I'm not talking about if it's possible or not, I'm just wondering if it would be pointless. I published my first book recently through self publishing, but wasn't very satisfied with the result. My sequel is finished now, and it's hard to understand unless you've read the first. If I published it traditionally, would it not do well because most people have not read the first?

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I can't tell you how well it would sell, but I would advise you to add in a prologue summarizing the events of the first book, and to add in some of the details that are missing about the events of the first book into the second book in order to explain what is going on.

Most people only read sequels if they've read the first one. It depends though. Is your sequel easy to follow even if you've never read the first book? If that gets published traditionally, it's always possible that the publishing company will want to release the first one too. Your best bet is to try and republish the first one again, using a publisher and then move on to the second one. That way, you'll optimize your profits.

There are several celebrated cases of self-published authors getting book contracts from commercial publishers. Recent spectacular examples include Christopher Paolini, who self-published "Eragon," and Brunonia Barry, who self-published "The Lace Reader." Both these books -- firsts in their respective series -- sold enough self-published copies to attract big New York publishing houses, which agreed to republish the initial volumes and then bring out the rest of their books.