Why do we, as readers, turn our noses up at a novel that has a hand drawn picture on the cover? Why do a few grammatical errors challenge the legitimacy of a good book? Why are self-published authors frowned upon in bookstores across America?

Recently, I’ve begun to read a series called The Gargoyle Legends by Heather Fleming. These short, yet enticing and hilarious novels have hand drawn pictures on the cover, a few grammatical errors, and yes, the series is self-published. However, once you get a few pages into the story, those details don’t matter anymore. In fact, that’s all they are: silly details no one cares about in the first place.

Self-published stories can be pretty bad, yes, but don’t judge a book before you at least read the first few chapters. Authors, despite common assumptions, are human beings, and yes, despite common assumptions, make errors in their work by forgetting a word here or mixing up who is talking there. Editors and publishers are the ones who are on the verge of creating a new race with the freaky amount of grammatical knowledge they have stuffed in their minds.

Just because a book doesn’t come in hardback, or have a fancy cover design doesn’t mean you should scoff and throw it to the side. Plus, how many of you out there have actually written a novel? Ha! That’s what I thought. Who are we as readers to judge when we have no idea the amount of work that goes into creating a living, breathing story. Every one of those writings out there deserves to be read – not just the best sellers, or Shakespeare. Every author puts their heart and soul (as well as a significant amount of hours) into their story, and every one of those voices deserves to be heard.