Great piece, but I want to take issue with the ``the system is broken’’ phrase. For every great writer, we need thousands or millions of readers to make them great. So this is a profession where humanity doesn’t need so many.

I think it is correct that this road is a hard one. A great many people feel the pull towards the creative outlet of authoring. If the path were paved with the perks of an accountant, we would have many more writers than accountants, and this would not do.

So folks like you need to shout your message: ``the air up here is fine, but let me tell you, the road is STEEP.’’ Worse is a world where we ‘trick’ the young telling them to just follow your heart w/o telling the whole story.

Great article, and I salute your tenacity!

— dan