i've asked mike about most of these questions, steamworks is just for using game protection where you can use cd-keys and other forms of verification, to make sure they bought your game, but with steam all you have to do is submit your game to them, they evaluate it and if they enjoy it, they put it on steam and you only pay percentage of sells, which i'm sure is taken out automatically.

steamworks is completely FREE, you don't pay for it


- aka Manslayer101