You could not be more spot on: A brief vignette: after 32 years as a master teacher, I wrote my debut novel. A former student, hearing my woes about the mainstream rejection, worked for CreateSpace and the rest is history. Five novels later despite hundreds of rejections or 'ignorances' --I still march on. I have sold a fair amount of novels and have worked on my platform (which Covid has disturbed due to a lack of seeing my 'loyal readers). Your essay helps assuage the feeling of impotence that the mainstream pushes at a writer. Bravo. www.robertpacilio.net