Is it profitable to self-publish my book to Amazon.com?

I don't have much knowledge about amazon but I believe I know a good alternative or at least an addition. Why don't you release your book as an ebook on commission junction. If your ebook is any good and you have some knowledge about internet this is a great method to earn quite a nice amount of money provided you can get yourself some affiliates.

Any book has to be marketed. The more people who know about it, the better. I have a book that on Lulu and with Createspace. Both versions are on Amazon, although only one shows being for sale.
It won't be automatic. No one's looking for your book, you have to tell them about it.

Irishidid said it perfectly. It's all about marketing and promotion. The thing about self-publishing is, yeah, you have all the control, you make all the decisions, but you also do all the leg work. I don't know how Amazon works, if they will add the self-published books to the list of similar items at the bottom of a page or that sort of thing but with any POD DIY publishing venture, you end up doing all the work.

It's rewarding when you do do all that work and start selling books but it's tremendously hard work and you will run into several road blocks along the way.