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Q: Why doesn't Stephen King self-publish his next book?
A: Because he'd have to edit it, find/make a cover, figure out formatting, figure out submission requirements for a swarm of ebook stores, figure out POD formatting & submission requirements, and do a ton of accounting & tax management tracking. Right now, the publisher covers all that.
Q: But he could make more money!
A: What, he doesn't have enough money now?
Stephen King, James Patterson, JK Rowling ... don't need to put up with the hassles of self-publishing to get rich. They *are* rich. It's mid-list authors who stand to benefit most from self-publishing, from taking on the half-a-dozen or more jobs that publishing companies do for them.
For authors who *want* to control all those aspects, self-pub is a terrific option. For authors who enjoy editing their own works, who like doc formatting, who have artistic skills and love cover design (and want to make three or four different covers for the same book, one for the sci-fi market, one for the mystery market, one for the mainstream lit market), self-pub offers opportunities that publishers will never give them.
For those who just want to write stories ... self-pub is something they might put up with because it can make more money. For those who are already making millions off the stories they've written in the past--why bother? Yes, it's very possible that if they self-pub they could make *double* on their next book. Or more. In exchange for which, they'd have to take substantial time away from what they love doing--writing--and practice a swarm of skills they never cared to develop.
When your income from your craft is $12,000 a year or less, that swarm looks like a reasonable value. When your income from your craft is over $250,000/year ... why bother, unless you're going to enjoy it?
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