Of course, mileage may vary, but my thoughts on the process of publishing your book:

My experience has been, with rare exception, unless you are already famous, you will get very little support from your publisher.

If you manage to jump thru the hoops, get an agent, then get a traditional book contract. it is often a better path to write the very best book you can write, offer excerpts to publications, do interviews, radio, podcasts, print and online journals, doing readings/talks at local bookstores and libraries, network with other independent writer/publishers.

I actually own a small press that publishes a few full length poetry collections, short story collections and yes, a few novels, each year.

We offer a no advance contract, some free help on editing, if we agree to publish, a generous split with the author, we promote the books on our website and a few places around the web, but the real bulk of the marketing still falls to the author as we are a very small volunteer organization with zero budget.

If you can find a place like ours, it might be better than indie publishing yourself, simply because the small publisher gives you some credibility and offers a check against publishing substandard work.

In my experience, and I have only had 1 of the thirty books I have published, I did not like the process of giving up 100% control of everything, though the small publisher that published my book Written in Darkness, was very flexible and supportive, its just that after nearly 30 years of doing everything myself, I didnt enjoy the system of having a “real publisher.”

I will probably be my own publisher from now on, and no, I dont use our publishing company to publish my books. Maybe I should. but I am not willing to tie up our limited resources on my work.