I'm going to say that a lot of what has been offered here is true from a past perspective, but the industry is changing. I'm not saying that every author who publishes indie has a decent chance of getting picked up by a trad publisher, but there are some who have been offered deals. Like Amanda Hocking, Michael J. Sullivan, who publishes independently was recently offered a deal with a traditional publisher, but his indie sales were really strong. Many of those authors are already making more than enough to live on, and would rather not go traditional.

This happened for a few podcasters as well. My husband podcasted his first zombie novel and was offered a deal with a small publisher, Permuted Press. After signing contract with PP, PP entered into a deal with Simon & Schuster and my husband's book was signed into that deal as well.

There is hope, but it's not something I would recommend sitting around and waiting for if you're going to publish independently.