Yeah, the benefits and drawbacks of publication through a publisher are fairly easy to list.

Benefits: recognition, external validation, significant distribution advantages, help with physical formatting/printing

Drawbacks: tiny royalties, middle man between you and distributors, you’re at the whim of others, very sporadic payments, you have to purchase the book to sell it(!)

You really have to market it yourself either way. For my co-authored education book, Angels and Superheroes, being recognized and validated by a publishing house was important — it lent an air of significance that a self-published book could never have.

However, the profits, generated in an annual check, were minimal. So a publisher made sense for us, but might not for others.

And my hourly checks as a freelancer have outpaced even my rate as a principal (at times), so the writing profit potential feels larger for self-publishing and freelancing.