Having self published many books and having been published traditionally, I found these comments to be interesting and disappointing to say the least.  Some thoughts from editors & producers on self published books:
We don’t review self-published books.  The general feeling is, if the book was good, a “real” publisher would have published it.  Yes, there are some good self-published books, and some go on to be big sellers, but in general, self-published books tend to be poorly written, poorly edited, poorly marketed, “hard” to read, and well, boring. – Mr. Jim Adams, Book Reviews Editor, The New Hampshire Union Leader

They are not “real” books.  – Rich Ott, Business Editor, West Valley View newspaper.

And one we love! :
My take is this: if a book is solid, it’s solid.  I don’t much care about how it got glued together. – Mike Cottrill, Business Associate Editor, Smart Business.
(Thanks Mike! We agree!!)

These are real, actual quotes.  OUCH!

Bowker has announced that even though traditional publishers are struggling in this ecnonomy, self published books have surged in 2009.

Good news for self publishers?