I'm sort of the equal respect and equally sold on either source of book. I think the idea of a high volume high sales photography book is now ancient history. A Sierra Club coffee table book of Eliot Porter photos would not happen now. The fact that it's reprinted now shows how big an influence it must have been and is only academic or nostalgia now. Life Magazine special books and the magazine itself are no more. Newspapers don't have photographers anymore. The big name doesn't mean big sales or big quality. Likewise we all know quality can vary greatly if someone whos a great photographer but poor in writing or design makes a book with blurb or createspace. Printing tech has improved greatly and there is no reason the mechanical process has to be expensive. I'd be thrilled even for that for from great photographers who make awesome photos but aren't on the radar of museum exhibit catalogs or publishers. There's probably at least a dozen on the forum I'd be game for modest self published books. On the high end, it's a nice way prolific printers to share some nice work too.