I self-published my first book just this past October, and for my book's cover, I ended up creating the cover art myself. It helps that I'm an artist, but I'm not that great with polished illustrations, so my cover might seem poorly done to some...
I agree with your mentality about "better ten read it than none", which is why I went independent. I don't have an ebook yet, just a physical print, but the physical prints are pretty pricey for an average sized novel with the online publisher I used(Lulu.com), so the books have to be pretty pricey for you to get any money from it... So far I've only sold 3 copies, but that's due to poor marketing strategies...