I also totally get that fear of what we do being devalued by anyone at all being able to self-publish (or, in the case of freelancing, by university students who will work for 1/5 the price)… but, on the other hand, I think that if we’re experienced and hard-working, there is really nothing to feel so threatened by. Not to mention that, once upon a time, we WERE those kids/university students. And we wouldn’t be where we are today if SOMEONE hadn’t encouraged us and given us a chance.

I am wondering if perhaps some of this issue is just Please Leave It To The Professionals, Of Which I Am One sort of posturing. Nobody wants to think that they can be replaced by a bunch of kids (honest-to-goodness KIDS! with their sideburns! and rock-and-roll music!) and people do have a tendency to reflexively react badly to something that they think might devalue their vocation or avocation, which would happen if the market (so to speak) was flooded with a bunch of non-professionals. That’s something you and I deal with all the time, right? “Why would I pay YOU that CRAZY amount for that, when I can get a university student to do it for a fifth of the price?” The ability to self-publish, and the fact that the stigma surrounding self-publication is fading away, really changes the landscape for writers, and maybe they’re just panicking about that a little bit.

Not that that excuses the responses of the people you quoted. I guess that’s what I’m HOPING it is, because I don’t want to believe that they really think that encouraging creativity in kids is a bad thing. Because, come on. REALLY?!