I find that to be an awful attitude... self-absorbed people with nothing interesting to write about will assume it doesn't apply to them because they are so interesting, and people not so sure of themselves but having an actual unusual idea or story they are passionate about, could easily be discouraged from sharing something valuable.

I say, if you have something to say that fits well in a book, write it. Let other people decide if it is worth reading or not. A lot of the best books ever written were kept private, or were not well received at first.

It is not an awful attitude if you are on the receiving end of submissions by wannabe authors. I have a friend who regularly attends writers' workshops and she tells me there is a lot of bad writing being presented. Some people take feedback on board and improve, some decide the world is against them and refuse to listen. Both go the self-publishing route when rejected by traditional publishers. There are also syndicates of writers writing series of books under the same name hoping one of them sticks and sells the others in the series. There is a lot of crap out there.

I encourage you to read some random self-published e-books on Amazon.

The problem is those people aren’t going to read that advice and follow it. Most of the people it’s going to discourage are those who “should” write.

I do! I have some niche hobbies and have read, and really enjoyed several self published amazon ebooks that had zero reviews.

I encourage you to read some random publisher published books, that have been on the top of best seller lists. 50 shades of hot garbage comes to mind.

50 Shades of Grey is smut with a stamp of approval of a large publisher. They allow it once in a while as a way to monetise human sexuality otherwise repressed and controlled by various powers.

50 shades of hot garbage, unironically, is one of the books that brought smut back into the mainstream. As much as I have no interest in reading the series, have to give credits to the author for making something incredibly popular. We can hate it, but there are millions of people who read and write fanfic on a daily basis, and targeting that audience is respectable.

But I agree, being on bestsellers list nowadays doesn’t even as much as it used to. Everyone’s up there to game the system, whether through extreme SEO-boosting or buying their ways into shortlists and recommendations.

50 shades is laser targeted. To the point that I tried reading it and abandoned it before 25% because the laser targeting is extremely precise and missed me :)

Just because it's not depressing oscar bait or space opera it doesn't mean it doesn't have some merits.

Although i find it hard to believe it was done as a "labour of love".