and published in June of this year. She is 19, I believe but wrote the book when she was 15… don’t quote me on that, you might have to look into it.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10072160-legacy
Thank you! Added it.
Hi John!
I’m sorry you weren’t encouraged by more adults. I don’t like to hear that! Good for you for ignoring the negative and persevering your dreams. I’m proud of you. Thanks for including these books here. I’m going to tweet this. Thanks.
M
I had that same advice when I first started doing writing courses. In a nutshell? “Don’t write until you’re 30 because you haven’t experienced enough.” I couldn’t BELIEVE it! What have I been doing for the last 5 years?! Least to say, I don’t believe it. Teens can write rubbish, but so can adults. And if we want to write, then heck, we jolly well should write.
And we jolly well will! I disagree with the “experience” thing too. What, did JK Rowling go to Hogwarts before she wrote Harry Potter? A teenager starting to write is the same as a 60-year-old starting to write 🙂
Yeah, I hate the “experience” thing as well. Actually, I wrote a post on this in May of this year. You don’t need experience to write fiction. You just need to research, and to sensibly imagine what your character is going through and their emotions and everything. Plus, teens are in the best position to do that in YA, because we’re there EVERY DAY.
I came across EXACTLY the same website as you. Funny how that happens. I believed it, too, when I was thirteen…which is not a good thing, because I didn’t have the courage to start writing again for a while. I’m so glad you’re running this and giving teens a chance to shine 🙂
Haha, I’m glad too! 😛 But yeah, it’s so discouraging, and at the time I almost believed it because I didn’t know better. Thank gosh I kept writing anyway.
YAY for teen writers. Gordon Korman and Kenneth Oppel were also both published as teens, as well as Cayla Kluver I think.
Kenneth Oppel and Gordon Korman were? Really? Oooh! I’ll look into that.
Teen writing is awesome, usually because we’re young-we’re not jaded or cynical yet. People don’t tend to take us seriously because our lives are so freaking awkward. This is just an awkward time, so publishers think we write awkwardly too.
Great post though, I’ll definitely check these out!
P.S Can you do a post on ideas for novels(how to get them ect.) and how to pursue them (e.g making time through school, keeping at it, warding off procrastination ect.)?
Haha, yeah! And that’s a great post suggestion. I’ll definitely write one and post it by the end of the month.
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Hi all I like the post I am a 13 and I am writing a book it’s nice to know that I can still make my book thanks for the help for making me happy 🙂
That’s great that you could overcome all of that negativity! 😀 TCWT is a wonderful program! I’ve heard of so many of those books, and I’ve always heard GOOD things about them. Teens can do it!
(My mom LOVED “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.” Well, she watched the movie. She didn’t realize it was a book until afterwards. I wonder if she knows it was written by a teen).
This was really an inspiring post, thank you so much. As a 17 year old working on publishing my first novel, it was great to see so many other teen writers out there. I will definitely be using this list as a reference to check out and read all these talented young writer’s works. So far the only one I’ve read is Frankenstein, but that should change pretty soon…
Great list of teen authors! Love seeing kids excel and succeed! My 13 year old daughter signed a 3 book deal May 2012. I’m her co-author and our first book, CInderskella, will release October 26th, 2013.
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Yo, John *waves*
Was thinking about this recently and you’ve left off a couple of Brit authors:
– Samantha Shannon, THE BONE SEASON (released August ’13 when she was 21; 7-book Bloomsbury deal acquired aged 19). Film rights optioned by Andy Serkis (aka Gollum). The sequel’s cover was revealed recently and it is gorgeous. Also, I have met Samantha. She’s so nice and bubbly!
– Rachael Wing, STAR-CROSSED (Released when she was 16; deal announced at 14 [I think]. Sequel LOVE STRUCK released the following year).
Probably not so well known, but she was a local gal and in the year above me at the time. So local, in fact, that I almost went to her school and half my friends actually did. I met her briefly at a mini book challenge my school held (she was one of the judges).
Trying to find info about my friend’s book, but evidently Bloomsbury hasn’t even released the cover yet (though it is a nice cover). Book – YA contemp. about teens who fall in love before finding out they’re estranged brother and sister, yet continue their relationship despite the prejudice – bought when she was 13. Should be due for release later this year. I’ll try and keep you posted.
Thank you so much for the info! I just added the first two to the list. Do you have a name/title for your friend’s book? It doesn’t matter if there’s a cover yet. I’d just like to add her to both our 2014 bookshelf and this one. 🙂
It’s called LOVE ME and I’m not sure if she’s using a pseudonym to publish (she considered it for a while, but I think she decided against it), but her name is Rachel Brahams.
Hmmm, yeah, I couldn’t find anything on it. So just let me know when everything is figured out. I’d love to add it!
HI!
I’m 13 and I’m trying to find a publishing agent…. any recommendations? I don’t want to mess up there.
Hey! I wrote a pretty lengthy post on that topic here: https://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/literary-agents-query-letters-and-what-the-big-deal-is-part-1/ (There is a lot there, so you can just skip to the querying/agent FAQs.) If that doesn’t help, though, let me know and I’ll try to give more specific advice. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
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Hi John, I just found your page and now have a link to it from my website. What a great resource you have created for young writers! I definitely believe that teens can write, too. I have lots of resources for teen and pre-teen writers on my website, including writing prompts and links to helpful blogs like yours. Please drop by and take a look. I’d love your feedback. http://wrightingwords.com.
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Wow. This is a fantastic list and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much!
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