"It's Raining Books" - Has writing a book become even more popular?

Have you ever seen the movie Sister Act 2? You know, the one where Whoopi Goldberg has to teach a bunch of catholic students how to perform in a choir? The first one was where she had to teach the nuns...

It's possible I showed my age there! Anywhoo, there is a line in the movie that is by far one of my favorite lines from a movie ever. Goldberg's character is talking to a student who feels she has to give up on singing because her mother doest feel it is a good career to have. Goldberg tells the student (played by Lauren Hill) that if she wakes up in the morning and thinks of nothing but singing then she is a singer. Ever since I heard that line I have always thought about my own dreams and passions, which can easily relate to you and your writing. If you wake up every day and can think of nothing other than writing, then maybe you're meant to be a writer.

It's safe to assume that most writers have always had the itch to write and create fantastic stories with their fingertips, but what about those writers that woke up one day and said, "I think I'll be a writer today." Does that count? Does that still classify someone as a writer? Okay, okay, before you question my thought process let me explain.

Years ago being a published author was HARD! You had to truly have a damn good manuscript, a kickass story, and an original voice to even have a publisher look twice at you. Only the best of the best were getting published and even then some of the best couldn't make it past the query stage. Flash forward in time and the age of self-publishing reared its head in and took the writing community by storm. Anyone that ever wanted to write a book could. The book world was flooded with new authors who had spent years trying to get their manuscripts in front of readers and even today it continues to grow with more and more authors self-publishing. What does this mean for the quality of work that is being produced? If anyone can pick up a pen and paper (or most likely a laptop), write a story, and publish it online themselves what does this actually mean about new aged writers today?

Every time I open my kindle or scan the new releases, there are thousands of books by up and coming authors. While I know that many of us writers are truly excited that we can get our stories in front of an audience without the pain of dealing with publishers, we all know the quality of a lot of manuscripts isn't there anymore. Lots of books nowadays are riddled with errors, tense issues, characters that fall flat, and so much more. This makes it difficult to weed through the numerous daily new releases to find a novel that is actually worth reading.

So, because self-publishing has become such an easy quick way for authors to push a book out in record time; is becoming an author more popular than it used to be? And if so, how can readers distinguish between novels that are well written and those that were slapped together with some glue and glitter and shoved into the hands of millions of people?

Well, that unfortunately is still up to the author. And it's our duty, not only as "authors" but true authors who take pride in their work to put in the extra leg work to publish an awesome book and that requires many steps. Months (sometimes even years) of editing, beta readers, cover design etc... to get it right. I feel it's our duty as authors to still give the reader the best experience they can have when reading our books. And if we take pride in our work we can produce great work and still finally get it published.

All in all, don't be the type of writer that throws together a few paragraphs, hits the publish button, and calls it a day. Be the writer that takes pride in their work, that puts the long hard hours of sweat, blood, and tears to create the best possible story we can. Because even though it's raining books and being an author is a popular hobby choice nowadays, let's get in the habit of having good quality books for all of us to enjoy!