Self Publishing vs Traditional (My Journey, so far)

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist and work with dolphins.  As I grew older, I wanted to be a lawyer and then when I decided that I didn't want to do that, I discovered that my true passion was International Affairs.
Notice that not once did I say I wanted to be an Author?
I never wrote much as a kid.  Occasionally I wrote poems, but they were more an expression of my emotions that go in my journal and not something written for others to read.
The story of Tristen... well, I don't like to put it like that, "The Story of..." Rather, I feel like it's more like:
Tristen came to me.  Because really Tristen is very much a real part of me, probably a manifestation of something in my subconscious, but the person, Tristen, is real.  And when I don't write about him, give him his story, he bugs me.

So anyhow, I never really gave it much thought if I would try to find a publisher or not.  When I decided to be serious about publishing TRISTEN, I had to decide which route to take.  If you know anything about me at all, it's that I like to research things to death on the internet.  So I read and read and read.  I decided to give a querying a try (for those of you who aren't sure what a query letter is, it's basically a letter convincing an agent that they will like your story and want to sign you on).  I found 2 particular agents that I was interested in, both extremely busy and very well known in their industries.  I queried one of them, he (very nicely) told me that it wasn't his thing and we both moved on.  I queried a couple more agents, without success, and that was that.
You see, this whole thing wasn't really the route I wanted to go.
I didn't like bugging agents, being the desperate author, trying to get a book deal.  That's just not MY thing.
So I decided to self publish and haven't looked back.
 Later on, I read an article where some emails had been read that were written by elite book agent that, embarrassingly, joked between 2 assistants who had BATCHED rejected authors, without even looking at their query letters.  They were found out when one of them had hit "reply all" on accident, replying to all the authors they had just rejected.  Whoops!
For me, being able to do everything, good or bad, is comfortable.  I like not having to wait a whole year after my book is complete to publish it, having complete control over my cover and title.  I love not having to deal with snobby assistants (usually I find the assistants are much more snobby than the agents themselves -- do those guys even get paid?)
I especially love having to work hard, even thought it might look easy, it's not, and really knowing that I'm accomplishing something I really want.
This might not be the route for you, many authors are both self pubbing and using publishers these days, and you have to do what is the most comfortable.  What works for you is always the best.

My name is Fleur.  And this is my blog.