Publishing is not like Tinker Toys
I don't watch much television, but every now and then I catch a show. Well, the other day I was mindlessly sitting on the sofa when a commercial came on. It was an "Author's Kit": everything you need to be an author. Wow! My mouth dropped, and I wondered since when did my chosen profession become a Tinker Toy set? We ALL can be authors, and here' the kit. I imagined an engineering set: here is your Build a High Rise kit complete with concrete and hammer. You too can build a downtown high rise just use our handy kit. Dear friends and prospective authors if publishing has now come down to a KIT we're all in for a lot of really bad books. Do-it-yourself publishing kits do not replace professionals. Each part of publishing is a profession. Editing is a skill. Writing is a talent. Graphic art another profession. People go to college and attain degrees to perfect these skills. What I think happened is the eBook revolution has created a slippery slope. An area that...