Enjoyed this. I also self-publish, mostly so I have control over the timing. I always have a queue of articles in my drafts, submitted to pubs and waiting.
But I like to get one article published every day, and sometimes, that just doesn’t happen. Maybe as my pipeline grows that will change.
But for now, I keep some drafts held back that I can self-publish at will.
And yeah, about 60% of the time, I will have a pub come to me and ask me to publish it with them. After a few days, I submit the others to pubs that I know don’t demand drafts and will push it out fairly quickly.