Does writing matter?

Yes, I write erotic romance novels, but I'm also a big reader. Especially lately since I've been on medical leave. I have developed a very close relationship with my Kindle and often read the work of my fellow self-published authors. I've discovered a few great talents this way, but I'm also pretty shocked at some of the poor quality of writing I've encountered.

Now, let me preface this by saying that my work is by no means perfect. I should use a proofreader. (I actually did have an excellent editor for "Lost and Found" but we lost touch.) I realize that I misused the word dawned in "Open House." (Should have been 'donned.' Damn it. So embarrassing.) But overall, I feel like I put a lot of work into my writing and have enough understanding of the English language to actually feel confident in the product I put out. Not perfect, mind you, but certainly not offensive to the majority of the population.

So, this is what I don't understand: how can a self-published author put out a product that is blatantly poorly written and still be wildly successful?No, I'm not talking about "Fifty Shades of Grey." (See my earlier post.) 

Why am I asking this? Well, I recently read an erotic romance that looked promising because of the dozens and dozens of rave reviews, but when I actually started reading it, I was shocked to find that the writing was barely literate. I mean, we're talking sixth grade writing level. And apparently the author had numerous second readers. Why wouldn't someone tell her that she needed to review her grammar, take a creative writing course, and stop relying on spell check to catch all her errors?

I would never talk smack publicly about another writer. Good for her that's she's getting all those rave reviews and probably raking in a lot of cash for a work that probably took her all of three weeks to crank out. But what is going on with the readers? What do they get out of this? Do people no longer care about the writing? Should I stop giving a damn too and just slap a couple sex scenes together without considering plot, characters and proper grammar? Have I been wasting my time sweating over these details?

No, I haven't. At the end of the day, I need to know that I haven't duped my readers into believing I am a real writer. I put in my best effort into maintaining standards of writing that I've been taught because I respect my readers and never want them to feel cheated, which is exactly the way I felt when I read this poorly written but very successful novel recently.

What really concerns me is that the self-publishing movement may actually be encouraging people to NOT care about their product. And eventually that will hurt us all because no one will take us seriously.

But yeah. I am a little envious...