Wow. What a sweeping, inaccurate assessment. People over 50 are no more less knowledgeable about publishing than any other age group.
Although the terms of the HuffPo contract are very strict, the winner of this contest will be sitting pretty.
I respectfully disagree. Older adults and teens seem, as large groups, to be the least informed about publishing, although of course many individuals within those groups know plenty and share it willingly.
The young ones simply lack both life and business experience. They're also gullible.
In my experience, many people my age and older took up writing at or near retirement. Their knowledge of how the industry works is very like that of teenagers, for part of the same reason: they lack the business experience in this field and don't know how to get it. Despite huge strides forward, this is more often true of older women than men.
Worse, they're too often trusting of statements made on websites or in advertisements ("They can't say it if it isn't true." Which they can, and just did.) coming from spokesmen who appear to be warm, fuzzy, and writer-friendly.
They'd research a new refrigerator better than they do potential markets, agents, or publishers.
That's a field they know about.
I've been in a critique group for a very long time. Over the years, most of the members have been women. Too many have come to us after having been fleeced or otherwise taken advantage of by unscrupulous vanity presses and self-publishing schemes which separate writer from both money and rights to her work. Some were writing checks to those businesses over our protests and explanations.
So, while there are indeed many savvy older writers, there are far more who are newly hatched and fluffy, so new to it they don't know predators even exist.
Maryn, feeling every year, especially in the knees today
