Reading and writing is simply encoding and decoding. I capture say an image in my head, convert the image to text. The reader receives the text and re-assembles the image, simple.
So, all the writers go on their creative writing courses and they read Swain or whatever. Their brains are fully upgraded with 'English Language for writers version 9.71." Using their latest software version, they begin to encode with 'tag delimited dialogue', 'anti-sentence fragmentation.' and 'embedded scene-goal enhancement.' The resulting work is nothing short of a masterpiece.
They show their work to their peers. In turn their peers say "This is a masterpiece." Next on to the editor, he exclaims. "'Tis indeed a most brilliant work."
The masterpiece is on the shelves and the readers intent is to enjoy. His joy is blighted by constant error messages. 'This page cannot be displayed', 'Your current software version is English Language for readers version 6.57. To receive the full value of this text, please read spend 2 years in further education upgrading your brain to version 9.71 for writers. Unless you install and run the 'Swain plugin', scene-goal enhancements may not function correctly.'
If you are truly a brilliant story-teller, then the lowly reader can still 'get' enough of the text to build a pretty picture.
What's this got to do with self-publishing? Cutting out the editor and the literary appreciation society enables the writer to stick a label on his book. 'Requires English Language for Readers version 6.57.' You may think this makes no difference but trust me. When the box containing the movie software says. 'Enhanced for Dolby 5.1 users', and you don't have it, you feel inadequate. There's a moment when you consider renting a different movie.