I got an email asking why I have decided to self-publish rather than go to some big name like O'Reilly. Here are the reasons:

• I had no faith in my own abilities, or to put things differently I did not believe that O'Reilly will want to publish a book by completely unknown person (which is probably a stupid fear-driven assumption!).
• I think it is not fair that an author gets 10-12% of sold copy (this is a standard share you get). Even if thanks to marketing power of big publishers I would sell 50x more books (and make more money than self-publishing), I still find it unfair that someone takes 90% when I do all the hard work.
• It is a very nice feeling to have something which is my own, and I can do whatever I want with it :)
• I was curious about doing it myself - i.e. going from AsciiDoc to paper book (and also e-books of all kind - ePub, PDF, mobi).

P.S. Are you curious what is the effect of my self-publishing efforts? Go to http://practicalunittesting.com to find out. :)