I do a lot of both reading and writing. When I finally stepped into whatever century this is and bought an ebook reader (Kindle-because Amazon has mass quantities of free classics; I now have quite a library of classics. But I digress), I started reading even more. Is there a title beyond "avid reader"? And because I'm a penny-pincher sometimes, I looked for ways to get free books. I found those previously mentioned classics. I discovered Library2Go (I can only borrow those ebooks but that's not a problem). I discovered Book Bub and Pixel of Ink which send me daily emails about free or seriously low-priced ebooks. And even Smashwords (where I, too, now have a book).
You would be right if you guessed that many of the freebies are from new, self-published authors. (I also got a couple of Artemis Fowl books for free, the Hunger Game trilogy for small change, and several others that were reduced in price. So there. Anyway...) I happen to like the "new" authors. Being "self-published" doesn't mean that their writing is bad just because a "real" publisher didn't snatch them up. I have found some great books! (Remember? I'm a beyond-avid-reader).  Have I found some awful ones as well? YES! I just delete those.
Where does the Writing part of this post come in? Right now. The stories that I delete renew my desire to write well for whoever reads my books! I want the formatting and spelling to be perfect. (I'll probably miss something but hopefully not a lot - I pre-apologize.) I want my stories to be great! And just so you know, I'm working on it. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.