I don't know of anyone who did it the other way 'round off the top of my head. I'd be quite interested in learning the name of a company willing to do small paperback runs. One of our members has a novella entirely in Klingon and I'd like to be able to see it published, but the quantity would have to be very small, making it impractical for most book manufacturers. No, but then neither were the works of James Fenimore Cooper. He just had the distinction of being one of the first American novelists.
Primacy counts for something.
I self-published two chapbooks of poetry a few years back and got very good reviews. I even got favorable mentions in the front of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror . If someone does choose to self-publish, they better make darn sure they have a good product and present it well, because reviewers may be more likely to scrutinize. But poetry is low-risk. I wouldn't publish my own novel, for instance.