That's often the case I think. It's the middle-man that makes the money.
I guess that it does work for some people though. The business of having your own books printed used to to be known by the somewhat cynical name of "vanity publishing" but it was still a good way for people to get stuff out there that wasn't worth the usual companies handling. Often that meant small special interest groups, but some authors were perfectly prepared to wear the cost of having their own poetry or whatever printed, and then giving it away to friends, trying to flog it at market stalls or whatever.
Much as the above examples do for music publishing, Cafepress and its ilk does for vanity publishing. Still looking for a decent UK based version though, I know I could get it done at a printers for half the price, but they all seem to want to charge a setup fee over here. When it costs them next to nothing to setup, I object :)
Cool 8) Sounds like a good learning experience :D You can pass on all the good song writing tips you will learn there..I have had the songwriters block from hell as of late :evil: ..ken
