Leaderboard

I agree authors should be aware that a reader is doing a writer a favor by reading what he writes, and the least the writer should do is to correct typos and misspellings and punctuation errors. I would go a little further, not by way of advice, but by way of observation. Writing is a natural talent, or an acquired abiliity. It is also a craft that adheres to certain criteria. Just because somebody has an idea for a book and puts it into words doesn't make him or her a writer. Unless they do a good job of this, it just makes them wanna-bes, and I don't waste my time on the works of these hacks. Once self-publishing blew up, enabling anybody with the wherewithal to put out a book, there was more chaff than wheat out there. Not to be overlooked are the people who, rather than broadening their taste, prefer to only read about what they can relate to. Being willing to overlook blatant flaws seems to go along with this mind-set, - all of which lowered standards and contributed to the divisiveness that is now plaguing the black literary community. Of course, a book told in the first-person utiizing slang and dialect can be effective visa-vis style. It is when an attempt at serious writing is littered with infractions that a person's qualifications to be called a writer come into question. IMO.