An author friend, Anny Cook, wrote a post on 5/12/10 that not only gave me pause, it made my heart hurt.

You can read it for yourself here:  http://www.annycook.blogspot.com/

She says:  “Every human in the world reaches a point of no return. It’s not so much giving up as finally reaching that place of diminishing returns where the results just don’t support the effort.
I am quickly approaching that point. Oh, not this week or the next, but soon. The signs are all there. Sales are flat-lining. I give parties and no one shows up. Most visitors to my blog and webpage are accidental and according to my meter, they leave almost before they arrive. That can’t be a good thing.
Lest you think this is a whine and cheese event, I will hasten to say none of the events listed in the paragraph above are NEW. No, that’s been the situation for quite a while. So why would I suddenly ‘fess up? Perhaps it’s simply a matter of facing reality and economics.
What is my time worth?
At least five days a week (sometimes more) I sit at my computer and write. From eight to nine I take care of business–e-mail, blog, social networking. Then from nine until around five I write. There’s a break until seven-thirty and then more writing until ten. Close down the computer. Start all over the next day. So I work a minimum of forty hours a week just writing.
My income last year was six thousand dollars.
Hmmmm. Forty hours a week multiplied by fifty two weeks = two thousand eighty hours. Divide six thousand dollars by two thousand eighty and you have…? Two dollars and eighty nine cents per hour. Not exactly a stellar income.
I never expected to sell my books like a Nora Roberts or J.K.Rowling.”

I don’t want Anny to throw in the towel.  Not only is she a good writer, she’s a friend and she is one of the very first authors to generously give of her time and herself, taking me under her wing when I was brand new to this epublishing business.  But, big but here, what she says is true.  We struggle.  I sometimes wonder if readers believe we are raking in mega bucks.  Some authors are…most are not.  It takes guts, determination and very often another source of income to stay in this business.  I’m happy with my current publishing situation, but in nearly three years with my former publisher, I grossed under $200 on four books, total.  I have some notion as to why that happened, and it is not conceit when I say I don’t believe it was related to the quality of my work.  Water under the bridge…kind of…

Do I write to make a living?  Or do I write out of love?  I write out of love and because I have stories to tell.  I hope to make at least a modicum of income doing it.  Up until April 30, I did work as an RN and I made good money, but the job caused me a tremendous amount of stress.  A three-day shift required three more days of recovery, and during that recovery period I couldn’t focus enough to write.  Now I’m writing full time and working on that mainstream novel I’ve had in my heart for years.  Will it make money?  Will it bring me success?  As my dad is fond of saying, one never knows, do one?  I plan to pursue the dream anyway.

I encourage you to head over to Anny’s place and read her post.  She does bring up the issue of e-piracy and lost revenue.  Sorry Anny…I have to laugh!  I’m not popular enough to be pirated!

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