There are several things that frustrate writers. Bad mojo. Lose of important writing hat. Themselves.

But one of my BIGGEST frustrations is reading books that have been published by major houses that are bad. Not just bad, HORRENDOUS! Some of these books have writing SO BAD I threw the book across the across the room and yelled at it like it would solve plot problems, lack of meaningful character development or just extremely unlively writing.

I started reading a book from an author who’s represented by an agent who turned down my first book. I was excited to read this book because I wanted to see what this agent thought was sellable. I got to page 14 and flung it across my living room. It now sits on the floor and will not be picked up for days. I have more pressing issues than picking up that trash, like cleaning the bath tub, paying bills, picking the sesame seeds off of hamburger buns.

Besides having a GLARING grammatical mistake on page 12, sentences with awkward construction, and an annoying lead character that’s as flat as the two day old bottle of Coke on my kitchen counter, it’s just not fun to read.

After all, writers are storytellers. We are entertainers, sometimes teachers, sometimes preachers, but ALWAYS storytellers.

I should give everyone the title of the book, author, agent, publisher, hell the ISDN number but I won’t. Mostly because I learned not to burn bridges a long time ago. But what I will say is that I’m glad that agent turned me down. If that book is what he can sell, what would that say about me? Granted I’m no Maya Angelou or Alice Walker. Heck, I’m barley an Icess Fernandez. But if books like this exist, it’s more difficult for people with real writing ability to get published.

I’m just sayin‘.