The main thing is that books used to be made by people who liked reading, and are now made mostly by people who like money. Publishing used to be considered a labor of love; nobody expected to get rich doing it; and the publishing houses were trying to break even and hopefully turn a modest profit.

There are no giant profits being made in the publishing world. It is still run by people who love books, and who consistently lose money advocating them. It's very upsetting to see this kind of misinformation out there, as it maligns without knowledge--which is what we're trying to fight in crowdfunding. I know many people in traditional publishing personally, and it's offensive to say they're all in it for the money.

When discussing literary canon that was self published, it's important to remember that many instances have been warped to suit a purpose--for example, Baum didn't self publish a novel, he self published a chicken farming manual.

I just don't think it's all that awesome to go insulting people who devote their lives to publishing books while defending self-publishing.