In truth, most publishing is about vanity but we have to admit, there a some really shoddy self-published books ot there. Equally, thousands of important books that do not see dsaylight because the gatekeepers don't think they can move a million copies, not due to their quality or content. Did you know that Margaret Atwood, E L James, Mark Twain, Stephen King and (our own) Wong Phui Nam all self published?