Bonnie Garmus Says Her First Novel Was Rejected 98 Times Before “Lessons in Chemistry” Success (Exclusive)

PEOPLE chatted with the author amid the release of the new series based on 2022's best-selling 'Lessons in Chemistry', Garmus' first published novel

Bonnie Garmus struck a gold mine with Lessons in Chemistry, but it didn't happen until she was 65 years old. And that's okay with her.

In fact, she tells PEOPLE that her first novel, which predated 2022's Lessons in Chemistry, "got rejected 98 times" for being "too long," at 700 pages.

And while she was "pretty beaten up inside" over it, success was in her future in the form of a best-selling novel that has now been adapted into a series on Apple TV+, starring Brie Larson.

Asked what advice she'd give to others who feel like it might be too late in life to get a book published for the first time, Garmus, now 66, tells PEOPLE: "Age will never matter when you're a writer, because no one ever sees you."

"You might be on the back cover, but no one really cares how old you are. We read dead people all the time. I mean, you read Dickens, and he's dead," she adds. "It just doesn't matter."

Related: Lessons in Chemistry Author Talks Changes from Book to Series: 'I'm Not Going to Compare' (Exclusive)

The California-born Seattle native and mother of two, who now lives in London, also advises would-be published authors "to stop telling yourself that it's too late and instead say to yourself, 'It's time.' "

"A lot of people, especially women, don't have that time they need to really focus on a story," Garmus continues. "It doesn't mean it will go away. You're going to find it. It doesn't matter when it comes, but you don't have to worry about accomplishing all of this by a certain date."

For Garmus, who has also worked as a copywriter, age isn't a showcase of "failure" in the sense that "if you haven't done something by a certain age," it's useless. Rather, "It's just the opposite."

"Sometimes you just need to kind of let that experience grow in your brain," she explains. "I'm a writer. I was writing all day for my work. The last thing you want to come home and do is write."

Related: Texas Author Becomes Overnight Bestseller After Video of Him Trying to Sell His Books at a Store Goes Viral

For more from Bonnie Garmus, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now, or subscribe here.

Garmus admits that aside from an affinity for rowing — in Elizabeth's case, an initially hesitant one — she and her Lessons in Chemistry's main character (played by Larson, 34) don't have much in common.

"I'm not a chemist, and I am a terrible cook," she says. "I wrote my role model. I would like to be more like her."

But while she and Elizabeth might not share many surface-level interests, the accomplished author is a big proponent of a message that her protagonist perfectly embodies.

"Only you know who you are, and who you want to become or what you want to do," she says. "Yet there are all these roadblocks, especially a lot of societal and cultural roadblocks, to that. But don't let someone's rejection of your material or of you be the thing that guides you. Let you be the thing that guides you, that you decide, [for] your own future."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

The first two episodes of Lessons In Chemistry are now available to stream on Apple TV+. Additional episodes will drop Fridays through Nov. 24.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.