Millennials monetise minor miseries through novels

FIFTEEN months ago, an aspiring actress and artist began writing pithy little four-line poems about the micro-struggles of 20-something life. Illustrating them with her own whimsical drawings, Samantha Jayne Siegel posted them to Instagram and Tumblr under the title of "Quarter Life Poetry." She added many hashtags (#mastersdegree ... #firstdate ... #fail). Her friends tagged their friends. Those friends tagged their friends. Everyone, it seemed, could relate.

"My friend has a baby and owns a boutique I just bought a cactus it died in a week". Soon enough, the 26-year-old had a steady following. Now, after posting barely more than 100 quatrains, Siegel's collection of Instagrams has made her a published author. Her debut is called Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke and Hangry. "This corporate job crushes my soul with the weight of hopeless doom. I'll quit someday, 'til then I'll raid free bagels in the conference room." "Holy (expletive), it's a book!" her website exclaims.

Holy (expletive), indeed. Grand Central Publishing is betting that 20-somethings will fork over US$14.99 (S$20.21) to read brief poems about terrible Tinder dates, excessive wine drinking and unfulfilling jobs. Or perhaps their gift-buying moms, as the marketing pitch suggests, might find the book perfect for their "unwed daughters". Today, a book deal like this isn't considered a risk. Quarter Life Poetry falls perfectly in line with a booming genre: the woe-is-us millennial struggle book.