So true. I'm still trying to make sense of it. As a full-time writer I do a lot of freelance bits and pieces, and make more from that than book royalties, but I must admit, the business and marketing side of this is a head-scratcher. For instance, I had three novels traditionally published (by a US indie publisher called Dragon Soul Press) - Spectre of Springwell Forest, The Irresistible Summons, and Phantom Audition - yet these made nothing like as much as an earlier self-published novel, Children of the Folded Valley (which I think is far from my best work, and I'd certainly write it a bit differently if I were writing it today - at least two chapters are too info-dumpy). All in all, it's a confusing profession, but one has to keep going, try to get better all the time in terms of writing, and do what one can to learn in the job re: the business and marketing side. :)