[Katsunami]

I've been looking around at authors I've heard about, but never read, especially in the fantasy world.

One thing that strikes me is that many well-known authors started very late: like in their early 40's, or even late 40's. In "normal" professions, people would already be thinking about retirement.

There are some people here that started to write stuff at a later age with the intention to publish and sell it. What I'd like to know is: why did you start to do that? For example:

- Just because you can do it, after the invention of e-readers?
- Wanted to be able to say "I wrote/published a book"?
- Hope for at least a small break, making it a career?
- Hope for a big break and make millions?
- Long term vision: Write 40 books in 20 years, and hope they sell enough to make a nice supplement to a pension?

I've not even reached mid-thirties, so compared to some authors, I'm not too old with regard to starting age.

It actually seems that many, if not most current-day authors I've read did something else before writing, only starting to write in earnest (as a career) in their late 30's or early 40's, after getting their first breakthrough. In the beginning, they wrote 1-3 books, taking 1-5 years for each, and suddenly after breaking through, they started a write-fest, churning out books at a rate of 2-3 per year.

I'm still somewhat in doubt about these authors; with some of them, their early works are often the best, with the later ones often looking like they're artificially lengthened; like splitting a story up into 3 books of 300 pages, where they'd normally write one book of 600 pages in the past. It often happens in Fantasy; it's almost impossible to just "read a fantasy novel" without getting into a series.

What's your opinion on that?