When I'd read some of the John Green speech in other places, I'd thought the same thing: Why is he so dependent? How come we have to be co-dependent with him? He doesn't think it's possible to be on his own. :-/ And this is a bit of a slap to our noteworthy self-publishers of the past--Beatrix Potter, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain. We would not have their books if they hadn't TRIED.