Trust me. They struggled with the whole self publishing thing before going for it. They felt it somehow diminished them as writers. But times are changing. There's currently a high grossing movie in the cinemas, based on a best selling novel, based on Twilight fanfic. There are retail books sat on shelves that started as self published stories online. I understand if you want to get picked up by a proper publisher, it's still the best indication that you've 'made it', but I'm just saying. Some of those other routes aren't as dirty as you might believe.