Publishing Options

So from a conversation between the three of us, the questions arose on what the options are for publishing. Here are the answers that I gave the others.....

1. Sell - Sell your game/setting/book to Wizards, Mongoose or one of the other companies
2. Self Publish - Get a ton of money and spend it on publishing the book
3. POD Publish - Print books on demand as needed
4. PDF Publish - Publish electronically on the net in PDF form

So 4 options, with 4 outlooks, upsides and downsides.

1. You sell it, its no longer yours, they can do what they like to it. Also very difficult to do. Wizards, Mongoose and White Wolf probably have hundreds of submissions a month from budding writters. Competition will be very stiff.
2. Print a load of books and you may end up with your attic, garage and garden shed full of books you can't sell. Very expensive until you get to higher numbers of books printed, think 1000+ books before the cost per book is worth it.
3. Pretty good perks for a beginning writer, but beware of poor quality printing and high cost per book for every book, it don't get cheaper the more you print. Also long lead times on the first printing have been an issue with some POD printers.
4. Fast, easy and cheap. PDF files can be created for free with downloadable programs. sales may be anyware from low to not quite so low, especially for first time publishers. Ideally best suited to support of an in-print book.

So thats the options I came up with, any more, feel free to post 'em.