[Quiet Man Cometh]

I imagine self-published stuff would be fine, since sites like LuLu are devoted to the practice and word of mouth is one way the market gets bigger. Anything posted online is usually considered 'self published' also for the purposes of publication to most magazines, when considering works submitted to them.

Yeah, fan fiction could be a little tough if people aren't familiar with the subject it's based on.

Those are my thoughts anyway.