I work in E Publishing and I know what you mean about profits vs effort. The company I work for is specifically for academics, who are happy to just get their work out there without profit, so the electronic copies of the book are free, with running costs funded by the university and the sale of Print on Demand copies.
TL;DR of that: Self Publishing in a traditional sense works best for people with money or with funding.
Taking off my publisher's cap: in my view, I'd be happy to buy a PDF of a self-published book. I've done that for a number of friends and I'm always excited to get my hands on another book published by someone I know. But think, that can be a really limited audience - really just your LJ readers, friends and maybe family.
On that note though, don't give up on the agent thing. Honestly, if you want to make any sort of profit, you'll need to be published tradtionally. That's all about waiting around and sending off manuscripts. Another thing is to check around with publishers and see who's currently accepting unsolicted manuscripts (i.e. without an agent) - it's worth a shot!
no subject
TL;DR of that: Self Publishing in a traditional sense works best for people with money or with funding.
Taking off my publisher's cap: in my view, I'd be happy to buy a PDF of a self-published book. I've done that for a number of friends and I'm always excited to get my hands on another book published by someone I know. But think, that can be a really limited audience - really just your LJ readers, friends and maybe family.
On that note though, don't give up on the agent thing. Honestly, if you want to make any sort of profit, you'll need to be published tradtionally. That's all about waiting around and sending off manuscripts. Another thing is to check around with publishers and see who's currently accepting unsolicted manuscripts (i.e. without an agent) - it's worth a shot!