Nice post @jamielefay.
I self-pubbed my first novel six years ago. I had a great following on FB and lots of promises to buy my book when it came out. I worked it out that it would cost between £6,000 - £8,000 to publish the book and have enough printed to make the project worthwhile (break even, perhaps a little profit).
After advice to do it all myself, we (hubby and me) set about helping other Indie Authors to self-publish too. Thankfully the advice we took was sound and we didn't dig a hole large enough to sink £8,000 in because my calculations were off.

We treated the 'business' like a hobby and we're not too much out of pocket (my 'royalties' have taken up that slack) but we have a lot more friends who also write and so are wealthier for that.

Thanks for the post and thanks for the idea for a future Blog on Steemit :)

Keep going, you're doing great! Good Luck <3