how does it really work? is it as simple as develop a game, send it off to Nokia, and then receive a check in the mail?
??? ??? ??? ???
Generally, no.
You need to find an “aggregator” or “publisher” of some sort, who will take all the money. They might give you a little bit. I am being serious.
Cas 
when you say a little bit how much are you talking? 50cents a download?
Hmmm, How can I put this mildly.
Run away.
Seriously. You’ll not make a bean.
The only way you can possibly make any money is freelancing for someone else who’s got much deeper pockets than you.
I used to make and publish mobile games - one of the first companies to do so. I run a private and anonymous forum where I’d say most of the prominent companies in the mobile world meet, discuss, and compare. Most of the posts are about corrupt aggregators, who don’t pay, or give your games away for free, or even change the graphics in your game and sell it as their own.
Do something else.
https://www.greystripe.com/ (gamejump)
That’s pretty much the only alternative to the publisher/carrier route. (There is another thing for the Asian market iirc.)
It basically works like this:
-you write a game
-you use their wrapper thing
-you submit it to gamejump
Whenever someone plays your game he/she will see some ad before and after, and you’ll get a few cents for that. It’s pretty similar to “free” web games.
edit: Never tried it myself, mind you.
That sounds pretty bad :’(
Is it possible to just send the link to your game? Can you circumvent the publishers somehow?
that sounds cool i’m gonna check that out… after I go to bed 
I know this isn’t related to Java, but if you want to make mobile game targeted to the iphone/ipod touch platform, they have a very nice system for content delivery. You pay 100$ to join the developer program, and apple gets a % of your revenue. You’ll have to learn objective-c though. Apple seems to be the only reasonable content provider for mobile phones.