Here's an interesting thought - how many writers do you know? Probably not a whole lot, but at least one or two of your friends might claim it as a hobby. Of those writers, how many are very successful? Probably none of them. So where do they earn their bread?
Well, chances are if they're writing then they're half-way intelligent, but obviously not intelligent enough to have gone the next step into a paying profession. They're probably working at an office. In a cubicle. Taking phone calls, managing files, following up with team leaders and project leaders, and directors, etc., etc.
Meanwhile, as a writer, you're not only rejected by your bosses at work, your also often rejected by a bunch of smarmy, up-nosed intellectuals in the literary industry - we're talking publishers, agents, magazine editors, even that hot old hippie lady at the coffee shop (she wrote an entire novel about her menstrual cycle, and it's currently a best-seller on Amazon). When you get rejected over and over, you start thinking about publishing your own work. That's right, you're gonna throw up that middle finger to the man, and get a discount printer at a garage sale, and invest in some ink cartridges, and you're gonna make chap books like a pro. You even wasted money on one of those ridiculous bone folder tools.
Yeah, that lasts about two summer afternoons and twenty minutes at Kinkos before you remember how broke you were to begin with, and now you have to pawn off some poorly printed, unstapled 8.5x11 "books" on all your friends who are already sick and tired of your "passion".
So now, it's double-fuck the man. You're going to EPUBLISH THIS SUMBITCH. It's free. It makes people rich. You'd be a fool not to do it. In fact, that fat lady at work who's always bringing soap-flavored brownies told you that her nephew published six of his memoirs on Amazon. Where's your presence? Are you even a writer?
Let me tell you this much, I've spent the last weekend watching tutorials on how to format my Word document into a suitable EPUB file that can be uploaded. I'm still lost. I wrote everything these people said, and I ended up with a 30 step process - which didn't even include the downloading of certain conversion/reader programs that eat up half the afternoon just to install.
You know why struggling writers pay nerds $200+ to convert their lousy book into an EPUB file? Because us writers have to be back to our 9-5's so we can afford all this bullshit. We can't just take a couple days off to learn how to correctly run Microsoft Word. And we've already burned most of our other time-off being sick, taking care of shit, going on pointless "vacations" for research (another topic needing discussion). Writers just don't have the goddamn time.
Meanwhile, those nerds...the one's that learn all these programs and charge the $200+ to format your crap?
Yeah - say hello to the tech guys on the fourth floor of your building while you're at work sometime. These are the same guys you always see playing ping pong at the gym, doesn't matter what time of day it is. They wear $300 Diesel jeans and a $300 Thomas Pink Shirt, but can't be damned to comb their hair. They're driving BMW's and Audi's with really nice stereo systems, and their wife is hot. And she has the Mirena - no obnoxious side effects (aka children) there.
Yep, it's one big cycle. All you had to do was stop chasing that pipe dream (writing a novel no one would read) and take college a little more seriously. You could have been in IT making bank. And on the side, you'd be formatting books into EPUB apps. Duh. That's easy. 30 steps? That ain't nothin' compared to writing code. Pussies.
Shoulda gone into IT.