What's the worst thing you can say to a writer?
"Are you published?"
This is similar to telling a pizza delivery guy that the English degree he just got was "Really worth it."
Ouch!
Because if you read a writer's work in print or online, and you felt it was memorable then the writer expects or at least hopes you remember their name or their face from the book jacket. (I will not forget Laurie R. King's face.) If you haven't read their work then they either haven't submitted for publication, are in the process of reading hundreds of rejections that they don't want to talk about, or they are published and you are one of the people that can't remember their name (Oh, no, my work isn't memorable!) Or even worse, you haven't heard about or read their work (Oh, no the marketing isn't working!).
Asking a writer "Are you Published?" or "Are you in Print?" has too many potential insults attached. It's better to ask "What are you writing?"
And then there are the people that are self-published.
When a self-published writer answers the "Published or Not?" question and the interrogator pulls out the rubber hoses and finds out the writer paid to have their book in print; the response from the inquistor most times is negligible. There is a certain stigma attached to publishing your own book.
"He has written two books, but I think he's self published," I overheard at a writer group. The words "self published" had a particularly cold and drippy sound followed by a sneer.
Now, anyone knows that getting two books completed and out of your head onto paper is a pretty fantastic achievement, and it doesn't usually take five minutes to accomplish this. The average book is written in 7 years. That's SEVEN. We can be pretty sure that this is a serious author if he's written two books. Even if a book is published without the services of a professional editor (sometimes the case), it still takes a lot of guts to print the story you feel needs to be heard.
Still, writers continue to turn their noses up at self-published authors even if they themselves have not found an agent or publisher for their work.
Why?
Why do self-published authors create companies to hide the fact that "Eagle Butt Press is really umm, me." Why would they rather not admit that they went to great expense and difficulty publishing, marketing and distributing in some cases right from the back of their cars.
Who are these really bad door-to-door writers, who stink so awful that they can't get a accredited company to print their work and instead publish for themselves?
Well, let's just take a look at some of those horrible scribes shall we?
Here is a list I found on the Internet partially compiled by Dan Poynter (The Self-Publishing Manual) I extended it a little. It doesn't include everyone who's self published, but it gives you an idea of who you are sneering at when you look down on a author who paid for the privilege.
In future, maybe we should ask, "Are you Self-Published?" followed by an awed expression.

• Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman -- In 1855 Whitman published at his own expense the volume of 12 poems, which he had begun working on probably as early as 1847. It was criticized because of Whitman’s exaltation of the body and sexual love and also because of its innovation in verse form—that is, the use of free verse in long rhythmical lines with a natural, “organic” structure
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Twain wanted more of his own profits from the sale, which he hoped would reach 25,000 copies but actually exceeded 500,000.
• What Color is Your Parachute by Episcopal clergymen Richard Nelson Bolles. 22 editions, 5 million copies and 288 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Now published by Ten Speed Press.
• The Beanie Baby Handbook by Lee and Sue Fox sold three million copies in two years and made #2 on the New York Time Bestseller list.
• In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters. Over 25,000 copies were sold directly to consumers in its first year. Then it was sold to Warner and the publisher sold 10 million more.
• Real Peace -- Richard Nixon in 1983.
• The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. His manuscript made the rounds of the mainstream houses and then he decided to publish himself. He started by selling copies out of the trunk of his Honda -- over 100,000 of them. He subsequently sold out to Warner Books for $800,000. The number-one bestseller in 1996, it spent 165 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller list. Over 5.5 million copies have been sold.
• The One-Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson sold over 20,000 copies locally before they sold out to William Morrow. It has now sold over 12 million copies since 1982 and is in 25 languages.
• Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth by EarthWorks spent seven months on the New York Times bestseller list and sold 4.5 million copies in its original and premium editions.
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. (and his student E. B. White) was originally self-published for his classes at Cornell University in 1918.
• A Time to Kill by John Grisham. He sold his first work out of the trunk of his car.
• The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer was self-published in 1931. Today Scribners sells more than 100,000 copies each year.
• How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by John Muir sold over 2 million copies and led to the establishment of a publishing company.
• Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts sold 486,000 copies before selling out to Warner Books.
• Embraced by the Light by Betty J. Eadie spent 76 weeks on the New York Times Hardcover Bestseller List, 123 weeks on the Paperback List and was sold to Bantam Books for $1.5 million. The audio rights brought in another $100,000. Then she established Onjinjinkta Publishing to publish her future projects.
• Sugar Busters! by four Louisiana doctors and a former CEO sold 165,000 copies regionally in just a year and a half. Then they sold out to Ballantine Books.
• The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton has sold over a million copies in Canada (second only to the Bible in Canada) and two million in the US.
• When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple has been through the press 42 times for 1.5 million in print. It allowed Sanda Haldeman Martz to build Paper Mâché Press.
• Mary Ellen's Best of Helpful Hints by Mary Ellen Pinkham became a bestseller and then she sold out to Warner Books.
• The Macintosh Bible by Arthur Naiman has become the best-selling book on Apple products with over 900,000 sold.
• Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard has been in print more than 45 years, 20 million copies are in print and it has been translated into 22 languages. The book started a movement and later a church.
• Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan sold 370,000 copies before it was sold to HarperCollins for $1.7 million. It was sold to two book clubs and the foreign rights were sold to 14 countries.
• Feed Me, I'm Yours by Vicky Lansky sold 300,000 copies. She sold out to Bantam and they sold 8 million more.
• The Encyclopedia of Associations by Frederick Ruffner led to the establishment of Gale Research Company, with 500 employees.
• The Lazy Man's Way to Riches. Joe Karbo never sold out and never courted bookstores. He sold millions of his books via full-page ads in newspapers and magazines.
• The Christmas Box by Rick Evans. The 87-page book took him six weeks to write. He published it and promoted it himself. It did so well he sold out to Simon & Schuster for $4.2 million. It hit the top of the Publishers Weekly bestseller list and was translated into 13 Languages.
• Twelve Golden Threads by Aliske Webb was rejected by 150 publishers. After self-publishing and selling 25,000 copies, she signed a four-book contract with HarperCollins.
• Life's Little Instruction Book was initially self-published by H. Jackson Brown. Then it was purchased by Rutledge Hill Press. It made the top of the New York Times Bestseller List in hardcover and soft at the same time. Over 5 million copies were sold.
• The Jester Has Lost His Jingle by Barbara Salzman was turned down by eight publishers. The glossy hardcover book made it to The New York Times Bestseller list.
• Let's Cook Microwave by Barbara Harris sold over 700,000 copies.
• Juggling for the Complete Klutz by John Cassidy has sold over two million copies and it led to the establishment of Klutz Press with over 50 award-winning books.
• Ben Dominitz published Travel Free and then founded Prima Publishing. Prima now has 1,500 titles, 140 employees and does $60 million a year.
• How to Flatten Your Stomach by Jim Everrode was self-published before he sold out to Price\Stern\Sloan. Since then, the book has sold over two million copies.
• The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter has 132,000 copies in print after 12 revised editions since 1979. The publisher is Para Publishing (Dan Poynter). As a result of this book, Poynter has been called "the godfather to thousands of books."
• In 1827, Edgar Allan Poe had his first book, Tamerlane And Other Poems, published at his own expense.
• Scott Joplin's reputation as a composer rests on his classic rags for piano, including "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer," published from 1899 through 1909, and his opera, Treemonisha, published at his own expense in 1911.
• British writer. A.E. Housman published his first collection of poetry, A Shropshire Lad, at his own expense in 1896.
• John Galsworthy, English novelist and playwright, found law uncongenial and took to writing. For his first works, From the Four Winds (1897), a collection of short stories, and the novel Jocelyn (1898), both published at his own expense, he used the pseudonym John Sinjohn. 1932 he was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Volk by Piers Anthony With more than a hundred sci-fi and fantasy titles published traditionally, Piers Anthony turned to Xlibris when he found that a manuscript outside his usual genre--a historical/political work--didn't interest his regular publishers. He now also owns a large chunk of Xlibris.
• Discouraged by American publishers, Joaquin Miller (one of the California Writers Club originators) traveled to England, but the English publishers of 1870 were unimpressed. Miller was forced to print 100 copies of his "Pacific Poems" at his own expense. Success was immediate and staggering.

Other well-known self-publishers include:

This isn't to say that I don't have the greatest respect for those authors that are published by Simon and Schuster or Random House or some other really big and tough publishing company that does all the work for you after they figure out your worth it.
It just gives you something to think about when your pizza delivery guy says, "Yeah, I wrote a book. It's about a fish. Xlibris is printing it for me this month. Would you like to buy it?"

That's the lastest from LaLa land.

Email your comments to Carol Wood at Carol@hazelst.com