I just ran into this, so let me know what you think. Someone just got on a Facebook group, specifically for publishing, and got pissed off because someone else dared to suggest that people who can’t write a coherent book, they need help in the form of an editor.

And this crazy person started yelling that it was somehow an attack on the disabled. The amount of stupidity in this is just ridiculous, but what else is new?

I have no clue how they got to anything about the disabled, keep in mind that the original post never said anything about being disabled themselves, it just  came out of the blue. In fact, most people took it as someone who didn’t speak English fluently. Well, guess what? If you’re trying to write for an English-speaking audience, which presumably you are because you’re in an English-speaking Facebook group, then you need additional help to produce a saleable end product if you can’t get there on your own.

Of course, people freaked out at that. What else is new? Therefore, I’m going to address this in a couple of different ways here, none of which are likely to make the overly emotional happy, but who cares about that? As an author, published on Amazon or somewhere similar, your job is to produce a product that appeals to a paying audience. All the excuses in the world for why you can’t manage it don’t matter. That’s what you’re there to do.

Of course, there are plenty of people who don’t like that. It’s too hard! It’s too expensive! I’m lazy! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that last one verbatim, pushed as a legitimate excuse. Well, guess what? If you hope to be successful, all of that has to go away. Writing is hard and, like it or not, it’s harder for some people than for others. Some people have additional challenges. That’s just the way life goes.

If you were to write a book and had some kind of disability, that doesn’t matter. I suppose the exception might be if you were writing about your disability, but if you’re just writing a normal book, then your disability is irrelevant. People aren’t going to look at a book and say “it’s written by someone with mental challenges, therefore I’m going to buy it anyhow, even if it’s incoherent!” That’s not how your potential audience thinks, nor should they. You need to produce a book that your intended audience finds interesting and wants to trade money for the experience of reading your tale. This is a very basic overview of how writing works.

Yet I’ve seen lots of people over the years who would rather make excuses and pretend they get a special dispensation to not produce that saleable work because “fill in the blank”. You get people who legitimately can’t spell at a third or fourth grade level, who randomly capitalize words, who do not know punctuation or grammar, but who really want to be an author. Great, I appreciate that you really want to be an author but you’re going to have to do a lot of extra work and likely have a lot of extra expenses because you’re just not at the level necessary to produce top grade work. Sorry. That’s just how it goes.

I can hear it already. “That’s not fair!” Too bad. Life’s not fair. Get used to it. People are only going to buy a good book and you can either produce that good book on your own, with your own skills, or you need to turn to someone else who can help you achieve quality results. All the excuses in the world don’t change the reality of your situation. If you don’t want to go with a professional editor, learn how to use the language effectively on your own. I see endless excuses running rampant among amateur writers, everything from “I’m dyslexic” to “I have ADHD” to “I have all manner of self-diagnosed mental issues because I figure it’s got to be valid and nobody is going to point out how stupid that is.” None of that matters. The end result is the only thing that does. Focus on that and stop making excuses that aren’t relevant.

I just tire of watching people expect to be coddled because of some reason they yanked out of their backsides. It’s a massive problem in modern society and it’s time people get over it. Your goal, as a prospective published author, is to produce a high-quality product that people will want to buy. It doesn’t matter how you get there, get there somehow. You figure it out. Stop making excuses and get back to work. ’nuff said.