Once upon a time, my URL was a fan-site with fanfics and a board for like-minded fanbods and people who liked my hobby-work. When that board was running, I had frequent suggestions to start writing my own books.
It took me a while, but I learned how to write a novel. By that time, most of my fan base had moved on and only the dedicated few remained to find me anew.
It was disheartening to realise that the income from my writing never matched the expenditure I went to in order to produce a novel. I'm still determined to make the investment pay off.
Why?
Because I freaking LOVE writing, and I want to make it pay off at some distant time in the future. And I can't GET to that point if I don't keep trying.
So... I'm trying. Very trying. And if nothing else, I'll have a huge volume of work available to point at and say, I did all of that.
And I'll keep on trying until I can't try any more.