Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I entirely agree with you. The problem these days, though, is that all too often these unsuccessful attempts are inflicted upon the world through the medium of self-publishing. In the "old days", the worst tended to be filtered out via the "gatekeeping" of commercial publishing. There's a great deal to be said for the old-fashioned rejection slip as an incentive to improve one's writing.
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There was even something to be said for it from the writer's perspective: at least it was real, firm and undeniable (if sometimes slow). Of course, these days even traditional publishers are getting lax, some don't even send a rejection slip - becoming just another void you can empty your heart into. (Yes, that is the voice of experience.
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There is no denying that the ease of self-publishing means a lot of stuff gets out that probably should have been left in the desk, or, at best, shared on a blog or something. This is one of the reasons why I inserted "and to assume the writer is serious about the craft" into the top of my post. The fact is that a lot of people that self-publish are not serious about the craft, possibly may even laugh at the idea. I would not expect them to be interested in the question of quality or quantity. For some, I suspect, self-publishing is not much more than a sort of social media extension, a way to share what they've written with friends etc.