[stephen]

As the late Neal O'Connor proved with his brilliant series of books on German aviation awards, self publishing IS "real" publishing.

If I had self published THE STAND, I'd have actually done very well on it. Of course, I had no way of knowing that the book would succeed like this, so hindsight is 20/20. Going with an outside publisher definitely hedges your risk, but it also kills your profit margin. If the book fails, you'll be thankful you didn't self publish. If it succeeds, you'll kick yourself for not releasing it privately.

I think you should call Alan Roesler. He just started his own WWI aviation publishing firm and is now set to release his second title. Just spoke with him in San Antonio last week. I bet he could offer you some great ideas on what to do with your project and perhaps broaden your scope of possibilities considerably.

Best of luck!