A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to support themselves in this way or write as an avocation. Most novelists struggle to have their debut novel published, but once published they often continue to be published, although very few become literary celebrities, thus gaining prestige or a considerable income from their work.
Main article image
Book collection.jpg
J. K. Rowling 04-2010.jpg
Author J.K. Rowling reads from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at the Easter Egg Roll at White...
James Patterson.jpg
James Patterson
Leo Tolstoy, portrait.jpg
CREATED/PUBLISHED: [between 1880 and 1886]; REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs...
Scott Monument from St. David Street.jpg
Scott Monument in Edinburgh's Princes Street
Shawn Wong in San Francisco, 1976.jpg
Shawn Wong in San Francisco, 1976
TheFaulknerPortable.jpg
The "Faulkner portable": American novelist William Faulkner’s (1897-1962) Underwood Universal Portab...
Tom Sawyer 1876 frontispiece.jpg
Frontispiece from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1st ed., 1876): [Tom Sawyer fishing]