Why do people who hardly read books think they can be authors?

[SheilaT]

18. Another reason so many semi-literates think they can be a writer,

better yet a famous and rich writer, is that now the word is out that you can just publish electronically and easily and you'll sell lots and lots of your book and you won't have to pay an agent and you get to keep a lot more of the price for the Kindle version and so just go ahead and do it. (I only put breaks between the words because without them you'd not quite be able to follow me, but that's basically what I keep on hearing over and over.)

Listen up guys. I was just at Bubonicon, which is a science fiction thing in Albuquerque, and at more than one of the panels I attended the question of e-publishing came up. And I didn't even attend the one that was about the state of short fiction in the age of digital publishing. Anyway, all of the published writers who commented pointed out that the gatekeepers, meaning the editors and publishers, exist for a good reason. Too much stuff is put up on-line without proper editing or proof-reading even, and somewhat more than 99% of it is crap. One published writer pointed out that to do it properly in digital format you have to pay someone to edit, pay someone else to format, pay someone for the cover art. He said, "The writer shouldn't be paying for that stuff."

While I'm certainly not a much-published writer, I heartily agree.