My suggestion would be to save self-publishing as a very last resort. Exhaust all avenues (including going to the publisher directly, if applicable) before self-publishing. I self-published a horror/romance novel and though I've had wonderful reviews for it on Amazon.com and people who've read it comment on how much they enjoyed it, I can't use this book as a writing credit when querying for my current ms. Later on, you may decide to traditionally publish something else, so I would suggest sticking it out so you can have a credit to your name. Hope I was helpful.
~Sonarbabe~