Cloudsplitter The Gambler (Dos, not Rogers) Spring Sonata (If you can find this it's a great read. It's by Bernice Rubens. It tells the story of a baby who decides not to be born, and stays in the womb for years, keeping a diary and becoming a celebtated violinist, among other things.)

I don't think your expectations are two high. The only thing I would say is don't excuse the selfpublished simply because it is selfpublished.

When I first went down the selfpublishing hole, I found a lot of writers who claimed to be absolutely against traditional publishing, and wrote screen upon screen trumpeting the death of traditional publishing. They still made sure their books were as close as possible to every other book in their genre. Some of these writers did later sign to traditional publishers.

The reverse is also true, with traditionally published authors 'going indie' because they saw more money in it.

In both cases the quality of the writing varied. I suspect that's a result of giving readers more of what they liked in previous books. I don't know if that's the case in the books you're talking about, but it's the sort of thing that happens when books are seen as content, and the writi g pf a book begins with the marketing.