This is very much a rude awakening for many hopefuls, but it doesn't need to be. If you want to make money self-publishing books, there are ways to do it and not just be successful, but be DAMN successful. I satrted a pen name from scratch earlier this year and Amazon reports that I'll have made $13K in October from six books published. (there are clues in that last sentence that will give you an idea of why I made so much).