@alan I appreciate your thinking. My third book was self-published; I wasn't satisfied with the one deal I was offered. However, it was produced as an homage to my dead mentor and co-author, not as an attempt to sell widely.
Many successful #authors_guild colleagues self-publish. I don't trust well enough that if I think X is a good idea, but agents and traditional publishers don't see it as viable, I'm right and they're wrong. It happens . . . people do come upon zebra hoofprints/droppings. . .