Self-pub v. traditional: What gives you the better chance for success?

A little background here. I was roaming on Twitter, and I ran across a random Tweet about the self-pub Spartacus himself, JA Konrath (if you self-pub and ever question that decision, read his blog). An agent said that she disagrees with Konrath's contention that self-pub gives most writers, especially new ones, the best chance for success. I responded, but was willing to just agree to disagree.

Then I ran across a response to her from some twit agent (name withheld, for now) who said: "Self-pub can work. So can digging random holes in the hopes of finding pirate gold. It's *possible." Ha, I see what you did there.

I replied, "Just out of curiosity, how is that any different from attempting to go the traditional publishing route?"

Seems like a pretty simple question, no?

Win a free copy of "Orpheus" and "Odinsons"!

The Masquerade Crew and a slew of other fine people are helping me give away ebooks of Orpheus and Odinsons. Read on to see how to enter!

Dan

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2011: My first self-publishing year by the numbers.

I think that 2011 was a pretty good debut for me as a self-published author. Some non- to semi-interesting stats:

0: books sold to agents

0: coincidentally, the number of agents I queried

0: number of close friends or family members I solicited for a review

0: zombie kills, alas

>0: people I can legitimately call "fans" at this point

>0: fans I secretly want to refer to as "DeWittnesses"

1: book available on Createspace

1: each of a zombie thriller, a Norse mythology adventure, and a short story collection self-published