Author Jon Del Arroz had a great amplification of a Sarah Hoyt blog post.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many friends of mine are still out there with 3 or even 4 books just sitting, waiting, hoping that one of the dwindling number of editors with piles of books in the thousands to review will even bother to open their email. If you sell books, they’ll notice you and your manuscript will go to the top of their list. And at that point, you won’t need them anymore. All you’re doing by the grind is delaying your mark on the world, and people reading your work, which in theory is what a writer wants.

There is, in my humble opinion, no better time to be a writer than right now. Technology and the market have converged to a place where the only barrier to entry is the investment of time.

Obviously things like talent and the ability to tell a story come into play, but the publishing world is no longer Rapunzel’s tower. You don’t need someone to throw you a rope down from on high. Sit down and do it yourself.