Passive Voice linked to an extremely dumb article about how self-publishing is hard. I mean, of course self-publishing is hard, publishing is hard, but the implication is that if you publish traditionally you just lie around eating chocolates all day while hard-working publishing professionals carry you around on a divan and fan you with palm fronds, plus there are some flat-out lies about things you can't do if you self-publish. (Like sell movie and foreign rights. Tell that to Hugh Howey.)

Of course the comments are mostly about how painfully stupid and ignorant the article is, but then (as they often do) they go off on an interesting segue, as two authors discuss how instead of writing a novel and then trying to find an audience (like meeee!), they instead found an audience (via writing fan fiction and political blogging) and then wrote novels that appealed to that niche. Neither author, it should be noted, actually planned to do this; it's just how things worked out.

But it's something to keep in mind if you are already writing a lot on a particular topic. You can't stray too far (like I doooo!), but there are plenty of, say, historians who also enjoy writing historical fiction out there.