Hey, Shaams. The dirty little secret is indies make more money over all than do traditionally-published authors. The numbers and publicity of the big-names is what skews the perception. Here's a little example. For ebooks, the traditional royalty split for a trad-published book is 25% for the author, 30% to the distributor (Amazon, for example) and 45% for the publisher. The author makes the least, while what is essentially the middleman makes the most. Now, I understand how print books would be different for the publisher, since they have a big investment up front. But for ebooks? The publisher does just what I do on my own, and they get the lion's share of the royalties. I make 70%, and my books are listed on Amazon right alongside all the traditionally-published books. And don't fall for the myth that the publisher is going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on promotion for your book. Not unless you're Dan Brown. You will be lucky to get a small advance in today's market.