Fifty years ago, the publishing industry was dominated by the big companies, and getting in the door was difficult. Perfectly polished manuscripts, finely edited and honed to perfection, were the only stories accepted by the gatekeepers, and most of those were only accepted through literary agents who liked and accepted an author's query letter. But over the years as the Internet has grown more developed and widespread, access to the publishing industry has also changed. It became possible to bypass the gatekeepers and self-publish. New ways to market became available to self-publishers, and the market exploded with new books. However, this sudden growth brought with it a whole new problem to the industry... one that has created new concerns in the scholastic and publishing industries alike: authors who publish less than polished works with poor grammar.
What causes this is the lack of education of a new author in the industry. Their ideas may be the next best seller material, but lack the luster such a diamond deserves. You see, anyone can sit at a computer and type their ideas into words. The problem is that not everyone has the knowledge to properly structure their writing or any idea how to layout that book to where it would in fact meet industry standards. There are thousands of books out there that are poorly written and were published before they were ready. Am I saying self-publishing is a bad idea? Absolutely not! There are a lot of self-published books out there that are in fact incredibly good and very well-written. Some have even been recognized by traditional publishers, and their authors have ended up landing book deals.
What I am saying is that any author, before they decide to publish a novel, needs to make sure they have perfected their work the same as an industry agent or publisher would, checking sentence structures, punctuation, spelling, formatting, and every other aspect of what makes a polished manuscript become a book. One of the biggest reasons an author should want to do this is their audience. Some of the biggest readers out there are kids... elementary, middle and high school students - people who are still learning how to read and write. They learn by example, and if the books they are reading are poorly written, what kind of an example will that set for future generations? There have been multiple narratives out on social media about how our school systems are "dumbing down our children" and not worrying as much about the quality of their education.
However, if what they are reading in their leisure time is likewise not giving them an example of proper grammar, how are they supposed to learn what proper grammar is? Book shave long been the standard through which we as human beings learn. Students use textbooks in school, but today's Internet allows for learning in other ways as well. There has never been a greater ability to have incredible exposure to knowledge... and most of that is at our fingertips through books and tablets or computers. So even if our schools are failing our children, we do not have to. But every single book turned out that has poor grammar is one more book that will teach our children wrong. They will not learn to recognize mistakes in spelling or sentence structure if what they read is incorrect.
Then there is the next obvious reason. How many of you long to find representation and land a book deal at some point down the road? Some will answer that by saying never, but others would rather be in a more traditional publishing process so they are not dealing with distribution or the marketing side of things. Well, landing that book deal will not happen if the book that is released is sloppy. There is still plenty of money to be made out there in this industry, but to do so, an author needs to step up their game and turn out just as polished and clean a manuscript as someone who's been published in the industry for years. For some authors, this means taking the time to brush up on their knowledge of grammar, punctuation, formatting, etc.
A third reason for wanting to have a properly written manuscript is for the respect and recognition as a professional among your peers. There are millions of authors out there, but how many achieve the status of being well-known and well-respected? Few ever make it that far. Most authors will sell about 30-40 copies of their book and then it's done. That is a sad number compared to the time that went into its creation. If it's worth writing, it's worth turning into a masterpiece. And yes, this means it might not be on the shelf tomorrow. But when it does hit that shelf, you can look at it and know with confidence that it is well done.
So, what avenues are open to adults who are well past their school years, or whose work schedules don't necessarily allow them to go to a traditional college? There are online classes that can be taken part time, and workshops with sites geared specifically for authors. such as Writer's Digest Online. There are self-help books on grammar, such as "The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation" by Jane Straus, and many others. There are online sites that let you read and learn from direct grammar and punctuation references. There are so many different ways to learn what you need to know that finding a solution that fits your time and budget should never be an issue. Putting in the time to find a solution that works for you is important. If you took the time to write that book, you should want to turn out the best possible masterpiece you can create.