That’s a good point, Sterling. It’s a great example of unconscious incompetence in the stages of learning. I’m not fond of that term because incompetence sounds mean. lol. But I’ve written about the stages of learning and unconscious incompetence it just means not knowing what you don’t know (in a field/area) yet.

It wasn’t a lot easier in the old days, because getting an agent was never easy, and there were always good and lousy/careless agents. Some really went to bat for their writers, while others just acquired to get a cut of the advance and didn’t do much for the book or author.

Self publishing removed all that, but it closed some doors for writers, too. For example, most book awards will not even review a self published title. If an author cares very much about winning awards, a small or indie publisher is probably better than self publishing.

There is a ton to know, for sure. Sometimes I forget how steep the learning curve is. Glad you found it helpful.