Ageism in Publishing
Looking Ahead at Gatekeeping and Ageism in the Publishing Industry... With Confidence?
Gatekeeping—a buzzword in the publishing industry. The term could be applied virtually anywhere in the context of publishing. I see it everywhere—from the consolidation and acquisition of smaller publishers by the Big Five , to the unfeasibly high job requirements and unbelievably low pay for fresh-faced editors, to the bleak truth of the working class being kept out of the industry due to its aged fundamental mechanics, or more plainly, its low entry level salary and high labor expectations that keep working class people out of the industry.
But gatekeeping jobs in the publishing industry based on whether candidates fit into a certain, limited age bracket? Not something I expected to care about at twenty-one. Or, plainly, until way after I turn thirty.
Knowing that a job will inevitably be gatekept from you based on the number of years you have spent on this earth, something you can’t control and sure as heck can’t change (because time moves at the same pace for everyone) is weird. This stuff is hard to look at, and tricky to talk to your peers about.
When looking into the gritty reality of publishing, editing, or writing as a profession, it can be helpful to ask yourself why you’re doing it. Or, if you’re one of my peers, why you continue to attend and enjoy a Wednesday night capstone class that terrifyingly highlights the ethical issues in publishing but, also, very honestly shows you the merits of those in the industry as well as its cultural value. And it’s probably because you love books, love amplifying voices, or something of the sort. But just because you love these things doesn’t mean that you can’t be honest about them.
The truth is that the publishing industry employs young people who are willing to work days, nights, and weekends. That your favorite part of the job, like reading submissions, will likely be something you have to do off the clock. And that in New York City, America’s publishing hub, rent is expensive and, quite frankly, unaffordable unless you resort to acquiring other streams of income or simply have nepo-baby status. However, if the publishing industry ends up suiting you well, there’s a chance it can be great and fulfilling for a time. That hard work will pay off. But, as said by ageism.org, when an individual’s specific job in the publishing industry ends or fails and resumes get sent out again, if the person still wants to work in the publishing industry, they “may take a haircut,” or in other words, will take a pay cut, a lesser job, or simply have to transfer into another industry. It seems to be that maintaining a career in an industry that you may love so much means adjusting your personal life in a grittily uncomfortable way. It’s unsettling; shouldn’t employer s want you, a talented and educated individual? Or rather, shouldn’t they be able to tailor some of their means to accommodate your employment?
Assuming the age that employers begin to fail their employees is in their early twenties, and very rarely an age beyond that, does this mean if you ever want to work in the publishing industry, your time is now? Possibly. In both publishing employee and writer terms, a lot of the industry is about how things look. You must be a certain age for the industry to want to take a chance on you in entry-level positions as both an employee and a writer. Too young, and the odds are that you won’t be taken seriously. In “Millions of Followers? For Book Sales It’s ‘Unreliable,’” published in the New York Times, Elizabeth A. Harris notes that, realistically, achievements that are advertised as “good for your age,” such as, “24-year- old sells blah blah blah book,” do not help sell books or sell yourself as a worker because they show naivete and risk.
On the other end of the spectrum, many individuals “age out” of the industry or grow past the age where they can’t be manipulated into the grueling pay and menial tasks the industry expects. Ageism in the industry can be an issue that’s difficult to recognize. The World Health Organization’s website notes that ageism affects how we think, feel, and act towards others and ourselves based on age. It imposes “powerful barriers to the development of good policies and programmes for older and younger people, and has profound negative consequences on older adults’ health and well-being.”
Disadvantages in skill, specifically technological skills, contribute to a huge generational gap. According to ageism.org, these disadvantages also intensify negative predispositions toward older people because, regardless of their efforts to learn, employers believe that “they don’t think the same” as those who only know a digital world. It can be misconstrued that older people don’t truly know what digital is because they didn’t experience its presence during their adolescence or younger years, which is unfair and untrue. It makes me think about what this means for us, college graduates-to-be this year and next, who will inevitably be out-digitaled at some point. Will this age us out of the publishing industry quicker than those who came before us?
Maybe. But if we go into the industry knowing that we will have to be adaptable, isn’t that better for us in the long run? And if we, as individuals, actively work to be advocates against ageism in publishing, maybe karma will be kind to us in return.
However disheartening it may seem, it's important to remember that old and new knowledge is helpful for developing a stronger industry, especially for its workers. We know that the industry has had its issues for a long time, and we can learn from those who have experienced it before us and have remained in non-managerial positions. Additionally, as younger people, we are seen as technological assets to companies, but we can also be technological assets to our fellow older employees. Old and new knowledge is helpful for developing a stronger industry, especially for its workers.
At the end of the day, it’s important to understand the passion behind your pull toward the industry, and why that’s so important to the workers currently in it. It’s also good to know beforehand that you might/will likely feel alone, and that imposter syndrome, for both old and young individuals, is a barrier for those within publishing. Regardless of your age, some people will genuinely think you don’t know what you’re doing. Technology, and the presence or lack of appropriate knowledge about it intensifies this. It’s just a consequence of the way things are, and you need to look for people who do take you seriously. That’s a skill we’ve all learned in college, hopefully. Seems doable, no?
Julie’ Heaney (’23) is a graduate of Susquehanna University with a BA in publishing and editing and creative writing from Chenango Forks, NY. She was the 2023 co-editor of Essay literary magazine and has had creative work published in both SU’s Rivercraft literary magazine and the Me/Us/U podcast.