Minority Status: We are the .003%

Writers should have minority status, and we want our rights. As a minority, we are made up of every race, and we don’t discriminate by sex, religion, sexual orientation, or whether you listen to Justin Beiber or not. Well, maybe not Beiber fans.. We have to have some standards after all.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, there are 145,900 authors in the US. Taken out of a population of 321,707,124 (as of this writing, see the population clock here) that makes us around 3 thousandths of a percent. Minority level unlocked!

Photo Credit: US Population Clock

To add to our status, our economic situation is poor to say the least. We have to get very used to rejection as well, because persistence and luck is what pays off, unless we find other ways to write, like guest posting on humor sites and doing technical writing, which earns slightly more than I did mowing lawns one summer when I was twelve.

So I’m staging a protest so our minority status will be recognized. I want my writes! (See what I did there?) Who’s with me?

We’re going to use social media. Forty-nine percent of protesters in the Ukraine heard about protests on Facebook, and most found social media to be a more reliable source for information than mainstream media. Hashtags and group posts played a huge role.

We can do this too! Authors have a big social media following, right? We’ll use the hashtag #3thousandthpercent and #nopantsworkday to spread the word. I’m sorry, you might even have to leave your house at some point.

Here are some things we want:

• Everyone to buy our  books. You can find most of mine here. Buy now.
• Everyone to love and review our work. Don’t know how? Here are some instructions.
• Everyone to adore us from afar, but let us shop for groceries in peace. I don’t want to have to hire someone to shop for me
• To never be required to wear pants, even in public

Also, here are a list of Questions People can no longer ask Writers::

• Have I read anything you have written?
• Where do you get your ideas?
• Don’t you wish you had written (Insert book title here)?
• Wouldn’t it be cool if they made one of your books into a movie?
• Is that stuff you write about real?
• Are your books any good?

So let’s take to the streets. For a small minority such as us, I don’t think these things are too much to ask. Where on the streets? Well, you’ll just have to follow the hashtags to find out. If all 145,900 of us take to the streets at once. we’ll be sure to frighten at least our neighbors into submission.

#threethousandthpercent #nopantsworkday