That’s my experience too. My most recent book (my fifth) was closer to one publisher’s stated mission than 95% of its catalog, but they all but admitted that they had given up on it. After that rejection I didn’t have the energy to approach anyone else and did it myself instead. LeanPub first, then Amazon (print and kindle), Apple, Kobo, and Google.
Yea, good call. My books were all published back in the 1990s, back when paper was still king and you really couldn’t self-publish. Today, I’d probably look much more heavily at the self-publishing route, unless I wanted to write something uber-commercial. What was your experience with the order volume you could drive via self-publishing? Did you do any of your own marketing, or did you just list it in LeanPub and Amazon and let search engines lead people to it organically. If your subject was niche, there isn’t much volume in any case, but you want to get all you can of that small market.
More niche than mainstream I guess, but I do have what could be called a community, a large following on LinkedIn, a mailing list in the low thousands, paid subscribers, and a partner programme. Not enough to generate the kind of sales that anyone could live on, but not nothing either. Much of my blogging since publication has been in support of the book.
Two of my five did have publishers. I’m grateful for that experience. Learned a lot!