While you make good points about the necessity of writing constantly in an effort to grow and improve so you can one day be a quality writer, you left out the necessity of doing your due diligence and research in READING and analyzing what made or makes certain authors “good” while others are deemed “mediocre.” This is not to say one should emulate them, but if you don’t know what the market is, what the editorial standards, writing mediums and platforms, etc., are, then you are doing yourself a disservice. Finally, I absolutely disagree with you about marketing and I’d wager many thousands of authors would, possible more, many “successful” by many standards. Over several decades I published over 15 books the old fashioned way — I had to write quality material, find agents, get manuscripts submitted to publishers, etc., the way it’s always been done until this current self-publishing craze by those too lazy to wait or too bad to get accepted and published by a print publishing house. Moreover, I had to proof and edit before getting it off to the publishers because they often employ poorly paid, overworked kids to do that job, and grammatical errors occur. I don’t necessarily fault people with wanting to see their work in print and being willing to pay for it themselves. I’ve accepted that that’s where we are now. I DO, however, object to the fact that nearly every self-published “author” putting out stuff via Amazon’s Kindle program, Createspace, etc, have never bother to freaking proof their work, don’t know how to, don’t think it’s important, etc., because judging not only by my professional peers’ comments, just looking at reader reviews, even of such books that are highly rated, one often finds numerous complaints about the lack of proofing/editing, and I personally think if one want to attempt to portray themselves as a “professional” author, they have a duty to themselves and any readers to hire a proofer or copy editor to clean their trash up and make it at least easier on the eyes.

However, back to my gripe. 95%+ of the writers out there, especially those with smaller publishing houses, definitely self-published e-book writers, various niche/genre authors, etc., have always had to, do have to, and probably will always have to market their books and themselves. Literal fact of the business. If you care to dispute that, it’ll prove you know nothing of the industry and you’re an amateur and furthermore, I can drag out tons of “successful” often award winning authors all of who have had to engage in marketing their writing and their books. Because unless you’re with Penguin or HarperCollins, it’s up to you and no one else! Why do you think so many authors, especially ones no one’s ever heard of like me, various friends with numerous degrees and books and writing credits, have to do so many book signings and readings, whether it be local, regional or national? It’s part of marketing. There have been many books published over a long period of time about the necessity of having to market your books and writing and how best to do so (pre-social media, etc., when frankly it was a hell of a lot harder). I used to do readings in every venue possible, from tiny little indie bookstores to big chain bookstores to nightclubs and libraries to art centers and as a featured author at many universities. I had to get my books to as many book reviewers as possible, and they typically get so many, you’re lucky to even get a 10% response. I’ve done newspaper, magazine, radio and television interviews. And of course, I got my work published in thousands of print magazines in close to 40 countries in about 10 languages, pre-digital zines, which of course made one’s work available on an international level. Do you have any idea how many famous and “successful” writers and authors have had to market their own work their entire lives dating back centuries? And with my criticism of the self-published, admittedly, a number of “classics” were originally self published by household name authors. Not a week goes by when I don’t receive several emails from authors in all sorts of genres marketing themselves and their work in announcing the publication of a new book, etc., and many of these are highly successful, award winning authors! To say just write great material, and they’ll come with no marketing is sadly naive. It’s certainly possible, obviously, but is it realistic for most? No. And one thing you left out was the fact that the Internet has been great in many ways, but it’s also led most people in the world to feel like, while they certainly have the right to say and write whatever they want, that they’re “good” writers, when in point of fact, most are not and never will be. Some people are born to be great philosophers, physicists, military leaders, politicians, etc., and some artists and writers as well. And others become very good-to-great through the hard work you rightly mention, but the sad truth that most people never realize or refuse to admit to themselves is that some people can work as hard as they want or can, but they’ll never be a great or even good writer. Fact of life. I’ve studied nuclear engineering. I’ve studied several forms of physics. I can talk fairly well about aspects of these fields, especially from a theoretical perspective, but the algorithms, the math, is my downfall and it doesn’t matter how much work, effort, study, research, time, practice I put into it, I will NEVER be great or even good at math! Ditto writing for many people and ditto any field at all for most. We all have our areas of specialization, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting you excel in certain areas but it’s also important to acknowledge when you do not and never will excel in certain other areas. I’ve studied radar, signal processing, and electronic warfare for decades, but could I build or fly a fighter jet? Never. But I do know quite a bit about certain aspect of such things. And to finish, I agree that practice and serious commitment is paramount to possible success. I spent decades working 12 hour-a-day jobs, going home and writing for three hours a day, every day, 365 days a year — no holiday breaks — and submitting material to at least 10 publications a day every day and to marketing my work for at least 30–60 minutes a day, every day. Decades with no break. Unless you’re willing to totally commit yourself, or unless you’re that rare creative genius, you’ll typically end up being one of those lazy self published “authors” no one reads, and those who do it the traditional way, the hard but legitimate way, look down on and rightly so, because I’ve busted my freaking ass to accomplish what I accomplished while tons of people I’ve known over the past decade can’t wait two months before resorting to self publishing and never bother marketing, and then they wonder what happened. Some very famous authors had to wait years, even decades, before they were published. America’s most intentionally famous and popular and probably successful poet, the late Charless Bukowski, didn’t really start selling books until he hit 50 even though he wrote for years. You have to be committed, you have to put the hard work in, you have to have patience, you have to be tenacious, and you have to do everything from research to working on improving one’s craft to successful submission strategies to marketing and more if you want to achieve the success that most writers achieve, and while there are certainly many talented people out there, often online with many thousands of followers, and while I often admire their skills, I still often wonder if they could or would hack it in the historically traditional path to publishing success and honor, as well as respect…. Sorry if I sound overly snobbish, but trust me, I’ve belonged to the Authors Guild for nearly 30 years and to PEN for over 20, and there are many famous, successful authors in these esteemed organizations and most of them are in them for a reason — because they did things the right way and the hard way and didn’t resort to taking the easy way out and being sloppy in doing so, so it’s predictably natural human nature for those who work hard to get where they are to have some disdain for those who don’t — and then complain about it…