Young Adults and the Rise of Self-Publishing

The Rise of Self-Publishing Among Younger Generations

I have a little theory that's been rattling around in my brain lately. I've been watching a lot of investigative reports and reading articles and seeing first-hand experiences and opinions about work-life-balance expectations for younger generations, and how that is affecting the workforce at large. In sum, for us young adults, it's all about wanting to have a life, and not dedicating our entire existence to a corporation or job that would fire us in a heartbeat - job security and loyalty be damned. And who can blame us, really?

• We get paid low wages that do not cover the cost of living, or do so barely.
• We work long hours, get asked to do more, with that smaller pay.
• We can't have houses or homes of our own; we can't own land; we can't start families, because we can't afford it on the aforementioned small pay.
  
• We're facing a reality where most of us have to take on side-hustles just to get by.

And there's a lot more where that came from, too. Growing up, we were told life was going to be pretty straightforward, just like it was for our parents. Study well, get good grades, get a college degree, and settle into an entry-level job that actually takes you seriously, invests in you and provides you with opportunities to move up the ladder, and remunerates you fairly for your work. A place with job security - that tells you, "You're one of our people now, and we take care of our people," - that hopes that you will be with them for the next 20-40 years. All the other parts of living will naturally fall into place.

But now we're grown up, and the world we entered was not the world we were prepared for. None of what we thought was going to be there, waiting for us, is actually there. And the older guys? They're all over the place - starting wars and manipulating us through media and trying to "crack" us, as if we were a code, just so they can figure out how to get us to spend more of the money we're not even making. 

https://www.tumblr.com/dispatchesfromtheclasswar/736097504128532480

It's to be expected, this desire to reject capitalism and just detach ourselves from the Work Machine and try to live life on our own terms. Part of that, for many of us, is trying to find a work balance that allows for flexibility. Work-from-home advocates talk about how much easier it is - how much time is actually saved - when they can wake up in the morning, take their time with a healthy breakfast, and maybe do something they enjoy, and then log into the computer to get started working for the day. We're in no rush - we're under no stress. We can get our work done from the comforts of our homes, and not have to deal with the discomfort and time loss of long commutes, cold and grey office spaces, and colleagues we'll never really be friends with but who we see more than our own families and friends. 

Of course, the idea there isn't that you become a recluse in your home, but rather that you'll have the time to focus on things that are so much more valuable than the thing you're forced to do just to survive - things like family, friends, self-care, health, volunteering, charity work, and religion.

But I'm not here to give you a long spiel about how broken the world of work is today. It's a fascinating topic, and one which I am experiencing myself, after having worked in environments where I was either explicitly or implicitly told that I was 'expendable' and wouldn't get any opportunities to move up - but I'm actually interested in talking about something completely different. I'm interested in talking about the way this issue links with writing, and the rise of self-publishing.

I think that in response to this phenomenon, a lot of us young people decide to go on and start a side-hustle, or to leave the 9-5 (in my case it was an 8-6 in all of my jobs, so the 9-5 itself seems like a figment of a past world 💔) so that we can do something of our own. Of course, a lot of people with certain skill sets turn to freelancing. Others turn to entrepreneurship - but that means more skin in the game. 

But have you noticed something in recent decades? There are a lot of younger people writing. Writing fiction, writing non-fiction, writing poetry, writing scripts - young people are all over the place, writing. Granted, some people do this as a hobby. Others, however, are writing with the intent of getting published. And a very big portion of that crowd is writing with the intent of self-publishing, with the hope of supporting themselves financially through their written words and stories. If not in whole, then at least in part. Because as we've come to understand through our experiences, every little helps.

I think that writing and self-publishing are attractive because they remain a possibility with a low barrier to entry. Moreover, it's a flexible activity. You can plan your writing around your daily schedule. In business terms, self-publishing your books and stories is another way of putting out a product and getting paid for it - and not having to find someone (a publisher) who'll accept it before doing so. It's one of the simpler processes when it comes to making some money outside of your main job: write something, edit it, edit it again, polish it, market it, and release it. For a lucky few, they can do so well that it becomes their main job. 

And of course, writing isn't the only creative activity that has seen a huge influx. Video games and game assets, art and illustration, graphic design - you name it, and young people are doing it on their own in the hope of being able to financially support themselves, however slightly, with it. A lot of us say that we do it because we love it - and that may well be the reason we chose to get into writing - but it doesn't mean that that's the only reason we continue. If it was only for the love of it, there's a chance most of us wouldn't even be online, self-publishing and sharing and marketing our works.

It goes back to that ideal we keep hearing about: loving what you do, so that your job doesn't feel like a job. If you love writing, and you think you can make a success of it, you're more likely to try that out as a side hustle or to try and strike out on your own to do give it a serious go. 

So, while perhaps not the only motivating factor in the surge of new writers among young adults around the world, it's certainly one of the very big factors, in my opinion.