I posted the following comment on a Guardian newspaper article about ebooks. It’s rare these days I bother leaving comments on mainstream media sites, preferring to engage with real people via social media but I couldn’t let a pile of snobbish drivel go without a response.

This article gets me so angry I don’t know where to begin. Deep breath… Okay… The “unedited efforts of the self-published”? I’m about to self-publish electronically for the first time and am working my arse off when it comes not only to writing but sourcing images, getting permissions, paying an off- putting fortune for ISBNs (only one source in the UK and you have to buy a minimum of 10) plus  editing, something l’ll admit I’ve done for magazines and websites for over 16 years.

I’ve had to learn how to use ePub software for both Kindle and iPad, in the case of the latter using iBooks Author to undertake detailed, complex layouts.

You [the writer of the article] sneer and clearly do so from a position of absolutely staggering ignorance and monumental stupidity. Your article needs editing—personally I’d cut 99% of it and get a sub to rebuild something credible.