self-publish

Alternatively you can decide that you want your work to be self-published, at your own cost, so that you may keep all the profits. Of course this means that you will probably not get a very large distribution...

Basically you simply pay for a printer to print X copies of your work, and thats it, end of story! You now have to go and sell these books to stores or people. Hence the popularity of publishers! :)

From what I have heard about self-publishing, it can be lucrative if you are willing to promote the book yourself. Which is hard, and may not give as big a payoff for you effort. Not to mention that you have to front the money to have the book published, and you might not be able to pull a profit. On the other hand, those who are successful may be picked up by a publisher and will find more success down that route. As in everything, there are nay-sayers and advocates.