When I was in school, I learned about the gatekeeper. As an aspiring author, I was told the publishing industry basically consisted of five major companies, and if you weren't published by one of those, you might as well forget making more than a penny from your writing, and most manuscripts don't even make it past the "slush pile"
Fortunately @katiecat1111, these days we have more options easily available to us - even though the large publishing houses still control the industry to a great extent - as you've come to discover.
Self-publishing with distribution opportunities have grown exponentially, thanks to the internet and other advances in technology. The old Vanity Press of yesteryear no longer has negative tones associated with it as well, fortunately😎
Absolutely! Yes, obviously it's a lot of work to self-publish and handle the everything that comes along with it like marketing your book, but from what I've heard, publishing companies usually don't do that much promotion anyway, and now at least your success is in your hands.