It's a totally different business now than it was in the early 1990's. Writers have much more control of their destinies now and you don't need to beg and grovel to get that "Yes" from the gatekeepers of the publishing industry any longer. My advice would be to build a website (I love Squarespace), connect it to Mailchimp (or something similar) and start blogging and building your email mailing list. The key is to build your readership before you self publish a book. I've had the most luck with Amazon's CreateSpace (it's free). Release a book 12 to 18 months after you begin blogging and you have your customer base already built. Check out James Altucher's book, Choose Yourself and the Choose Yourself community on Facebook. They're super supportive. Please let me know if you have any other questions as well. I'm always happy to help other authors and creative people.