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Originally Posted by HarryT
It always has been available in the form of "vanity publishing". Whether anyone's ever gone on to commercial success via that route, I don't know.
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I agree with Diap Dealer that this was never a realistic option. There are however exceptions which prove the rule. I have heard a couple of stories of authors going on to commercial success by this method after multiple rejections. Generally they would outlay funds to do a smaller print run, often at great personal hardship, fill up the boot and do the road trip from book store to book store, begging such stores to take their books. Extraordinary individuals. One I can recall off the top of my head is Matthew Reilly. The below quote is from
http://matthewreilly.com/about/
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SELF-PUBLISHING
Following rejections from all the major publishers, Matthew famously self-published Contest in 1996, printing 1000 copies. He produced a big-budget-looking novel which he sold into bookshops throughout Sydney, one shop at a time.
‘I knew Contest had the goods,’ Matthew said, ‘and I just wanted to get it noticed. I knew that publishers checked out bookshops so that’s where I needed my book to be.’
In January 1997, Cate Paterson, then a Commissioning Editor from Pan Macmillan Australia walked into Angus & Robertson’s Pitt Street Mall store and bought a copy of Contest. She tracked Matthew down through his contact details in the front of the book. Interestingly, those original self-published editions of Contest have now become much sought after collectors’ items. One recently sold on eBay for $1200!
Cate was thrilled to find Matthew working on his next novel, Ice Station. Based on Contest and the first few chapters of this new novel, she signed Matthew for a two-book deal with Pan Macmillan Australia.
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I should add that I read Ice Station, one of this author's earlier books, years ago, and whilst I wish him all the best I was not impressed. From memory he certainly writes well enough and is worthy of being published, though I found the book a little too over the top, even for this genre. I still recall being irritated in some action scenes by the use of italics to highlight a particularly unrealistic but exciting action.