Why 'real' writers are read.

They are  read because they knew about things their readers didn’t, had ventured further into the physical world or the human heart, had risked their lives or their sanity to bring back something worth telling about. Or they studied the laughter in the next room with the patience and cunning of a cat, and played it back in language that enabled you to see through the wall who was laughing, and why. It wasn’t a profession you could train for in a classroom – not because writing can’t be taught, but because experience can’t be taught. (It can’t be faked, either, though plenty of fake novels get published every year, and even succeed in a fake way.)