Indie Authors vs. Amateur Authors

A few months back I read yet another article by someone who doesn't enjoy reading indie authors. (By the way, many prefer the term 'indie' to 'self-published,' just in case you're not familiar with the reference.) That's because in some people's perceptions, self-published authors are just those who were too lazy or not good enough to be picked up by one of the big publishers.  In a lot of cases, that's far from the truth. Sometimes, indie authors have been published by publishers in the past