Reaching a Turning Point

Have you ever had a dream come within your grasp and suddenly transform into a reality?  Everything changes. The cuddly plush puppy of a dream becomes a living dog that expects a lot of attention.
My novel exists, complete with characters living out the plot, surrounded by their own world.  I can hold the manuscript in my hands. I can read it. Do I quietly put it on the shelf of dreams, next to the unproduced play and miscellaneous poetry, and move on? Or do I step up and put it out where others can meet the characters and share their journey?  
Writing has been a favorite hobby for me, but I never thought about it as a business. Oh, I had a poem included in a book once. I wrote and produced an improvisational mystery for a dinner theater. I even wrote a monthly column for a local newspaper for a year, mostly essays about the arts in a rural community. Still, I write because I enjoy it. I love the flow of words, the sound of them in my mind, and the images they conjure. What happens to all of that if writing becomes my business?
Somehow I am not worried about whether anyone will read my book, not yet anyway. I don't expect that this book will make me tons of money. It's caught between genres, a science fiction cowboy love story, not a steamy romance or popular mystery. But will shepherding this novel into the world suck up my time and keep me from writing, tangling up my creativity in a web of marketing, bottom lines, and taxes? That is what concerns me. How brave am I? How committed to giving other people the chance to spend time with my story? Scary, when a dream threatens to become a reality.