I reckon it all depends on your goals. I don't own a fly shop, or work in the industry, so my situation is a little different. Not that that's a bad thing....if I could make a fly shop work around here, I'd be all over it.

My books began out of a love for writing and my fishing journal. They were initially put in book form with "Tomorrows Fish" through Amazon as a way to have them in physical form for my kids. Maybe someday a great grandson/daughter would pick it up and learn a little bit about their grandpop. They are all self-published and sell modestly steady and I get good reviews. But if I were to be picked up by an agent things would add a twist to that. Although that's a slim reality since unless you're already a name they won't bother with you. You get used to, "Loved your essays, but Essay Books don't sell"...."Read your book and loved it, but unfortunately it doesn't fit what we are looking for." Basically saying "Who are you?" As it is, I'm not quitting my day job any time soon. My biggest payment quite honestly, are the "Thank you's and Enjoyed it's" I get when a particular essay strikes a chord, and I've received some very nice emails from folks who really related to one or all of the books. That's priceless. But...it's not my livelihood. If it were my thoughts would be different. Maybe some day I'll make enough to buy a nice Bamboo rod. If I quit dumping all the proceeds back into Tying materials. LOL!

I started my blog as a way of building a database for my patterns, and began getting requests for video examples. Would it be nice to make some revenue off of the YouTube link? Sure. The thoughts intriguing.