[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Felicity Grope

Strewth! I assumed we are all writers together and that we all share some level of common decency towards each other. Not everybody is blessed with a natural ability to write or write well. However, we can at least be supportive and poor writers can be shown how to improve.

Plenty of poor writers have no interest in improvement and get quite defensive when the flaws in their books are pointed out.

As to offering a public service: your consideration to your fellow readers is admirable but who holds you to account and where do we draw the line regarding who should or should not be allowed to write or publish?

"We?" Who's we?

Anyone can write. These days, anyone can publish. And if the writing is lousy, they should expect critique, which doesn't have to fit any particular literary standards any more than the writing does.

Frankly, about 99% of the ebooks written are dross and muddy the market for better publications. But it’s not my place to attack the books I hate and people should never be discouraged from trying to create anything.

Sure they should. Some people are bigots. Some are promoting hate, violence, and oppression in their books--and not even being entertaining about it. I'm under no moral obligation to appreciate all flavors of "creativity."

I can be scathing, vicious, and downright hurtful at times but I only attack people in positions of power. Only a coward attacks the weak

Authors who can't tell the difference between attack and critique are amazingly common. I'm not going to hold back because they might be sensitive. It's not like "people get harsh about books they don't like" is a big secret, and a new author wouldn't know that.

I’m new here so perhaps I misjudged the tone. I tried to offer some constructive advice to fellow writers but some of the replies make it feel like a dog pit in here and I can do without the snarling.

Some of us on the reader side have run across quite a few authors, especially self-pub authors, who take any comment less than a five-star "OMG I LOVED THIS!!!" as a slanderous attack on their character, morals, upbringing, religion, and choice of houseplants.