× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Stay logged in to skip the surveys Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

I routinely receive emails or regular mail from local authors who have self-published a book they’ve written and would like Waco Today to review the book and/or write a story about it ... and about them, by extension.

I never have enough time to read my own Tribune-Herald newspaper (certainly the print version; I’m reading more of it online these days), and I’m hesitant to do stories on people whose books I haven’t read first. People often consider the existence of a story about a book as an endorsement of it by this magazine.

That’s not to say there are no well-written or interesting books penned by area residents. There are. But I also recall a few years ago assigning a story on a locally written book to one of my freelance writers. He did read it first and found it to be poorly written and rife with misspellings and grammatical errors.

We still ran the story about the book and its author because I had told the man we’d do an article on it. However, that incident has made me cautious ever since.

But I’ve also felt bad about not giving these individuals some recognition for their efforts. They did take the time to write; often had friends and family help proof-read to catch errors; and ponied up the cash to get copies printed. They gave it their all.