I saw a clip of John Scalzi, a man who irritates the US hard right. He seemed like your averagely affable Yank. However, he is unlikely to be a good writer. He was reading from his own book and did so in a lifeless manner. His intonation was wrong or nonexistent. Not much joy.
Reading aloud is an important way to make writing good, especially dialogue. Further, if you’re that flat and unenthusiastic when reading your own work, how much can you care? It seemed like a low effort work. Clunky and grey. No elan.