It’s not like people are going around stating things like “I only read Daw books,” the way some women say “I only cary Coach(tm) purses.” It would be a scary world if they did.

The only 2 complaints I’ve ever heard from the general public are that they are hard to find (not available at Borders and such) and they are more expensive. But there are certainly ways around both those problems now a days…

NOT indie authors, just trying to get their book out…snobs are ridiculous! tsk.

Notice the fools have no problem with celebritantes putting out books that they didn’t even write because they cannot spell worth a damn due to the braindamage inflicted by cocaine (or whatever drug they chose).
And, get this…their dogs can get a book deal too!
OOOH, no problem with that. but let someone with an acutal college degree in english lit put something out there using lulu/createspace and it’s the friggin literary armagedon?!

I’m not going to bother arguing with the elitist snobs and haters anymore. “The haters are the help, and I don’t argue with the help.”
by that, I mean they make me work harder, and with more fervor to make my book the very best it can be…
better even than thiers.

Most of my books are published by conventional publishers or commissioned by clients. But because some are sold online, there is the perception that I publish them myself. Here’s a typical example of what can happen. A few months ago I posted a request for suggestions on a piece of text for a training course I was writing. I got several outraged replies along the lines, ‘You’re charging money for this and you want other people to help write it for you?’ When I revealed that the course was commissioned by a client, the response was basically, ‘Oh, that’s all right, then.’

It seems a very odd state of affairs to me, though. If I’m working for a client, then asking for advice shows that I’m a hard-working artisan trying to do his best by his employers. But if I’m self-publishing, by asking for help I’m leeching on the goodwill of others. And yet, either way, I’m simply trying to do the best job I can and earn a living.

It truly is a very strange world at times.

Let us also not forget, whoever criticizes or hates a self published book is knocking books and badly written books as a whole. That is a reflection on book publishing and not just self publishing. It is time we got ourselves away from this ‘them and us’ argument.

People don’t hate self published books – however, some people in book publishing, be they publishers, authors or retailers do ‘hate’ self publishing.

As for plagiarizing, I just recently touched on the topic on my blog at http://thepriceofinnocence.blogspot.com regarding recent news of famous authors accused of plagiarism and my own thoughts regarding the matter.

It’s easy to think that because something is corporatized, it’s better. I’ve worked in and with major publishing operations, and frankly you get a range of quality — based on the people involved, how much they care, and how much they know.

The mode of publishing doesn’t define the quality of the finished product.

I don’t think you know the answer. Most “serious” self-publishing authors, or indie authors bring in OTHER people who are qualified to edit and fact check and proof-read. As for plagiarizing there have been cases where NY published books had to be pulled because of plagiarizing. Even a NY editor cannot possibly know the content of every single other thing ever published. The legal onus for that sort of thing in contracts ALWAYS falls back to the author. So ultimately, no matter how you’re published, as an author YOU and you alone are ultimately responsible for the plagiarism issue.