Don‘t worry too much about the missing financial gain. You accomplished what otherw dream about. Going to the gym instead costs you more than writing a book. And the skills you learned surely help in life in another way.
You make good points about genre. My best-selling book--300,000 copies and many foreign editions--is self-help for kids, a co-authored book commissioned by a Midwest publisher and which I never though would perform so well. My mysteries all earned me more money too, ditto my memoir which resulted in five solid years of touring in the US, Canada and all across Germany, with really good speaking fees (and expenses always pain out-of-state). My "straight novels" might have gotten good reviews but never sold as well and certainly didn't make me much money. But they did help me develop as a writer.
I've over the years met crime fiction fans who read a book a day. Romance fans are also voracious readers. That being said, my memoir earned me four-five times what any of my mysteries got me--in honorariums. And it wasn't an addiction memoir or anything like that.
Don‘t worry too much about the missing financial gain. You accomplished what otherw dream about. Going to the gym instead costs you more than writing a book. And the skills you learned surely help in life in another way.
Thank you!
You make good points about genre. My best-selling book--300,000 copies and many foreign editions--is self-help for kids, a co-authored book commissioned by a Midwest publisher and which I never though would perform so well. My mysteries all earned me more money too, ditto my memoir which resulted in five solid years of touring in the US, Canada and all across Germany, with really good speaking fees (and expenses always pain out-of-state). My "straight novels" might have gotten good reviews but never sold as well and certainly didn't make me much money. But they did help me develop as a writer.
Genre is definitely the tried & true model
I've over the years met crime fiction fans who read a book a day. Romance fans are also voracious readers. That being said, my memoir earned me four-five times what any of my mysteries got me--in honorariums. And it wasn't an addiction memoir or anything like that.