Wisconsin teenager Amy Zhang played tennis after school. She went out with friends and did homework. She also wrote a book. A very good book called Falling Into Place. She was 16 when she found an agent who sold it to pa publisher. It was released in 2015 and now has a four-star rating on Amazon.

It wasn’t even her first book.

How did she do it?

In an interview for GMA News Online, Amy talks about squeezing in time to write before school–from 4 to 6 in the morning. She thinks it was “the most disciplined time of my life.” For more of her interview, go HERE.

She was shopping a different book to editors and agents while she wrote Falling, and having no success. Then she sent out Falling and got an agent offer in three days (this is NOT usual!).

“I remember this very clearly, I was taking a quiz in my chemistry class and I got a text from my agent and she said, ‘Call me as soon as you can,’ so during my lunch hour I called her back and she gave me the news and I completely freaked out. I called my mom and cried.”

Now Amy is thinking about learning more about publishing and marketing. And of course, she’s going to continue writing. You can check out Amy’s other books HERE.

Amy’s advice for new writers

• Keep writing.
• Writing’s a skill and craft that has to be developed. (So keep studying the craft.)
• Find readers and be open to their opinions.
• Read a lot… and make sure you include unfamiliar authors, new styles, new genres.

“Nobody’s born being good at writing.”

So how do YOU squeeze writing into YOUR day?