What no one tells you is that even when you choose to publish your own books, you're still going to get 20% or less in royalties. This is of course if you choose to publish in print. Ebook is the way to go... hoping and wishing your book goes viral, and I honestly suggest you steer clear of those self publishing services that imprint themselves onto your book and want you to pay tens of thousands of dollars for work that you can probably do yourself. Many of the jobs necessary to put out a fairly decent novel can be subcontracted out at an inexpensive rate, i.e. editing, cover design, press releases, etc. Or if you're a real penny pincher, like myself, you learn to perform all these tasks yourself. I do warn that they are all tedious, and soul depriving if it's not your passion. But this way you can control exactly what your masterpiece will look like, and if it sucks you have no one to blame but yourself. So do your research and do what writers do... write.