Lost

So... I'm nearly finished writing. In terms of niche, I half-jokingly say I'm aiming to be the Malcolm Gladwell of kink/bdsm. It's not fiction but it's also not a research paper. It's a mental model based on logic and some facts.

I've been working on these books, a 3 volume set, and now I'm nearly done. I'm looking into getting a book cover made for each.

I'd like to convert to an epub format to get some alpha readers' opinions (and, ideally, a blurb from someone I know - she's much bigger in my niche).

But then... I'm totally lost on how to publish.

It seems like getting an agent and going the trad route is not a great option since this is definitely not intended as a career for me, it's just these 3 and then I'm done. Seems like this takes a bigger time investment. Also I'm not sure that the niche is going to be in line with what a trad publisher is looking for.

Except, of course, that's not true either, bc marketing the book myself is an even bigger time investment.

If I go the self publish route, I'll probably just do KDP, maybe a couple of prints for myself.

I do have a decent (couple thousand) following on substack, so hopefully some will buy the book, and a (currently small) podcast in the same niche, which will hopefully help to market the book long term (I'm committed to continuing the podcast for other reasons, so distributing the same content to tiktok is not hard).

So... I guess my questions are: 1. Trad vs self 2. If self - after getting a book cover designed, then... ? Advanced reader copies to others then... Just throw it up there and hope? 3. Is there another way to get advanced readers' feedback other than just people I know? 4. Do I release all 3 volumes at once, or drip them? Or combine them into an omnibus?

Anyway, I have the feeling that I'm not even asking the right questions because of unknown unknowns. Any help appreciated.