From New York Times: The deminishing stigma of being self published

Times are changing, as this article from New York Times suggests -- entitled The Rise of Self-Publishing:

In this time of Twitter feeds and self-designed Snapfish albums and personal YouTube channels, it’s hard to remember the stigma that once attached to self-publishing. But it was very real. By contrast, to have a book legitimately produced by a publishing house in the 20th century was not just to have copies of your work bound between smart-looking covers. It was also metaphysical: you had been chosen, made intelligible and harmonious by editors and finally rendered eligible, thanks to the magic that turns a manuscript into a book, for canonization and immortality. You were no longer a kid with a spiral notebook and a sonnet cycle about Sixth Avenue; you were an author, and even if you never saw a dime in royalties, no one could ever dismiss you again as an oddball.

But times have changed...

Hypnotist turned best selling novelist

Here's an excerpt of a really great novel written by a hypnotist who made a career change to writing novels:

You are enjoying yourself. You can't stop reading. You will keep reading this all the way to the last page, stopping only to go to the toilet, or eat, or other urgent business, but you will go right back to reading this. You can't put it down. When you reach the end of this book, you feel like you've had the most wonderful reading experience you've ever had. You will tell your friends. You will look for other books written by me, and buy them immediately.
You are enjoying yourself. You can't stop reading. You will keep reading this all the way to the last page, stopping only to go to the toilet, or eat, or other urgent business, but you will go right back to reading this. You can't put it down. When you reach the end of this book, you feel like you've had the most wonderful reading experience you've ever had. You will tell your friends. You will look for other books written by me, and buy them immediately.
You are enjoying yourself. You can't stop reading. You will keep reading this all the way to the last page, stopping only to go to the toilet, or eat, or other urgent business, but you will go right back to reading this. You can't put it down. When you reach the end of this book, you feel like you've had the most wonderful reading experience you've ever had. You will tell your friends. You will look for other books written by me, and buy them immediately.

LOL !!!!!!