All people seem to be talking about at the moment is self-publishing and I can certainly see the attraction for authors. The main ones being control over your own destiny and, perhaps more important, a bigger chunk of the sales monies.
Even the awesome Talli Roland, hugely talented writer of humorous romantic fiction, is self-publishing her next book. (If you haven't read her books, you should. They're excellent. Great fun with wonderful characters.)
I've toyed with the self-publishing idea myself many times, but I know I'm not up to the task. First off, I'd need to employ a good editor to spot any flaws and errors. Next, I'd need to work with a good designer. I've seen some wonderful covers out there so it wouldn't take too much effort to find a designer I enjoyed working with, I suppose. Next, I would have to convert the whole thing to Kindle, epub and every other format I could think of and make sure it was available at all the main retailers. Finally, and this is where it would kill me, I'd have to market it.
Take Presumed Dead, for example. (Please take it, I need the royalties.) I had great fun writing that book. I sent it off to Carina Press and that was that. All I had to do was sign the contract, go through a few edits with my awesome editor, and wait for the royalty statements to arrive. While I got on with the next book, my publisher was working with the art department, another department was formatting it, giving it an ISBN, deciding on the back cover copy, making sure Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other bookstores had the file ready for publication day, making sure reviewers could get their hands on it before release, etc., sorting out the audio version...
There is a huge amount of work involved in getting a book from my desk to a reader's Kindle, Nook, iPad or whatever. A huge amount.
I'm a writer. If anything takes me away from writing, I get twitchy - and tetchy. As soon as I've written a book, I want to work on the next story that's bubbling away inside my head. I'm sure many, many writers will have success on the self-publishing route. I know for a fact that Talli Roland will and deservedly so. She's a wonderful writer with a loyal readership. I also have several friends who are already enjoying success with their self-published titles.
Me? I'm afraid self-publishing isn't for me. I just know I'd get far too irritable if I had to deal with the nitty-gritty, boring side of publishing.