: Is there a tactful way to give advice to a writer who needs it, but doesn't think so? I have a friend who is a rather ambitious (writing and otherwise), and has even self-published a couple

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Has he been giving you his work prior to publishing for comment? If he hasn't, volunteer to be a reader. If he has asked you to read and/or accepts you then you should be giving him honest descriptive feedback. Identify the things that bother you, but do not necessarily tell him how to fix it. Generally a good reader points out the: unbelievable, boring, confusing, and awesome bits. The point is that if you can put yourself in a position to give feedback, then it's perfectly normal for you to give it to him; but it is most constructive if it is about a work he is currently working on.

Writing, like all skills, requires practice. WHATEVER YOU DO, do not destroy his practice. It is hard enough for most people to sit down regularly to write. Your goal, if you wish to help, is to inspire incremental improvement. And there is absolutely no reason he shouldn't try to publish a bad book; plenty of "bad books" with "bad writing" are loved and sell so long as there's a market for them. It is possible he knows something you don't, but if we're talking about someone who is serially under-performing and you think you understand why and he is harming himself and/or those around him by spending money he doesn't have, then by all means find a way stop him.

If he hasn't asked for your feedback and doesn't want it, then there is little you will be able to do. You can encourage him to grow, still. If you engage him in conversations about what makes good writing, and those conversations happen to be points of weakness then his natural inclination to learn (if he has one), may allow growth. If you aren't at all interested in writing, then you could quietly set him up on a blind-date with a group of people that happen to write in your area and see what happens. Local writing groups often advertise.

At the end of the day he will be the one that has to change. And your ability to inspire that change and be a catalyst will be directly proportional to how well you can nurture a spark within him to be the best writer he can be. You should be aware that the best writer he can be tomorrow is not going to leaps and bounds beyond the writer he is today. He may need to continue to publish and write a lot in the interim; but if he's getting feedback he'll grow. If he's not getting honest feedback or open to even received it, then his chances at improvement are slim.

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Further to Mark Baker's comment,

The market is a pityless master and will school your friend in time. Wait till they ask for your advice.

... maybe give them some information about the business of writing -- which may (or, I don't know, may not) suggest they need to find an agent, editor, publisher, and/or to avoid self-publishing.

It needn't be your information, it could be written by someone else -- a blog, a book, a web resource, a video of a talk -- information you agree with, though, which says what you wants to say, conveys what you think is good advice.

People write for different reasons -- e.g. fan fiction just for fun and sociability. Even writing professionally there may be more than one way to market writing and more than one way to write it; so I'd beware of commenting on quality -- especially if I'm not the target audience!

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If they haven't asked me to read it, or tell them what I think, I would do nothing at all. Given any opportunity that qualifies as an "ask", I would be truthful.

I would not pretend to be any more expert than my friend, I'd just be honest about my own reactions:

I did not like the story, it seemed like the same story as XYZ. Or it seemed so predictable it wasn't interesting.

There were parts that made no sense to me, people were too stupid, or there were too convenient lucky breaks, or impossible guesses, or doing things for no good reason that turned out to be insanely lucky. It seemed unnatural or forced or too unrealistic.

The dialogue seemed forced (at specific points), and unrealistic, I don't think anybody would talk like that.

Whatever the flaws are, I am a reader, I have my own emotions and reactions to written material: My friend cannot argue that "you don't feel that" or "you don't think that".

If asked what I think of it, I would point out their problems that way, Here is my reaction to it.

If you are not a fellow writer, I would NOT get into suggesting writing groups, or specific fixes, or whatever.

These rules, btw, are not something I practice HERE, where people ask for specific solutions to problems (and I am a writer qualified to give advice). These rules are for a personal friend you do not want to lose, and do not want to start an argument with about the best way to write. It leaves you an out: If he thinks he writes wonderfully that's fine, his opinion does not have to change yours.

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