Ah, but POD has no returns!

Mr. [Viggo] Mortensen, 48, says he learned about publishing from practical experience. He has seen what happens when small presses are bought by bigger publishers and then lose control of the decision-making process. He has also experimented with using a distributor for Perceval’s products, which include CDs and T-shirts as well as books.

“We had a distributor,” he said. “And it’s kind of become like the movies, where they’ll say, O.K., Barnes & Noble will take X amount. They put the books out, and then they get sent to the back of the store if they don’t sell. If it doesn’t do very well, boom, then you’re out. Plus you’re paying a lot just to get them in the store.” Perceval is now back to distributing its own books.

Above NY Times article found via POD-DY Mouth:

"And why, for the love of rocks, does the NY Times tout Viggo's literary attempts as Indie when the rest of the self-published world is viewed as vanity (or worse)?"