No one is lecturing anyone Karen, calm down. If you’re interested in “Let’s not set up writers to fail” then perhaps you might consider the salient point of my comments. I even spell it out for you in one earlier. Assuming the writer has limited funds, rather than give up on a project, get creative with one’s financing and offer alternatives to up front pay. One May even discover, and provide a break for, a new artist who just wants to contribute. You know, or don’t. Sit on your writing and do nothing about getting it published. Thousands of writers do nothing with their work and take a defeatist attitude. You may be one of them and that’s your choice. I suggested there may be other ways to strive toward getting one’s work into readers hands. There, that’s not so bad now is it.