Self-publishing: is it a good idea or a rip off?

[stuff2know]

I just read an article this morning about the future of ebooks, which mentioned that the Kindle (Amazon ereader) is a great place for new authors to get started. Here's a quote from the article:

"And struggling writers can also take heart in the more robust ebook market; self-published books fare quite well alongside the titles that mainstream houses and established news outlets are producing. Consider, for example, the runaway ebook renown of 26-year-old publishing-house reject Amanda Hocking. She's the author of nine goth young-adult novels in the "Twilight" vein, and now sells about 100,000 copies of the ebooks every month for up to $3 a pop in the Kindle Store. (She also gets to keep 70 percent of the revenues--a far better take than print writers typically secure--per the standard agreement between content creators and electronic vendors such as Amazon and Apple.)"