It took seventeen years for me to get published. Before it was accepted by a publisher, my first novel was rejected thirteen times. Even after that, it took me 10 years as a professional writer until I came up with the concept for Percy Jackson and was able to become a full-time writer! I started writing "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" when I was 11 years old. I finished just before my 12th birthday, but I didn't find an editor who wanted to publish it until three years later. It took me another seven years from then until I found a publisher. I wrote two more books in the series after that first one was published: "The Lightning Thief" and "The Titan's Curse". I've been told by many readers that they love the series, so maybe someday someone will want to publish those too! Writing these novels has been a huge effort for me. I'd like to think that they're of good quality and have taught me some valuable things about writing, but unfortunately neither of these is true. The first book I ever published was so bad that I ended up taking out most of the chapters I had written (including the ending). After that failure, I decided that I would never try to be anyone else when I wrote. I would only write what was inside me and not worry about what others might think of it.