Monetizing My Blood, Sweat and Tears

I figured out that the book I just finished, The Meghan O'Byrne Chronicle Book One – Fall From Grace, has taken about five thousand hours of my time since I started it in 2011. That's more than two years of full time work for nothing more than the satisfaction of seeing the story come to life. At my old hourly charge out rate it would amount to a million dollars of billing. You know, people complain about minimum wage being too low, and I agree with them, but I would love to get paid even half minimum wage for writing.