Hi Heidy, Yes they have because they didn't want to miss out on the massive money self-publishers were making. Believe it or not, the average 'good' selling book only sells 30,000 copies so publishers take great risks on first time authors. I tell people if you want to self-publish as a companion piece for your business, because you want to leave something in print for family, or if you just want the thrill of feeling like your work was published then do it. But I've seen people spend more than $10,000 believing they were going to be an author and sell a ton of books only to have them siting in their garage or basement. Many in the publishing world don't consider self-published authors true authors. There's a reason for this and it's why the slang for subsidy publishing is 'Vanity Publishing' meaning if you have enough money you can make it happen. The internet has changed things for writers with writing platforms but it really hasn't extended into the book world as of yet. It's only given writers the means to publish digital books but the mentality hasn't really changed.