Will cutbacks by big name publishers help self-publishers?

[SuzinIL]

As I read about some of the big name Christian publishers cutting back the no. of books they will publish, I've been wondering how this will affect the self-publishing industry. Does this mean that more and more authors (authors that might otherwise have been published by one of the big names) will give self-publishing a try? If so, does that mean that the quality of self-published books will go up? If so, does that mean that people will begin to look at the self-published with more respect. As the bigger publishing houses come to terms with cost issues, will they some day down the road be willing to set up a way to work through self-publishing companies, and especially POD companies as a way to cut costs?

Lots of questions have been filtering through my mind as I read more about the financial woes of the big publishers. I thought I'd post some of them here, where people have actually worked within the self-publishing market, to see what others are thinking.
Suzanne :O)

[lynnmosher]

Suz, These are questions to which I'd like answers also. Will be interested in seeing how the posts go.

[MGalloway]

I would think...

quality + marketing = success

...in terms of self-publishing. But maybe that's naive. I've put two books out there (one via Lulu), but I have virtually no marketing budget to work with. I sold several copies by hand, however, but that was by word-of-mouth.

There is this ongoing stigma, however, that "self published" = "rejected manuscript". In my case, one book is probably too short to be picked up by an agent and the other I'm just starting to market to agents now (but I wanted feedback from people in the meantime). So neither book is really a "rejected manuscript".

Writer's Digest, however, does hold an annual contest for "self published" books...which could potentially launch someone's career (in theory).