Really depends on your definition of "respect". There is a rapidly contracting market for mainstream published music - high street music retailers are falling like flies in the current recession, which means that "The Charts" are usually defined as downloads these days. As far as downloads go, the major hitter is still iTunes, and if you approach things professionally, iTunes is easy to get self-published material onto. Other download sites are catching up, but I don't know of any who operate a "major retailer only" deal.

Even big "owned" musicians don't make their money from shop-led CD sales - income is all generated from gigging and getting the music out there. This is true for bands all the way from Fleetwood Mac to... errr... me. I don't know of any venues who ask about whether you've got a record deal before booking a gig. So I'm not sure where your assertion of "respect" comes from.

I think the difference between musicians and writers in the "self-production" scenario is that musicians habitually go out and push their product into people's faces. Writers don't do that so much, and don't have the pre-established stages to fall back on. I have seen self-published writers taking stalls at craft fairs and county shows, and doing very well at it, too. It's all about how you push your product and make it visible to the buying public.

But my point to Zander wasn't about any of this, it is far more about the fact that I truly believe he should feel as proud of his Lulu-produced work as of anything that had been published through a more mainstream route. He is taking the first steps in making his art available to others in his preferred format and I applaud that wholeheartedly. Art is art, however it comes to the party.