I Cant Spil Publicer, Now I R One
And I'm just as qualified to be a publisher as 95% of those listed as such. However, I'm not going to publish anybody's writing except my own. You other undiscovered writers can go start your own publishing company.
There are so many hopeful writers out there, killing themselves by holding down a day job and writing far into the night.
The sad thing is that they won't get published. They won't even get an agent. When the odds are about the same as being hit by a falling satellite, then the hope is easily dashed, squashed, stamped on, mutilated, then spit upon.
Go read 101 Reasons to Stop Writing. Well, I quit reading it since my anti-depressants are clearly not strong enough. I kept reading for a bit after starting to drink cardboardenay daily with Happy Hour starting about 3:00PM. Since that didn't help, I stopped entirely.
Should a writer quit writing or should they ignore the people who are ignoring them?
My choice would be the latter. I've quit reading agent blogs where they describe the "perfect" query letter. No more than one paragraph. Oh, make that two! Must be shorter than 300 words. Hey, here's a sample of a great query letter coming in at over 1000 words.
The rules are: THERE ARE NO RULES! Yeah. Write a killer book and the agents will be slobbering after your business. That's cool. But you can also write a trite, poorly written, stale book and also have the agents slobbering. What's the difference? Platform, baby! Last name Bush or Palin or Clinton, just expect the multi-million dollar contract.
I do not belittle the success of any unknown writer becoming a "made (wo)man." Good for you! Yay! Go Team!
I do believe you should continue to do what gives you pleasure (even if that's writing). Should you expect to succeed? Absolutely, unequivocably the answer must be no.