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This is a somewhat strained comparison, but try thinking about writing in relation to baseball. You have a certain set of expectations going to a professional baseball game. It's going to cost you a bundle to see some of the best baseball players on the planet. But the next day you could go to a town-team baseball game on a field that's funkier, with a different quality of play at a much lower price. They can both be beautiful events, and there will be many days when the game between two town teams will seem like the more sublime experience. But you don't walk through the gate thinking they will be the same. They've each got their qualities.
Nobody is making you go to a town-team game. Nobody is making you buy a self-published novel. You choose the experience because you think there may be something you can love within it. Given that you can generally download a free sample of that indie novel, there's not even a minor financial risk. So why all the hand-wringing about the future of literature?
(Though at the same time I could go for more sites that direct readers to the best of indie-published general fiction.)
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