Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

The advent of self-publishing means everyone’s doing it, it seems. Amazon has literally millions of books for sale and the number is increasing every day. Millions of people chasing a dream even though the vast majority will never make a living out of it. I’m not going to give a load of depressing figures about how little money most writers make, or how many make no money at all. If you think that you’re going to make a fortune as a novelist I suggest you take a long hard look at yourself. Yes, it is possible for some people to be full-time fiction writers, but not many are living in lovely houses and driving a Ferrari. And the hard truth is that most writers will need a second job, sizeable savings or an understanding partner.

So why do we do it then? Why bother to write a novel? Why have…