I found this on the net while pondering the above question.

The author is down on self-publishers but you can see why.  The virulence of some of the comments shows he’s struck a nerve. Perhaps it would be a good idea to separate self-published from traditionally published in online bookstores to help readers. Some self-publishers call themselves ‘Indies’ and have a company name but they’re still self-published.

Having (mostly) self-published stories that have been bought by some editor for a magazine and with a book out from a small press, I consider myself a hybrid. But I certainly don’t look down on pure self-published authors and there’s no doubt that some of them write great books – or at least popular books – otherwise, no one would buy them. Here’s the article.