Yes - a lot of publishers are missing out, which is WHY self-publishing is gaining popularity. Some authors who become successful on the self-published route end up being picked up by a regular publishing house.

It's a shame that more control or guidelines or whatever we can call it wasn't exercised in the beginning of the self-publishing path - it only took a few bad ones to cross out the good ones that are out there.

I try to be open-minded and look at the book, and if it's too awful, I will return it, oftentimes with encouragement that a great story lies underneath the poor writing style. Everyone has a story to tell, but it's the ones that are well-written that get read - even those that are self-published. It may take longer, but word of mouth will sell a self-published book and can make sales successful. If the book is of poor quality - bad spelling, and all the rest - then it's likely the book won't make it far, when it could have if put in the hands of a good editor.

More alarming is that even some of the big publishing houses are no longer using professional editors! This has created a market for freelance editors, but again, the author needs to be careful and check references first. A proofreader is not an editor, and a comprehensive edit includes all that it takes to bring the author's work to it's best presentation, and in the process, the writer learns to write better as well.

In one of the Ted Dekker interviews in Infuze magazine (not mine), he revealed that his first book was completely torn to pieces and he and his editor started from page one and redid the whole manuscript. But it paid off - he's written 11 books in five years and consistently stays on the bestseller list.