A couple of days ago, I visited a creative-writing class at Montana State University Billings , invited by an instructor who is kind of enough to have me come up once a semester to meet with her students. The instructor, Sue Hart (so complete a repository of knowledge about literature of the West that she ought to be a national treasure), told me that this class, in particular, was lively and engaged on the topic of writing. She wasn't kidding. In a rollicking 90 minutes, we covered a huge range of subjects related to writing and publishing. Of those, two stood out as particularly salient in this time when those who aim for traditional publishing are facing intense competition and those who lean toward independent publishing confront a huge marketing challenge. To protect the innocent, I'll identify the question and not the questioner: Since a publisher provides editors, how much do I have to worry about grammar and punctuation? An honest question deserves an honest answer: You...