Not all 'self-publishing' need to be 'vanity-publishing'.

This is true. I have self-published a book and have just about broken even on the endeavor. I also know of some self-published books that became publisher published after the fact: e.g., Robert Hall's Leave Your Language Alone! which was republished as Linguistics and Your Language. The last time, Dale complained about being the world's most unpublished author, I suggested the self=publication route and sent him some links, especially to POD (print on demand). He was not interested in spending his own money, but was looking for outside investors, either of the traditional publishing house kind or as in this current thread.

Ceci n'est pas un seing.