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I have self-published two books in the auto racing sphere about 15 years ago with excellent results (well, they paid for themselves!). This is a very hard road to travel and I was fortunate in that I owned all the photographs, wrote all the text, and could do the layout and design myself. The only expense was the printing. This was not insignificant - $25k for 2000 books, and this was printed in China, a big saving over printing in the US, I hate to say. I am looking to publish two more books today and am not thinking of offset printing. On-demand 4-color has improved considerably to the extent that I can do a 4-color book, softbound, 200 pages, for less than $20 per book in quantities of 250 or less. Hardcover adds about $15 per book in these quantities. This is a much different model than traditional publishing where the minimum runs start at 1000. I can sell directly using special interest FB groups and other social media marketing and make about $20 per book, hopefully. I have no unsecured out of pocket expenses. And I don't have to worry about where to store three pallets of books. These are all very real concerns and are the reality of specialized publishing today. My advice: keep it simple.