It wouldn't surprise me. In many genres, I'm not sure there is a huge difference in the product put out by traditional publishers vs. that put out by direct pub

It wouldn't surprise me. In many genres, I'm not sure there is a huge difference in the product put out by traditional publishers vs. that put out by direct publishing. I own a lot of books, and a sizable chunk is fiction. Maybe I'm just picking up the best, but it feels like the freely published ones have the same amount of advertising, editing, and type-checking as the traditionally published ones. Which is to say - absolutely none. It feels like in many cases, traditional publishing has decided to play the same numbers-game as the self-publishers and have given up on adding quality after they receive the manuscript. Ironically this may be why they're receding under the waves. Commodities is a hard place to get rich.