Statistics say that of all manuscripts sent out each year to traditional publishers, around 1% of those manuscripts are selected for publication. If selected, a book does not officially see the book shelf for 6 months to a possible 2 years. Also, most authors do not get big "budgets" for promotion. I have talked with plenty of authors who have been published traditionally, and they still have to self-promote.
It is a "Jungle" out there and so many people get caught in the vines as they try to swing through the "publishing jungle." I know how you feel and I have been there, too.
To me, rejections hurt so deeply. I feel that writing is very personal. I have not talked to an author/writer yet who did not feel that their writing was from the heart. When someone rejects someone on the basis of their work, it rips the heart. I will never forget the rejection that I got once on a letter. I had a publisher "rubber stamp" the word REJECTED on a return envelope. I gasped! That meant that everyone who handled that letter saw those HORRID WORDS.
In my mind's eye, I pictured a whole nation of people standing shoulder to shoulder as they passed my rejection letter from one to the other as it made its way from a publishing house in some far away city to my house. My postman knows me. He saw my rejection letter. He sees my bills and my communication. Now, he was seeing my heart crushed by a rubber stamp on the cover of an envelope.
The EARTH still turns and moves across the sky. The Sun rises and sets and I have a choice. I can keep going on or stop. Then I remember, "A man is judged by what it takes to stop him." I am better than this. We are all better than this. So, we keep writing. We will be okay.
I might not have taken off and flown, when I wanted to, but I am flapping my arms and checking the wind direction today. Hopefully, in the future, someone will look back and say, WOW...Look how they flew! Wow...look how they are still flying.
So, I nivite you to run along side of me. Let's make this one incredible journey. If Sleepytown Press fits you and you fit it, get on board and let's make this one incredible ride.