Growing Pains - I almost quit writing! Nope but I do Quit Publishing for now!

      So, I went through my first book, made corrections in the Affinity Publisher book for book one Mystery of the Knowing. I wanted to make an Epub. Easy right? WRONG! After 3 days of working on formatting, trying different programs, uploading to my Kobo almost 30 times, and even trying to create it in Draft to Digital, I finally gave up!
       These are the reasons it is not working I have come to the conclusion of. The way I made the first book was a huge mistake because I made the edits not in the documents, but in the Affinity Publisher program!
       In case you didn't notice, the formats Affinity Publisher will convert to are pretty impressive and very useless really for writers who want to make their own books! Why? Because you can't turn them into an Epub or anything useful but a PDF and I have found over the years so many glitches in that process.
        To get a decent Epub you want to start with a decent DOC. and does Affinity allow you to do this? NOPE!
All you get is a PDF and if you made all your edits in a PDF, you got it! No file that can be converted easily! And I do mean easily!!!
        I tried everything to do it and looked at countless YouTube Videos.  I watched one ancient video by a woman who explained how to do an Epub using 3 other programs! Nope, that is the second problem!
        The more conversions you make, the more mistakes and glitches you are going to get!
        I took my Affinity book file and converted it to a PDF. Easy right? Then I used Adobe to convert the PDF to the Doc file. You would think that would work right? Nope, glitches galore!
         Then I put the file into the Kindle Create for Ebook conversion. Think THAT would be it right? Check out my first book. It said it was fine in the launcher (although the format glitches I noticed in the previewer were NOT in the copy I uploaded. I know this to be a FACT!). Nothing I can do about something if it is correct in one place and turns out incorrect in another right? I left the book. I was so completely and utterly disgusted!
         I tried to use the said file in Draft to Digital. Well, the Epub also was a joke! I finally took it down!  Total mess! I wasn't putting my person proofing through that after I had gone over the file a zillion times myself! NOPE!
         So I made my next book in LibreOffice Writer and not word. I did the edits all in the program before uploading to Affinity for a draft. Will I make the corrections in the book draft? You can bet I will NOT! Affinity Publisher is good only for one thing, FORMATTING THE BOOK! NOT for editing if you want a file you can use to make an Epub out of!
          I am looking at getting Scriverner. It has made some really cool changes! I had it briefly before but was too difficult to navigate. Now however, they have made it so that it might get rid of my editing and Epub creation headaches! One thing for sure, I shall NEVER use Affinity Publisher for anything but formatting a book ever again! EVER!
          That first book was an easy thing to write. From then on, it all went downhill. I used to blame myself only, but now, I don't. The programs are half ass and glitchy. They are NOT doing a proper job and that isn't on me or on you if you are finding you are having the same difficulty.
          This first book was YEARS in the making. I learned a good deal and I watched a good deal also change. My timing in life has never been great and now in the book making world where the market is saturated with books, marketing is a full time job! It is nuts. I have had my book out since October and it has about 3 and 4 reviews and has made me maybe fifty dollars! Oh, I now know how to market my book. I also know what it entails. I also see how much the printing cost as gone up with Amazon and other sites and how much you now make on a book. It is ridiculous. The days of making big bucks off your writing in the INDIE market unless you have someone to support you while you get set up, is gone. It will NOT be sustainable without a great deal of effort. This is a fact now. In the beginning, there were those who rode the wave and had a great time financially. Now however, that is all changing AGAIN.
            The bottom line is I am NOT in a position to do this for anything other than a hobby! Oh I am creative, I am ambitious, I am determined but one thing I have learned is you have to know when to say when and throw in the towel. I have sacrificed to do this writing. I lived in a tent for Pete's sake to save enough money to get to a place cheap enough to keep my living expenses low. For what? Days of headaches knowing there isn't enough time to get the do the writing and the marketing and the making a living and keeping food on the table. I write and I enjoy it. IS it worth it at this point. I can honestly say NO! I do it because I love it but no more pressure to put it out there. No more pressure to Market. No more pressure to do any of it. I am tired of the online headaches, the hackers, the bloody sign in problems (get your phone stolen and have to change your phone number and see how many places you can get into in another country!).